Summertime: When the learning is easy

Summer classes are under way at UW, and I'm teaching two classes during a three-week session. Online Journalism is in the morning, and Graphics of Communication is in the afternoon.

The three-week classes are kind of an endurance race - can students and faculty last three hours, 10 minutes per class Monday through Friday for three weeks? Can you cram in everything you'd cover during a normal 15-week semester into 14 days (no classes on Memorial Day)?

My observations after years of teaching in summer is that students actually learn better in three weeks than in 15. I base that on anecdotal evidence as well as on their actual performances.

For instance, last summer in Online Journalism, the average final grade was 85.3 percent. This spring, the average in the same class was 82.5. I didn't run a statistical analysis on the grades to see if they were significantly different, but judging by the gap, I'm willing to bet they were.

What accounts for the difference, I think, is that students are only taking one class during summer and are able to focus all of their attention on that single subject. During a regular academic semester, full-time students are taking 4-6 classes and their energies have to b e divided among all of those courses.

While summer classes can be intense, they also seem to be better learning experiences. Higher education should consider revamping the old semester system into three-week sections, during which students would take just one class in each section.

Graduation into the real world

Graduation is a time for celebration, and there were lots of events at the University of Wyoming at the end of the semester to put people in the mood.

First, I attended a luncheon to honor the finalists for the Spitaleri Award given to the top female student at the university. Hanna Bush, a senior in journalism from Gillette, was a finalist, and I attended the lunch with her and her parents. Hanna didn't win the award, but the recognition of being one of the top seven women out of the entire senior class is truly an outstanding achievement. And the lunch was pretty good.

The next week, I went to breakfast with Hanna and her parents (they put in a lot of driving!) to honor the College of Arts and Sciences top 10 graduating seniors. Dean Oliver Walters and his staff put on a nice spread, and I ate way more than usual for breakfast that day. By the way, Hanna also was editor for the Branding Iron this past year.

Last weekend, the winner of the first Larsh Bristol award for photojournalism was honored at the UW Alumni House. UW student Joe Riis had a public show of his photography funded by the Bristol award. Larsh Bristol was an alumni of our journalism program, and his friends set up this award after his death. Riis has done some incredible work documenting the migration of the Jackson Hole antelope herd. His work is also being funded by National Geographic, which gives you some idea of the quality of his photography project.

Hanna and Joe are just two of the remarkable students you will find at UW. I think you'll be hearing more about them in the future.

Roller derby mania hits Laramie

Last weekend there were two sporting events in Laramie - the University of Wyoming spring football game and the first-ever bout for the Naughty Pines roller derby team.

Guess which event attracted the most fans?

The roller derby sold 730 tickets at $10-$15 apiece. It was a sellout. Meanwhile, only about 400 fans turned out for the Cowboys game, which was free. As many as 1,000 fans may have attended the derby because a lot of comp tickets were given away.

I'm not going to predict that roller derby will always outdraw UW football, but I was amazed at the crowd for the debut event. People had to park as far away as the Rec Center and walk through drizzle and rain to the ice arena where the derby was held.

Many people probably didn't know the rules, but that didn't stop the crowd from getting loud and crazy, ringing cow bells and stomping feet on the steel bleachers. Even though the Pines got creamed by the more experienced Denver squad, they never lost the support of their fans. It should also be noted that Denver had a ringer - their best jammer previously was a competitive speed skater.

Beer sales helped fuel the crowd, no doubt. The Altitude had a table with kegs of wheat beer and IPA for the older crowd and the ever-popular Pabst's Blue Ribbon for the college set. In future bouts, the beer situation needs improvement. There were only two servers and people spent more than 20 minutes in line. Altitude needs at least twice as many servers next time.

The Naughty Pines originated in the COJO Department with some graduate students and administrative assistant Sue Benson. Judging by their initial outing, the Pines were a rousing success.