THE JOURNAL OF THE ALABAMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE uil . J68 JANUARY 2005 NO. 1 VOLUME 76 Cover photograph: Larry Davenport and Konard Yancie discuss collecting protocol for fishes and macroinvertebrates at Deerfoot Parkway, Cahaba River. Photo Credit: by Kevin Morse. THE JOURNAL OF THE ALABAMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AFFILIATED WITH THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE VOLUME 76 JANUARY 2005 NO. 1 EDITOR: James T. Bradley, Biological Sciences, 331 Funchess Hall, Auburn University, AL 36849 ARCHIVIST; Troy Best, Department of Zoology and Wildlife Science, Auburn University, AL 36849 EDITORIAL BOARD: Thane Wibbels, Chair, Deapartment of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294 James Alexander, Department of Economics, Finance & Office Systems Management, Alabama A&M University, Normal, AL 35762 Prakash Sharma, Department of Physics, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088 Publication and Subscription Policies Submission of manuscripts: Submit all manuscripts and pertinent correspondence to the EDITOR. Each manuscript will receive two simultaneous reviews. For style details, follow instructions to Authors (see inside back cover). Reprints. Requests for reprints must be addressed to Authors. Subscriptions and Journal Exchanges: Address all Correspondence to the CHAIRMAN OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD ISSN 002-4112 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from IMLS LG-70-15-0138-15 https://archive.org/details/journalofalabama7612alab Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 1, January 2005. CONTENTS ARTICLES Fishes and Macroinvertebrates of the Upper Cahaba River: A Three-Year Study . 1 L.J. Davenport, W. Mike Howell, Kevin J. Morse, Konard Yancie, and J. Lynn Wood Activity of Cytochrome P-450 in Xenopus laevis Embryos as Determined by Modified Enzyme Assay . 48 Greg Gibson and James Rayburn SYMPOSIUM 2004: Honors Education in Alabama UAB Honors Program . 56 Ada Long and Dail Mullins Auburn University Honors College . 64 Jack Rogers UAH Honors Program . 66 John S. Mebane Stillman Honors Curriculum . 69 Chinita A. Heard UAB Nursing Honors . 76 Ellen B. Buckner University of Alabama Honors . 87 Robert W. Halli UAB Engineering Honors . 90 Doug Rigney B(X)K REVIEWS Fishes of Alabama — A New Classic? . 95 Andrew L. Rypel Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 1, January 2005. FISHES AND MACROINVERTEBRATES OF THE UPPER CAHABA RIVER: A THREE-YEAR STUDY L. J. Davenport W. Mike Howell Department of Biology Samford University Birmingham, AL 35229 Kevin J. Morse Konard Yancie J. Lynn Wood Barton Laboratory 1290 Oak Grove Road Homewood, AL 35209 ABSTRACT In order to assess their degree of impairment, fish and macroinvertebrate communities were examined at fifteen sites on the upper Cahaba River during Summer 2001, Spring 2002, Fall 2002, and Summer 2003. Fishes were sampled by seining, with all individuals released after identification. Macroinvertebrates were sampled and analyzed using three different protocols: 1) “Rififle/Run,” a modified EPA method in which only riffle/run areas were sampled; 2) “EPA,” a multihabitat method used by Region 4, United States Environmental Protection Agency; and 3) “ADEM,” a multihabitat method used by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. We found both the fish and macroinvertebrate communities to be generally in-balance throughout this 108-mile river segment, although notable differences were seen. In general, the most stable and varied habitats (largely in the upper and lower sections) support the most taxa and the most pollution-sensitive taxa. The middle reaches— where the gradient flattens and sediment accumulates— contain the sites that appear to be most heavily stressed or impaired. Because the results of our fish sampling are similar to previous studies that relied on both seining and electroshocking, we find that the use of minnow seines by experienced personnel provides an accurate, reliable, and cost-effective means to monitor these fish communities. The three macroinvertebrate protocols provided slightly different results, with the ADEM method giving higher numbers for Total Taxa, pollution-sensitive taxa, and pollution- tolerant taxa. (These higher numbers probably result from the inclusion of all taxa from all habitats by this method, except for the riffle/run collections, which are subsampled.) The same general trends as above, however, were obtained with all three methods. We find that the EPA method provides an accurate and efficient means of monitoring macroinvertebrate communities when compared to the more time-consuming Rifle/Run and ADEM methods. 