Education

The alarming shortage of engineers throughout the U.S. has spurred numerous proposals on teacher training, curriculum and special programs, all geared toward boosting the sagging interest of American schoolchildren in science and mathematics. But one of the most important factors in shaping children's interest in science and math -- the attitudes of their parents -- is rarely mentioned, according to an engineer at the University at Buffalo.

The University at Buffalo Law School has added a new concentration in labor and employment law to its curriculum for the fall semester in response to increased demand in the job market for lawyers who are knowledgeable in this burgeoning field.

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a $1.3 million three-year grant to a consortium composed of the University at Buffalo's Graduate School of Education, the UB Center for Applied Technologies in Education, the Buffalo Public Schools and WNED-TV, Channel 17.

Nationally prominent education scholar and researcher Jeremy Finn has blasted what he calls the "test and punish" education plan put forth by President George Bush in the White House report "No Child Left Behind." Finn, professor in the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education, says that in his eagerness to restructure funding priorities, Bush has ignored the importance of the one strategy that empirical studies have consistently proven to optimize student learning in virtually all educational settings -- small classes in the elementary grades.

A new distance-learning graduate program at the University at Buffalo this fall will offer an innovative master's degree in general education that will satisfy New York State Department of Education requirements for permanent teaching certification. The 33-credit-hour program is unique in that it will be a complete graduate program -- including non-education courses -- delivered entirely through the use of interactive video and Web-based technologies. Students also will have the option of attending on-site summer institutes at UB.

The University at Buffalo Law School this fall will offer two new collaborative programs that underscore the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of careers in the field of law.

The grand opening of Flint Village, the University at Buffalo's newest student housing complex, will be held at 10 a.m. Aug. 17 in the community building of the complex on Augspurger Road on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo this fall is offering a new master's degree program in public health (MPH), as well as a law and public health program in conjunction with the UB Law School.

In search of evidence that could help explain how certain species were created and how their genome has changed with evolution, a University at Buffalo evolutionary biologist and nine of his students enrolled in a new course on arctic molecular ecology are participating in a two-week research expedition to the arctic climes of Alaska.

MyUB, a personalized Web site linking University at Buffalo students to important information -- including academic and student services -- has earned the university designation as an IBM "Best Practice" partner.