Author: jenny-taylor

The UVA Athletics Department announced a $5 million pledge from alumna Amy Griffin. The donation allows the Virginia Athletics Foundation to proceed with the design and construction of a new track and field facility that is expected to cost nearly $14 million.

Although an additional $725,000 is needed before construction can begin, the athletics department hopes that crews will break ground on the track in June. So long as construction starts this summer, the facility should be ready in time for UVA to host the 2012 Atlantic Coast Conference’s Track and Field Championships next spring. The current conceptual design calls for lights, team locker rooms, a scoreboard, and seating for 1,500.

The UVA Track and Field program is one of the oldest in the nation and boasts several standout athletes on its 2011 roster. Last week, Anthony Kostelac was named ACC Men’s Indoor Track and Field Freshman of the Year after he finished the season undefeated in the 800 meter sprint. His teammate, sophomore Robby Andrews, was the 2010 NCAA champion in the 800 meters, and also earned the ACC Indoor Freshman of the Year title in 2010. On the women’s side, junior All-American Morgan Gay led Virginia’s distance medley relay team to a third-place finish at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships.

University benefactor and former Cavalier volleyball player Amy Griffin graduated from UVA in 1998. Griffin previously contributed $1 million to the UVA Volleyball program to assist the installation of sand volleyball courts on Nameless Field.

Charlottesville bicycle advocates have reason to celebrate this spring, when the city introduces shared lane markings, dubbed “sharrows,” onto local streets, reports NBC 29. According to the 2012 Capital Improvement Program, City Council plans to spend $250,000 on Charlottesville’s bike infrastructure over the next five years. The funding and new safety measure are good news to the Charlottesville bike community, which faced a slew of setbacks last year—including the failure of safety legislation proposed by Delegate David Toscano and Senator Creigh Deeds.

The first sharrow will be placed on Water Street, a busy roadway that parallels the Downtown Mall and provided a few obstacles for cyclists and pedestrians alike when the Landmark Hotel asserted its presence. The marking indicates that motorists and bicyclists are sharing the roadway, rather than restricting cyclists to the side of the street.

In 2004, San Francisco introduced these shared lane markings in order to address the issue of “dooring”—when a cyclist riding on the side of the road gets struck suddenly by someone opening the door of a parked car. San Francisco city officials observed that more experienced cyclists often ride towards the middle of the lane in order to avoid getting doored, but that this practice “often irritates motorists who are not aware this is permitted.” Thus, sharrows were developed to alert motorists that bikes have a similar right to the road.

After the death of graduate student Matthew King last April, City Council renewed its pledge to make Charlottesville a bike friendly city. In October, another UVA student was struck by a University Police SafeRide van while riding through the intersection of McCormick and Alderman Roads, reports the Cavalier Daily. These accidents sparked the creation of Toscano’s bicycle safety legislation, which called for the expansion of the legal car passing distance to 3′ from 2′. The bill was ultimately tabled in January.

As the situation at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant continues to deteriorate, fears concerning a similar crisis in the United States have ignited calls to halt nuclear power expansion across the country. In a recent press conference, however, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R) reiterated his support for a third nuclear reactor at the North Anna Power Plant in Louisa County.
 
According to NBC 29, McDonnell described the North Anna Plant as “relatively safe from the threat of earthquakes and other natural disasters.” Yet the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ranked North Anna the seventh most likely plant in America to suffer core damage from an earthquake. That risk is up 38 percent from geological data studied in 1989.

McDonnell urges caution in going forward with construction of the third reactor, but still strongly supports the nuclear addition as part of his plan to make Virginia the energy capital of the East Coast. Dominion announced its plans for a third reactor at North Anna in late 2007, making Virginia the first state to construct a nuclear reactor in over a decade, reports the Washington Post.
 
In the case of a nuclear emergency at North Anna, Dominion claims, “it is likely that only a part of the area around the station would be affected,” and designates “protective action zones” as areas that fall within a 10-mile radius of the plant. Dominion’s projected 10-mile radius of radiation danger is slightly smaller than Japan’s warning of possible health hazards within 12.4 miles of the Fukushima plant. U.S. officials, however, have contradicted Japan’s estimate and urged all Americans to evacuate areas within 50 miles of Fukushima. According to that measurement, the effects of a nuclear emergency at North Anna could stretch from Charlottesville to Richmond.

Lunch yesterday afternoon was a bit unusual at Hollymead Elementary School. Students snacked on ice cream sundaes and watched while their principal, Dr. Claire Keiser, was duct taped to the cafeteria wall. The event was part of a school-wide celebration for Hollymead students, who raised a record breaking $20,300 for the American Heart Association.