1 Upper Cahaba River Fishes INTRODUCTION The Cahaba River flows for 191 miles from its headwaters in St. Clair County (northeast of Birmingham, AL) to its confluence with the Alabama River southwest of Selma. Its drainage area, entirely within Alabama, encompasses ca. 1825 square miles, and is bordered on the east by the Coosa River System and on the west and north by the Black Warrior River System (Pierson et al., 1989; Shepard et al., 1997). The Cahaba River is well known for its wealth of animal species. Pierson et al. (1989) reported 131 fish species from the river, including 18 species known only to occur in the Mobile River Basin. May den & Kuhajda (1989) considered the Cahaba to be the most ichthyological ly diverse river for its size in North America. Harris et al. (1984) reported 146 species of caddisflies from the Cahaba River System— particularly rich when compared to other Southeastern rivers. The Cahaba, however, is not without its stresses, nor is it entirely “natural.” Although often cited as “free-flowing,” the river is impounded by a few low-level dams between its origin and the Fall Line (near Centreville). The largest such dam, 1 5-feet tall, was constructed at US Hwy 280 in 1937, pooling the water behind it for use by the citizens of Birmingham. (Since this time, the Cahaba— along with Lake Purdy on the Little Cahaba River— has served as the primary water source for metropolitan Birmingham.) Several wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) discharge treated domestic and industrial wastes into the Cahaba near Birmingham. In addition, the Cahaba watershed has been rapidly developed during the past thirty years, as Birmingham’s suburbs have spread southward. “Nonpoint sources of pollution such as siltation from strip mining, construction of roads and structures, and runoff of fertilizers and pesticides from managed turf have also increased in the upper Cahaba River drainage as the population of the area has grown” (Shepard et al., 1 997). Due to these stresses, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) required the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) to place segments of the Cahaba on its §303(d) list for 1998 (and renewed in 2000, 2002). (Under §303(d) of the Clean Water Act, Alabama and other states are required to compile a list of impaired waterways— rivers and streams that fail to meet expected water quality criteria. The list is reviewed every two years.) One segment, from the 1-59 bridge (near Leeds) to the US 82 bridge at Centreville, is considered impaired due to excessive sediments. A smaller portion of that segment, from the US 280 dam to Centreville, is considered impaired due to excessive nutrients. To assess the ecological health of the upper Cahaba, we conducted a series of biomonitoring surveys over a three-year period. Fish and macroinvertebrate communities were examined June-August 2001, May 2002, September-October 2002, and June 2003 at fifteen sites on the upper Cahaba River. (A map is provided in Appendix 1.) Sites were chosen in order to best assess the river’s health, with a variety of physiographic regions purposely selected. The sites are, starting at the headwaters (with river miles from the confluence with the Alabama River in brackets): Headwater reaches: 1) Goodner Mountain Road [189.6] - T15S, RIE, Sec 30; Jefferson County 2) Deerfoot Parkway above Trussville [186.5] - T16S, RIW, Sec 12; Jefferson County 3) Grants Mill Road [161.3] - T17S, RIW, Sec 33; Jefferson County 2 Davenport, et al. Middle reaches: 4) Caldwell Mill Road (Altadena) [144.9] - T19S, R2W, Sec 3; Jefferson County 5) Riverford Drive [141.5] - T19S, R2W, Sec 18; Jefferson County 6) Above the Cahaba WWTP [138.9] - T19S, R2W, Sec 19; Jefferson County 7) Below the Cahaba WWTP [138.6] - T19S, R2W, Sec 19; Jefferson County 8) Chace Lake Country Club [137.3] - R19S, R3W, Sec 24; Jefferson County 9) Bains Bridge off Lorna Road [136,8] - T19S, R3W, Sec 23; Jefferson County 10) Hoover High School near Dodd Branch [134.3] - T20S, R3W, Sec 4; Jefferson County 1 1) “Deep Pool,” ca. one mile upstream from confluence with Buck Creek [131.2] - T20S, R3W, Sec 9; Shelby County 12) Shelby County Highway 52 (Helena) [127.0] - T20S, R3W, Sec 20; Shelby County Lower reaches; 13) Bibb County Highway 24, ca. one mile downstream from Piper Bridge [95.8] - T24N, RlOE, Sec 