This Scholar Is All Wet

No one can accuse education professor Brian Alters of taking a dry approach to his teaching. Quite the opposite.

Alters, the head of science education at McGill, is a big advocate of teachers using hands-on science to introduce basic concepts of chemistry and physics to schoolchildren. He recently offered a dramatic example to his own students at McGill -- future science teachers themselves -- that they won't likely forget.

Last semester, shortly after his students filed in one morning for their usual Tuesday class, his teaching assistant announced that Alters was running late and they would begin without him. Then the TA posed a question. What would it take to make a person buoyant in water if he was weighed down with seven pounds? A small zip-lock bag filled with oxygen? A large freezer bag filled with the same? Neither?

Then the TA pulled back a black curtain at the front of the classroom to reveal a water tank containing a familiar figure holding a "Happy Tuesday" sign -- Alters's customary greeting to his students.

Alters, sporting seven pounds of lead weights strapped around his chest (his body's natural buoyancy might otherwise have propelled him to the surface too soon) filled a zip-lock bag with air as his startled students gasped and giggled. He didn't budge. Next, he used a freezer bag. Once it was filled, Alters floated to the top of the tank. Removing his scuba gear, Alters proceeded to teach the rest of the class -- while still in the water. He taught two classes in a row that day, using the same demo for each, and regrets not equipping the tank with a heater.

"I spent two-and-a-half hours in the water. It was very, very cold by the second class. I was aiming for something that hadn't ever been done before," Alters explains. "Now I know why it was never done before."

It took many hours of planning and preparation to make the stunt a reality. The 400-pound tank had to be carefully constructed to fit the dimensions of the room and it had to be positioned just so -- only certain parts of the floor were sturdy enough to bear the weight. "I wore an old sportscoat I was willing to ruin that day."

Alters's "make science fun" approach isn't restricted to his own courses. He led a three-year project involving 52 McGill graduate students from the Faculty of Science, 53 from the Faculty of Education, eight school boards and 100 elementary and high schools. Project Collaboration devised 55 new science projects and 306 science activities, covering topics as diverse as food additives and airport security systems, that will soon be used in Quebec schools.

Wireless McGill

They may want to wait until winter winds down, but McGill students can now check their email or surf the Web from underneath their favourite tree, no extension cords necessary. Wireless computing has come to McGill.

Launched in the fall, the McGill Wireless Network will change the way students, professors and staff work. Using laptop computers equipped with a wireless network interface card (which can be bought on campus for about $100) and their McGill user ID, students can connect to the McGill network through wireless zones set up in libraries, buildings and public spaces on campus. And new "hot points" continue to be added on a weekly basis.

While network speeds can be a bit slower in wireless mode, the advantage of not being tied to one location -- and network and power jacks -- will allow more freedom in how homework and research get done. Wireless computing also makes sense for a historic campus like McGill, since retrofitting some of the University's old buildings with cabling for computer systems can be costly and invasive, and wireless systems are more adaptable when offices or buildings are restructured.

The program costs approximately $500,000 and when fully implemented will include 1,000 access points downtown and at Macdonald. It is still in its infancy, and Network and Communications Services director Gary Bernstein says, "It's difficult to say how many users we have so far, since any legitimate McGill user who has a wireless laptop can access the network. What we do know is that peak usage to date has been 80 simultaneous users, and seems to be growing very rapidly."

And with about 30,000 students and 8,000 faculty and staff at McGill, Bernstein will undoubtedly see those numbers rise dramatically over the coming year.

Witnesses to History

	History professor Peter Hoffmann Photo: Jenna Wakani / McGill Daily

Students in Professor John Hellman's "Historical Interpretation: History and Memory" course have been captivated this semester by personal accounts of life during the Second World War. Guest speakers for the class include one fellow whose German father helped plan a failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler's life, and a decorated war veteran who took part in the D-Day invasion and watched several friends perish in the assault.

Where did Hellman find these eyewitnesses to history? For the most part, right down the hall from his office. Hellman and his students recruited McGill history professors to delve into their own remarkable pasts for the course.

Peter Hoffmann, an expert on the Germans who resisted Hitler's rule, spoke about watching Allied bombs pummel his town and about his father's exploits in opposing the Nazis. Michael Maxwell discussed a boyhood spent on a vast Irish estate that hosted American troops. Their colleague, Hereward Senior, an authority on British and Canadian history, addressed his experiences as a soldier during D-Day and otherwise. Valentin Boss discussed growing up in Stalinist Russia, while philosophy professor Giuseppe Di Stefano dealt with life in Italy under Mussolini's rule.

"Because these individuals are such accomplished scholars, they bring an enormous amount of perspective to the topics they address. It isn't just reminiscing," says Hellman.

Adds Hoffmann, "Students are very interested in these sorts of presen-tations. They really get a flavour of the times this way."

The lectures have proven to be very popular, attracting students who aren't enrolled in the course and getting regular coverage in the McGill Daily. Even the professors themselves are discovering new things about one another. Says Hellman, "I've known Professor Senior for over 30 years and I didn't know he was part of D-Day until just recently."