Physical education teachers Barb Rosen and Jack Carroll headed the school’s Jump Rope and Hoops for Heart campaigns, which began in January and culminated on February 18, when Hollymead surpassed its $20,000 goal. Rosen and Carroll promised students that if they met the fundraising goal, both teachers would shave their heads.

“We’ve been doing this for nine years now, and it’s getting harder and harder to find incentives for the kids,” said Rosen. “Jack suggested it. Of course, he’s got a lot less to lose, but we thought it would be good motivation.”

The plan proved successful. On Monday morning, Rosen’s hairstylist buzzed the proud teachers’ heads. Thanks to the school’s media center, the haircuts were televised in every classroom.

For the past few years, Hollymead Elementary has collected impressive donations for the American Heart Association. The school ranked eighth in the nation last year by raising just over $18,000 during its Jump Rope and Hoops for Heart event. According to Rosen, 95 students made websites for the heart campaign and gathered nearly $5,000 in online donations. Two students with heart disease have attended Hollymead within the past two years.

“It’s insane that we raised $20,000. This will be really hard to top,” said Rosen. According to school counts, 370 children participated in the fundraiser, more than 65 percent of the school’s student population.
 

By next fall, hitting the books may no longer be necessary for Charlottesville students. A proposal drafted by Charlottesville City School officials aims to replace textbooks with computer learning in order to better engage students and prepare them for the workplace.

The “One to One Computer Initiative” (in PDF) is a plan to equip every student in grades five through 12 with their own laptop. Part of the superintendent’s 2011-2012 budget, the initiative goes before the School Board for approval this Thursday, in a meeting at Charlottesville High School. If passed, the “One to One” initiative could cost the city $500,000 and is part of a larger budget that will cut 15 instructional aids from the School Board’s payroll, reports the Newsplex.

Initiative supporters think that in a world of instant access, textbooks are an occasionally outdated source of information and are no longer cost-efficient. Internet access, they argue, can provide students with free educational materials that are both interactive and often more current than textbooks.

Stanford professor Larry Cuban, author of Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom, claims that computers can enhance classroom learning if teachers understand how to fully use the technology themselves. Cuban argues that students use computers far less at school than they do at home, and that teachers who use computers typically do so “unimaginatively and infrequently.”

Recent studies, however, suggest that students who are actively engaged by computer learning see positive results. A 2010 study in Central Georgia elementary schools revealed that, after playing multiplication computer games for two weeks, student math scores rose by nearly 20 percent. The West Virginia Basic Skills/Computer Education program also found significant student gains in reading, writing and mathematics once computers were introduced into the state’s curriculum.

The “One to One” initiative is considering the use of Apple laptops, iPad and Droid tablets, and Windows Thin Clients in an effort to properly meet each grade level’s needs. If passed on Thursday, the plan will be reviewed by City Council on April 11.

This week marks the first anniversary of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, an effort to eliminate childhood obesity within a single generation. As the First Lady embarks on a media tour to promote her signature issue, a new study from UVA’s Curry School of Education says teenagers that own dogs are more active than their petless peers.

Associate Professor John Sirard surveyed hundreds of Minneapolis-area adolescents on the number of dogs in their homes and how often they were physically active. Sirard found that dog-owning teenagers receive, on average, 15 extra minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week. After taking demographic factors into account, however, the extra exercise dwindles to just three minutes.

“That’s a pretty small number," admits Sirard, who does not believe that dog ownership can alleviate teen obesity on its own. Over the course of one year, teens with dogs boast two-and-a-half more hours of exercise than those without canines.

“The difference is small and it can’t solve the multi-factorial problem of people’s inactivity and obesity,” says Sirard. “The solution needs to be multi-factorial as well.”

Researchers did not control the types of dog in the study. Sirard notes that people with larger dog breeds such as Labradors or Golden Retrievers will likely see more physical benefits from their pets than those with smaller dogs, because they generally require more walking.

And while Sirard encourages dog owners to view their pets as a tool to remain active, he does not advise overweight teens to replace their dumbbells with dogs.

“You should get a dog because you can provide a loving home for it. If you have a dog and don’t walk it, maybe it’s time to get up and get some exercise with it,” says Sirard.

According to statistics from the Center for Disease Control, childhood obesity has tripled in the past 30 years. Sirard says he is confident that efforts like Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign can reverse this unhealthy trend.

“I think it might be realistic,” says Sirard in reference to the First Lady’s goal. “I think there’s more awareness now.”

Sirard’s study will appear in the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.