9; Bibb County 14) Bibb County Highway 26 at Pratts Ferry (Riverbend) [89.3] - T24N, RlOE, Sec 33; Bibb County 15) US 82 at Centreville [81.2] - T23N, R9E, Sec 35; Bibb County MATERIALS AND METHODS At each site, both physical and habitat assessments were performed using EPA (Barbour et al., 1999) protocols. Physical assessments performed at each site examined watershed features, amount and type of riparian vegetation, presence and type of aquatic vegetation, stream width and depth, plus substrate components— percentages of bedrock, boulder, cobble, etc. These physical assessments were then used to assess ten habitat parameters. (See Results and Discussion.) Fishes were collected using a 4-by-8-foot nylon seine, with sampling methods modified from Karr et al. (1986) and O’Neil & Shepard (2000). Thirty minutes were devoted to seining all key habitats in each study area— riffles, pools, stream runs, and under bankside vegetation. Fish species were identified in the field (and verified using Mettee et al. [1996]), counted and released; any individuals observed but not captured during the collecting period were also included in the tally for that site. Captured individuals were also examined for any physical anomalies. Macroinvertebrates were collected using three different protocols. The “Riffle/Run” method was modified from EPA (Barbour et al., 1999) and ADEM (1999) protocols, using only riffie/run areas within a 100-meter reach: At each site, the stream expanse at the down¬ stream end of the riffle was divided into thirds, and a one-meter-square area was “kicked” in each third into a D-frame dip net; three more samples were taken at the upstream end. The contents of the net were preserved in 70% isopropyl alcohol for later analysis, in which all individuals were identified. The multihabitat “EPA” method followed the protocol developed by the Region 4, Athens (Georgia) office of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (see Howard et al., 2002). This method uses three riffle kicks in fast current, and three in slow; six jabs of undercut banks; five collections of woody debris; three Jabs of bottom substrate; and three 3 upper Cahaba River Fishes samples of leaf pack (equivalent to one-half dip net). The resulting composited collection was likewise preserved for later analysis. {Note: In keeping with EPA protocol, a duplicate sample (“52d”) was taken at Highway 52 and analyzed in a manner identical to all others; also at this site, a duplicate habitat analysis was conducted by a second investigator in order to assess the consistency of our work.) In that analysis, a random subsample of ca. 200 individuals was utilized. The “ADEM” method followed the protocol outlined by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM, 1999). This method uses two 1 -meter-square riffle kicks— one in fast current, and one in slow; leaf and woody debris (enough to fill one-half of a sieve bucket); the rinsings from five rocks and/or logs; three sweeps (each one meter in length) of root banks; three sweeps (each one meter in length) through macrophytes; and three sweeps (each one meter in length) of sand, scooping 2-3 cm below the surface. Each of these samples was preserved (in separate containers) for later analysis. In that analysis, the riffle collections were subsampled (with ca. 200 individuals utilized), while all individuals from the other habitats were included. Macroinvertebrates were identified (to the genus or lowest possible level) using Edmunds et al. (1976), Epler (2001), Harris et al. (1987), Merritt & Cummins (1996), Smith (2001), Thorp & Covich (1991), and Wiggins (1996). Members of the Chironomidae were sent to TAI Environmental Sciences (Mobile, AL) for identification during the first two collecting years, then identified “in-house” in 2003. Tallies and statistical analyses are included in Tables 1-1 1; bar diagrams for each table are shown in Figures 1-11. