5/25/01 - - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Ed Brown, UNI director of environmental programs, (319) 273-2645

Vicki Grimes, University Marketing & Public Relations, (319) 273-2761

Note to editors: MTBE is a gasoline additive produced from fossil fuels that helps reduce carbon monoxide emissions from automobiles. Ethanol, derived from corn, serves the same purpose. Gasoline that contains ethanol is called gasohol. Gasoline that contains MTBE is called oxygenated gasoline.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Recent controversies surrounding the use of oxygenated fuels such as ethanol and MTBE to reduce carbon monoxide air pollution will be the focus of a workshop to be held June 18-28 on the University of Northern Iowa campus.

More than 20 high school and community college faculty from around the nation are expected to attend UNI's seventh annual faculty development workshop for the Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center (ATEEC). ATEEC is partially funded by the National Science Foundation.

"These ATEEC Fellows are excellent teachers, but need accurate and timely information about complex environmental issues," said Ed Brown, director of environmental programs at UNI and lead instructor for the workshop. Brown also is co-principal investigator of ATEEC.

Helping the ATEEC Fellows understand the environmental chemistry, biology and human health effects of fuel oxygenates will be five researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), three UNI researchers and graduate students from the UNI environmental science program.

MIT and ATEEC, which recently held a "Critical Issues Forum" in Dedham, Mass., are working together to break down the barriers between research and the classroom, according to Brown, who represented comprehensive universities at the forum.

"We must take every opportunity to get knowledge into the hands of the people who can use it, and this project is an excellent start to doing just that," said Jerry Steinfeld, MIT chemistry professor and co-principal investigator for ATEEC.

Started in 1915, UNI's conservation education program is one of the oldest in the United States.

For more detailed information on the workshop, contact Ed Brown at (319) 273-2645.

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5/25/01

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Cheryl Smith, associate coordinator for UNI-Iowa Space Grant Consortium, (319) 273-6809

Vicki Grimes, University Marketing & Public Relations, (319) 273-2761

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- By building a mobile robot to clear land on Mars, science students at North Winneshiek Community School, in Decorah, have won several prizes in a national contest sponsored by Learning Curve International.

Students of science teacher Birgitta Meade won the grand prize, second place and honorable mention in the contest. Their task was to use the Robotix (Roving on Mars kit) to design and build a mobile robot that would clear the northern lowland of Mars to prepare for the construction of a new community.

The Robotix kits, one of many types of science kits available from Iowa State University Extension offices, are provided through funding from the Iowa Space Grant Consortium (ISGC) and ISU's Extension-Science, Engineering and Technology (E-SET) program. Academic members of the ISGC, a NASA-sponsored organization aimed at promoting aerospace research and education, are the University of Northern Iowa, Drake University, Iowa State University and the University of Iowa.

The grand prize winners, 21 students in a combined seventh and eighth grade class, will take an all-expense-paid, three-day trip to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Their school will receive a Robotix classroom system worth $2,000 and an award certificate signed by Apollo 13 astronaut Fred W. Haise, Jr.

The second-place winners, a seventh grade class, will receive classroom Robotix equipment, an award certificate signed by an astronaut and a Robotix kit for each student. Each student in the group that received honorable mention, an eighth grade class, will receive Robotix kits.

Meade learned about the Robotix program when she attended a 1999 workshop conducted by Steve Truby, ISU Extension Youth Initiative Specialist with E-SET.

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