E-News, University of Minnesota

October 17, 2002

1. Household chores teach children lifelong values
2. Behind the scenes of Wild Chimpanzees
3. Popular housing option for first-year IT students
4. Get your trees ready for winter
5. New pedestrian bridges over Washington Avenue
6. 10,000 matches in 10 years
7. Artwork that engages the viewer
8. UMM draws students from local counties
9. U of M Happenings
10. Links

U IN THE NEWS

Household chores teach children lifelong values
You can make a big difference in your child's future by asking him or her to take out the trash, do the laundry,

Photo by Leo Kim for the College of Education and Human Development

wash the dishes, make the beds, and put away the toys. University of Minnesota research shows that involving children in household tasks at an early age can have a positive impact later in life--they learn a sense of responsibility, competence, self-reliance, and self-worth that stays with them throughout their lives.

Using measures of the individual's success (such as completing education, starting a career path, IQ scores, relationships with family and friends, and not using drugs) and examining a child's involvement in household tasks at all three earlier times, Marty Rossmann, U of M associate professor of family education, determined that the best predictor of young adults' success in their mid-20s was that they participated in household tasks when they were three or four. However, if they did not begin participating until they were 15 or 16, the participation backfired and those subjects were less "successful." The assumption is that responsibility learned via household tasks is best when learned young.

Rossmann explored outcomes for 84 young adults based on their parents' style of interacting with them, their participation in family work at three periods of their lives (ages 3 to 4, 9 to 10, and 15 to 16). The study followed up with a brief phone interview when they were in their mid-20s. She also looked at previously unexplored data collected from a longitudinal study by Diana Baumrind that is famous for its analysis of authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles. Baumrind started her study in 1967 using a sample of parents and children living in the San Francisco Bay area. Rossmann's own family had been a part of the study.

How the tasks are presented also influences children's ability to become well-adjusted adults. The tasks should not be too overwhelming; parents should present the tasks in a way that fits the child's preferred learning style; and children should be involved in determining the tasks they will complete, through family meetings and methods such as a weekly chore chart. They should not be made to do the tasks for an allowance. The earlier parents begin getting children to take an active role in the household, the easier it will be to get them involved as teens.

Rossmann hopes to replicate the study with a larger sample of the population and groups that represent greater diversity.

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Behind the scenes of Wild Chimpanzees
You won't see Anne Pusey on screen in the film Wild Chimpanzees when it opens today (Oct. 17) at the Minnesota Science Museum's IMAX Theatre. But you'll see her name in the credits. Pusey, who heads up the Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies housed at the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences (CBS), was scientific adviser for this film about Jane Goodall and her studies of chimpanzees.

Jane Goodall and her chimps. (Photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences)

Pusey, who was Goodall's student in the early 1970s, landed the role of principal scientific adviser for the filmmakers and was responsible for reviewing the final script for scientific accuracy after she accompanied the filmmakers to Tanzania and gave them a tour of Gombe Stream National Park, where Goodall's research is based. Wild Chimpanzees is a 42-minute film that tells Goodall's story, features lots of cute chimps, and champions the ongoing work of scientists such as Pusey and her students who study chimpanzee behavior and work to preserve their habitat. CBS doctoral student Elizabeth Vinson Lonsdorf makes her screen debut in the film. As part of the film's promotion, Lonsdorf will serve as a science educator and guest speaker, visiting classrooms and science centers across the country in the coming year.

The release of Wild Chimpanzees coincides with an extensive redesign of the University's Center for Primate Studies Web site. Funded by the Science Museum, the new Web site, www.discoverchimpanzees.org, is an educational tool and an interactive showcase for the center's work. For more information about the film, see www.sci.mus.mn.us.

Pusey hopes Wild Chimpanzees and the Web site will bring the center more visibility and attract support for its mission and cataloging Goodall's work. In 1995, Jane Goodall entrusted all of her hand-written field notes--some in Swahili--and 38 years worth of photographs as well as videotapes to the center, making it the archives for her research and an important resource for primate researchers worldwide.

Wild Chimpanzees will be screened in IMAX theaters across North America, and it will run at the Science Museum in the Twin Cities through May 29.

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Popular housing option for first-year IT students
Music blasts from several dorm rooms whose walls throb to the insistent beat. Down the corridor, hoots of laughter punctuate a heated debate among students busily passing cups of hot coffee to one another. Yet, this is no typical residence hall.

Mechanical engineering freshman Scott Bush.

The students responsible for the deafening music aren't simply listening to it; they're also trying to figure out which sound frequencies travel farthest through the walls. Brainpower, not caffeine, is fueling the jovial wranglers, who are calculating the temperature at which hot coffee will melt a plastic cup. Welcome to Explorations in Engineering and Sciences House, where everyday life is subject to the scientific method. "IT students are just not like anybody else," says electrical engineering student Stephen Jaeger, a community adviser. "They'll be in the middle of performing the simplest task and all of a sudden wonder, 'How does that work and why?'"

The program, created last fall, is one of 21 new subject-based living and learning communities available to first-year University of Minnesota students. These communities offer educational and social programs designed to help freshmen make the transition from high school and home to University academics and campus life. Students live in a "house" with residents who share similar academic interests.

According to Susan Kubitschek, program director for IT student affairs, the arrangement is ideal. "IT students have an enormous amount of studying to do," she says. "When students see each other in dorms and dining halls, they can form relationships and study groups much faster, and they can learn from others who have similar academic and career interests."

Response to the program's first year was immediate and enthusiastic. The program's 20 spaces filled quickly, and more than 150 students asked to be placed on the waiting list. IT Career Services counselor Mark Sorenson-Wagner says the level of interest didn't surprise him. "The University is a big place, and I think students--especially freshmen--gravitate toward any program that can help them socially and academically," he says.

Mechanical engineering freshman Scott Bush says he wanted to participate in the program right away. "My high school in Russell, Minnesota, draws students from three very small towns," he says. "My graduating class had 69 students. I knew that it would be a challenge to adjust to the large classes, and I wanted all the help I could get."

Aerospace engineering student Angela Strobel says she signed up for

U freshman Angela Strobel shows off her room in the Explorations in Engineering and Sciences House.

similar reasons. "I'm used to a more one-on-one learning method. I'm not used to huge classes where you're responsible for yourself. I was kind of nervous about that."

Community study groups helped Strobel get back on track after she received a few disappointing grades early in fall semester. Like many freshmen, she'd been distracted by the newfound freedom and social activities of college life. Knowing that she had to get her focus back, Strobel sought help and found it just a few steps away.

"Once I realized what I had to do, it was really kind of easy," she says. "I didn't have to go looking on the bulletin board for a study group or track people down after class. I just had to walk down the hallway or knock on a classmate's door."

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Get your trees ready for winter
Rain, and lots of it, in much of Minnesota means many homeowners can forego watering their trees this fall. However, if you live in southwestern Minnesota, you should still water your trees because soil conditions there are dry, says Gary Johnson, urban forestry specialist with the University of Minnesota Extension Service.

10,000 matches in 10 years
For the past decade, thousands of University of Minnesota alumni and friends have volunteered to help undergraduate and graduate students make a successful transition from the classroom to the workforce. The University of Minnesota Alumni Association's Mentor Connection programs, which are offered in 16 colleges at the U, have matched 10,000 mentor-student pairs. Currently, about 1,500 students are matched with mentors each year.

U of M E-News is a biweekly e-mail newsletter for alumni and friends of the University of Minnesota. The newsletter, a free information source prepared by University Relations, is designed to help alumni and friends stay connected to the University of Minnesota campuses in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Crookston, Morris and Duluth.

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