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A. Habitats Physical assessments were used to generate the habitat scores listed in Table 1 and shown graphically in Figure 1 . Ten habitat parameters were each assessed on a 20-point scale, with more points given to “ideal” conditions. Such conditions best promote the colonization, establishment, and continued presence of aquatic organisms, especially fishes and macroinvertebrates. These conditions provide a variety of habitats in which such organisms can flourish— a stable substrate with a variety of water velocities and depths, little sediment, minimal disturbance, and maximal riparian cover. According to ADEM (1999), habitat scores are considered “optimal” when 75-100% of the maximum score, “suboptimal” when 50-74%, “marginal” when 25-49%, and “poor” when 0-24%. (On the 200-point EPA scale, these cutoff points would be 150 [suboptimal], 100 [marginal], and 50 [poor]). While many of our sites occasionally scored in the “optimal” range, only one (Deep Pool) was consistently that high. Four others were consistently 1 30 and above— Deerfoot Parkway, Grants Mill Road, Highway 52, and Piper Bridge. All five of the above sites have stable substrates (with bedrock and boulders), little sedimentation, a diversity of water velocities and depths, frequent riffles and runs, adequate riparian cover, and little human modification or disturbance. In contrast, three sites scored consistently near or below the “marginal” cutoff of 100: Above the Cahaba WWTP, Below the Cahaba WWTP, and Bains Bridge. Each of these sites is marked by unstable substrates (with frequent sand, gravel and silt bars), much sedimentation leading to embeddedness of boulders and cobble, little variety in water depths and velocities, and much human disturbance (especially of the river banks). 4 Davenport, et al. At some sites, much variation is found in the habitat scores from one sampling p^iod to the next; this is especially true of sites with unstable substrates. Also, nine of the fifteen sites had their lowest scores during Summer 2003. These low scores, taken in June, reflect the large amount of streambank erosion and sediment from record-setting floodwaters during May 2003. B. Fishes Three standard metrics were used in assessing the fish communities sampled in this study: total number of individuals, total fish taxa, and the Index of Biological Integrity. 1) Total Number: Table 2 and Figure 2 reveal a general trend of total fish numbers, with the highest numbers of individuals collected at the uppermost and lowermost sites. Deerfoot Parkway consistently had the greatest number of individuals, with Piper Bridge next. Numbers of individuals collected in the middle section (Riverford Drive to Bains Bridge) were generally low. 2) Total Fish Taxa: A similar trend can be found in Total Fish Taxa (Table 3 and Figure 3), with the highest number of taxa at the upper sites (Grants Mill and Caldwell Mill) and lower sites (Highway 26 and Centreville). (The uppermost sites, Goodner Mountain and Deerfoot Parkway, show lower numbers, probably due to smaller stream order and drainage area.) Again, sites in the middle section (Riverford Drive to Bains Bridge) had lower numbers than either upstream or downstream sites. 3) Index of Biological Integrity: Fish data were evaluated using the Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) proposed by Karr et al. (1986), as adapted and modified by O’Neil (2002) for the Cahaba River and further modified by us (see Appendix 2 and example below). The fish IBI uses 12 individual metrics of the sampled communities, rating each as 1 (worst), 3, or 5 (best) compared to values expected for an undisturbed community in a similar-sized stream of the same ecoregion. The sum of the 12 metric scores, or Total IBI, thus ranges from 12-60. After conversations with the aforementioned Patrick O’Neil, we modified the IBI metrics and scale (listed in Appendix 2) to better reflect the ichthyofaunal characteristics of the upper Cahaba River, based on our extensive experience with fish communities throughout the watershed. (It should be noted, too, that the O’Neil method uses both minnow seines and electroshocking, while we used seines only.) For example, while the O’Neil method requires three or more darter species to earn the top rank of “5,” only two such species have ever been collected by us in the upper Cahaba River at Goodner Mountain Road; therefore, we used the presence of two (rather than three) darter species in headwater sections to indicate “ideal” conditions. Also, because of the differences in collecting techniques (seining vs seining- electroshocking), we broadened O’Neil’s scoring ranges to the following: 50-60, Excellent; 40-49, Good; 30-39, Fair; 20-29, Poor; <20, Very Poor. During this study, a total of 47 fish collections were made at the fifteen sites. Only two collections (Highway 52, Summer 2001 and Above the Cahaba WWTP, Summer 2003) scored in the Poor range. The majority (28 collections, or 60%) scored Fair; sixteen (34%) were Good, and one (Grants Mill, Fall 2002) was Excellent. In all cases, the three uppermost sites (Goodner Mountain, Deerfoot Parkway, and Grants Mill) scored Good to Excellent. In the middle section (Caldwell Mill to Highway 52), most sites during most seasons scored Fair to Good. In the “big river” section. Piper Bridge scored Fair during all four collecting seasons; the lowermost site, Centreville, scored Good during its two collecting seasons. It should be noted, also, that our “seine only” approach, using modified IBI scoring and scale, provided results comparable to O’Neil’s (2002) more intensive method. In fact, six 5 Upper Cahaba River Fishes of the nine sites sampled by both research teams obtained identical ratings. A comparison of IBI ratings for these nine shared sites is provided in Appendix 3. C. Macroinvertebrates Seven metrics were used to assess the macroinvertebrate communities sampled in this study. These metrics-selected for their ability to assess community balance and the presence/absence of pollution-sensitive and -tolerant taxa— include Total Number of Individuals, Total Taxa, the Biotic Index, Percent Contribution of Dominant Taxon, EPT Taxa Richness, Percent Chironomids, and the ratio EPT/EPT + Chironomidae. 1) Total Number: The total number of macroinvertebrates collected at each site is listed in Table 5. However, only the number collected using the Riffle/Run method can be compared from site to site, since the other two methods utilize subsampling strategies. For this reason, only the Riffle/Run samples are shown in Figure 5. Here, a definite trend is found in the Summer 200 1 data, with increasing numbers of macroinvertebrates related to increasing stream order. However, this trend is not found in either of the subsequent Riffle/Run data sets. The fewest individuals (189) were found Above the Cahaba WWTP during Fall 2002, perhaps due to the low water levels normally found at this site. (Public water supply withdrawal occurs upstream from this site.) In contrast, with the constant water flow provided by the WWTP, the number of individuals Below the Cahaba WWTP increased to 1273 that season. In all three Riffle/Run collecting seasons, the largest number of individuals-7625, 4296, and 13,294— was found at Piper Bridge, reflecting the large numbers of the tiny hydrobiid snail, Somatogyrus, in its preferred habitat of exposed bedrock riffles (Harris et al, 1987). 2) Total Macroinvertebrate Taxa: The number of macroinvertebrate taxa collected per site is found in Table 6 and shown graphically in Figure 6. Such numbers are used to assess the health and diversity of habitats found at different sites, with more diverse habitats supporting a larger number of species (ADEM, 1999; Barbour et ai, 1999). Our data (using all three collecting/analyzing methods) show relatively high numbers of taxa in the headwaters (Goodner Mountain, Deerfoot Parkway) with a gradual drop in numbers as the river drops in altitude. The flattest and most habitat-poor section of the river (which includes Riverford Drive, Above the Cahaba WWTP, Below the Cahaba WWTP, and Chace Lake) supports the fewest species. These areas also have low habitat scores due to the lack of extensive riffle areas (which are generally quite productive) and the presence of much sediment and disturbance. Our data for total macroinvertebrate taxa also show differences in the relative effectiveness of the three collecting and analyzing routines. In comparison with the Riffle/Run methodology during Fall 2002, the ADEM protocol provided more taxa in every case— at Hoover High, in fact, over two-and-a-half times as many (83 vs 33). This is undoubtedly due to that protocol calling for the collecting and inclusion of every specimen from all habitats (other than riffle/run, which is subsampled). In contrast, the EPA protocol resulted in the tabulation of the fewest taxa: In all but two of the 12 sites analyzed by the Riffle/Run and EPA methods in Spring 2002, the Riffle/Run method showed more taxa than EPA, sometimes twice as many (e.g., at Caldwell Mill, 41 vs 19). These differing results are most likely due to: 1) riffle/run habitats usually providing the highest macroinvertebrate diversity (Barbour et ai, 1999) and 2) the subsampling of the entire composited EPA sample, such that all taxa will not be included. 6 Davenport, et al. 3) Biotic Index; The Biotic Index is a measure of organic and nutrient pollution based on macroinvertebrate communities, especially those inhabiting riffles (Hilsenhoff 1987). Biotic Index scores are determined by the average of tolerance values given to each represented taxon, with low scores assigned to taxa that are intolerant of poor water quality. In this study, we used the tolerance values listed in Appendix X-1 of the ADEM manual, many of which were generated from North Carolina studies (see Appendix X-2 [ADEM, 1999] for sources). Because no Index scales have yet been established for the Valley & Ridge province of Alabama, we used criteria developed for the North Carolina Piedmont, as listed in ADEM (1999). The ranges are: Excellent (0.00-5.18), Very Good (5.19-5.78), Good/Fair (5.79-6.48), Fair (6.49-7.48), and Poor (7.49-10.00). The three different collecting and analyzing methods generated similar Biotic Index scores, as shown in Table 7 and Figure 7. Of the 71 total collections analyzed, 40 (56%) rated Excellent, while 16 (23%) were Very Good; the remaining 15 (21%) were Good/Fair. In general, the lowest (“best”) scores were obtained at headwater sites like Goodner Mountain and Deerfoot Parkway, as well as at stable downstream sites such as Deep Pool and Highway 52. Higher scores were obtained at middle sites like Above the Cahaba WWTP and Bains Bridge, plus the downstream site at Piper Bridge. The Piper Bridge scores, again, are due to huge numbers of Somatogyrus, with its tolerance value of 6.4. 4) Percent Contribution of Dominant Taxon: The consistently high numbers of Somatogyrus at Piper Bridge also led to high scores for Percent Contribution of Dominant Taxon, listed in Table 8 and shown graphically in Figure 8. (This percentage is an indication of community balance [ADEM, 1999; Barbour et al., 1999] and generally increases with decreasing water quality, such that a single taxon will dominate at stressed sites.) As mentioned previously, Somatogyrus prefers exposed bedrock riffles (Harris et al., 1987), as found at this site; the one-quarter-mile-long stand of Cahaba lilies (Hymenocallis coronaria) and other aquatic plants here also provide the detritus needed for the support of this tiny, prolific snail. Other sites showed occasional high percentages (>50%) of a single taxon. Using the ADEM method during Fall 2002, Grants Mill had 53% Elimia, a pleurocerid snail; using the EPA method during Spring 2002, Caldwell Mill had 76% Simulium, a blackfly larva; using the Riffle/Run method during Fall 2002, Below the Cahaba WWTP had 71% Elimia; using the ADEM method during Fall 2002, Bains Bridge had 67% Somatogyrus. However, only Piper Bridge consistently showed one dominant taxon {Somatogyrus) under all three collecting/analyzing methods. 5) EPT Taxa Richness: EPT Taxa Richness is based on the number of pollution- sensitive taxa of Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies), and Trichoptera (caddisflies). These numbers generally increase with increasing water quality (ADEM, 1999; Barbour et al, 1 999). Our data (Table 9 and Figure 9) for this metric follow the expected trends at the uppermost sites, with the highest numbers in the headwaters (Goodner Mountain, Deerfoot Parkway), then decreasing with decreasing altitude and river gradient (Riverford Drive to Chace Lake). (As mentioned under Total Macroinvertebrate Taxa, these middle sites also lack the extensive riffle areas needed to support mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies.) EPT numbers then generally increase from Bains Bridge to Centreville, possibly due to the increased presence of adequate riffles. It should be noted that in every instance during Spring 2002, the Riffle/Run method resulted in higher numbers of EPT taxa than the EPA method. This result is expected, since the first method samples only the riffle/run habitats preferred by these taxa. Also, in every 7 Upper Cahaba River Fishes instance during Fall 2002, the ADEM protocol resulted in higher numbers of EPT taxa than the Riffle/Run method. This is a surprising result since, under the ADEM protocol, the riffle/run collection is always subsampled. 6) Percent Chironomids: Midge larvae (family Chironomidae) are generally pollution-tolerant organisms, their numbers increasing with increasing organic enrichment or heavy metal concentration (ADEM, 1999; Barbour et al, 1999). (There are, however, some genera known only from clean water.) They occupy a variety of habitats, including riffle/runs, root banks and leaf packs— even the bodies of other invertebrates. Surprisingly, four of our six collections showed high numbers of chironomids at the headwaters site, Goodner Mountain. (See Table 10 and Figure 10.) This unexpected result is perhaps due to the presence of two dams and resulting impoundments, 1.0 and 2.5 miles upstream from the site, which store and release organics upon which these larvae depend. Three collections showed significant rises in the number of chironomids at Hoover High, probably due to the settling of materials (both organic and sediment) in this “flat” river segment. In two of the three collections made at Riverbend and Centreville, chironomid numbers also rose, an expected result in these “big river” sites due to increasing enrichment downstream. In every instance during Fall 2002, the ADEM protocol resulted in higher percentages of chironomids than the Riffle/Run method. This is an expected result, since the ADEM protocol calls for the inclusion of all multihabitat collections, such as leaf packs and root banks, where chironomids often live. 7) EPT/EPT + Chironomidae: The final metric applied, EPT/EPT + Chironomidae, calculates the ratio of individuals in “sensitive” (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera) versus “insensitive” (Chironomidae) taxa, thus incorporating EPT Taxa Richness and Percent Chironomids. A value of 0.75 indicates an even distribution between the four groups (ADEM, 1999). Using the three different collecting and analyzing techniques, most sites scored 0.5- 1.0 for this metric (Table 11 and Figure 11), thus indicating generally even distribution between the four taxa. The one exception, Goodner Mountain, had three of the four lowest scores for the entire study-0.49 (Riffle/Run, Summer 2001), 0.41 (ADEM, Fall 2002), and 0.24 (EPA, Summer 2003). These low scores reflect the large numbers of chironomids at this site, as discussed above. CONCLUSIONS For three consecutive years, we sampled fishes and macroinvertebrates of the upper Cahaba River during four different seasons and flow conditions (and in the case of macroinvertebrates, using three different collecting and analyzing methods). Our results show that the fish and macroinvertebrate populations within this §303(d) segment of the river are generally in-balance. There are, of course, differences between the study sites in this 108-mile long river segment, as well as differences in their relative health, stress and impairment. These differences appear to be largely due to habitat, with the most stable and varied habitats hosting the most total taxa and the most pollution-sensitive taxa. These stable sites include Deerfoot Parkway and Grants Mill in the upstream reaches and Deep Pool, Highway 52 and Piper Bridge in the middle and downstream reaches. In the middle section, the gradient of the river bed flattens and the river broadens (with fewer exposed rocks and riffle areas), thus creating fewer habitats for colonization (and lower habitat scores). This section also experiences 8 Davenport, et al. noticeably decreased water flow due to public water supply withdrawals above the US Highway 280 dam, while picking up a high concentration of sediment as it courses through the most rapidly developing part of metropolitan Birmingham. Fish communities directly reflect these habitat differences. Our three stable headwater sites (Goodner Mountain, Deerfoot Parkway, and Grants Mill) and lowermost site (Centreville) rated “good” for Total IBI, while all sites in-between (including every site in the unstable middle reaches) rated “fair.” These results agree with those of Onorato et al. (1998), who assessed fish populations in the upper Cahaba River during Fall 1995, Spring and Fall 1996, and Spring 1997. Using both minnow seines and electroshockers, they found that over 62% of their sampling stations had IBI ratings of “good” or better. They obtained their lowest IBI rating (“fair”) near Riverford Drive, where we also obtained our lowest rating (likewise “fair”). Their highest score gave an “excellent” rating for the fish community at Centreville, where we obtained a “good” rating. The macroinvertebrate data are more difficult to interpret, although similar habitat- based trends occur. Biotic Index scores, based on relative tolerance values, follow the habitat trends rather closely, with the “best” or lowest scores obtained at headwater and stable downstream sites. Total Taxa and EPT Taxa partially follow those trends, being high in the headwaters before dipping to their lowest scores at the beginning of the middle reaches. Both scores, though, rise again at Bains Bridge, Hoover High, Deep Pool, and Highway 52, indicating some improvement or lessening impairment in the lower portion of this unstable middle section. Only the two macroinvertebrate metrics utilizing numbers of midge larvae. Percent Chironomids and EPT/EPT + Chironomidae, provide surprising results. The unexpectedly high numbers of midge larvae at the uppermost site, Goodner Mountain, are most likely due to impounded water (and the periodic release of organics) upstream. For this reason, Goodner Mountain cannot be considered a pristine headwaters site. The three different protocols for sampling and analysis of macroinvertebrates— Riffle/Run, EPA and ADEM— produced slightly different results. While the three methods resulted in similar values for overall tolerance (Biotic Index), the ADEM method— by including all organisms of its multihabitat subsamples— gave higher numbers for Total Taxa, pollution-sensitive taxa (EPT), and pollution-tolerant taxa (chironomids). However, despite these differences, the same general trends— from headwaters to middle and lower reaches— were revealed by all three methods. Because of the similarities of our results to those obtained by seining and electroshocking, we conclude that the use of minnow seines by trained and experienced personnel provides a very accurate and reliable (and less expensive) means to monitor the fish communities of the upper Cahaba River. And, again due to similarity of results, we conclude that the EPA method provides an adequate and efficient means of monitoring macroinvertebrate communities when compared to the more time-consuming Riffle/Run and ADEM methods. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was supported by Jefferson County Environmental Services, and we thank Jack Swann of that agency. Much of the day-to-day specimen sorting was performed by Rebecca Gibb, Jennifer Spears, and Wendy Wammack. Ron Jenkins aided in taxonomic decisions, while scientists at TAJ Strand made the initial chironomid identifications. We also thank Don Blancher and Susan Sklenar of TAI Strand, who helped greatly in project design and implementation. 9 Table 1. Habitat scores (200 pt scale) for fifteen sites on the upper Cahaba River; Summer 2001 (SuOl), Spring 2002 (Sp02), Fall 2002 (Fa02), and Summer 2003 (Su03); Goodner Mountain Road (GM), Deerfoot Parkway (DF), Grants Mill Road (GR), Caldwell Mill Road (CM), Riverford Drive (RD), above the Cahaba WWTP (UP), below the Cahaba WWTP (DN), Chace Lake CC (CL), Bains Bridge (BB), Hoover High School (HH), Deep Pool (DP), Shelby County 52 (52 & 52d), Piper Bridge (PB), Riverbend (26), and Centreville (CE). River miles (from the confluence with the Alabama River) are provided for each site. CE 81.2 124 26 89J Os PB 95.8 165 157 149 148 52d 127.0 52 127.0 163 150 136 DP 131.2 175 160 164 as 3 134 o o 94 BB 136.8 102 rs 66 94 CL 137.3 156 (N DN 138.6 106 UP 138.9 100 87 P 12 Tj* 96 CM 144.9 a\ in 159 137 109 O 159 145 DF 186.5 149 rn 'rf 152 GM 189.6 O r- Habitat Score - SuOl Habitat Score - Sp02 Habitat Score - Fa02 Habitat Score - Su03 o o o. oT n- I o oT Os [ o CO e +3 (X O x> D (/> o' tn o o c3 B (X o o o n a ed 15 cd X 10 Table 2. Total number of fishes collected at fifteen sites on the upper Cahaba River: Summer 2001 (SuOl), Spring 2002 (Sp02), Fail 2002 (Fa02), and Summer 2003 (Su03); Goodner Mountain Road (GM), Deerfoot Parkway (DF), Grants Mill Road (GR), Caldwell Mill Road (CM), Riverford Drive (RD), above the Cahaba WWTP (UP), below the Cahaba WWTP (DN), Chace Lake CC (CL), Bains Bridge (BB), Hoover High School (HH), Deep Pool (DP), Shelby County 52 (52), Piper Bridge (PB), Riverbend (26), and Centreville (CE). River miles (from the O T3 ’> O b. a. (U u. 0 BB 136.8 VO oo 00 CL 137.3 o DN 138.6 04 UP 138.9 VO RD 141.5 CTs - On CM 144.9 fS ■o oo VO GR 161.3 00 DF 186.5 (N (Ti ■rr GM 189.6 00 0\ oo Total Taxa - SuOl Total Taxa - Sp02 Total Taxa - Fa02 Total Taxa - Su03 I 12 Table 4. Total Index of Biological Integrity scores for fishes at fifteen sites on the upper Cahaba River: Summer 2001 (SuOl), Spring 2002 (Sp02), Fall 2002 (Fa02), and Summer 2003 (Su03); Goodner Mountain Road (GM), Deerfoot Parkway (DF), Grants Mill Road (GR), Caldwell Mill Road (CM), Riverford Drive (RD), above the Cahaba WWTP (UP), below the Cahaba WWTP (DN), Chace Lake CC (CL), Bains Bridge (BB), Hoover High School (HH), Deep Pool (DP), Shelby County 52 (52), Piper Bridge (PB), Riverbend (26), and Centreville (CE). a> *C/3 s: o 'S > o u. o. 5 CO E «) XI CO (1> o c !U X ■*-» E o E s w fS (N u 00 VO "5 CN ■d- 00 CQ 00 00 X X Cl. m o 00 X X X Q 1/^ (N O fS 0£ S 144.9 (N cso 00 u m os o o ’Tt Ut X 00 X a 00 S X o o o 00 Tj- rl- O U u U U Im o o o o u u o c/5 c/5 c/5 M QQ QQ CQ CQ NN NM ■M* C9 A CQ 2 o O o o H H H H o o a- u > o' -C o cd Urn a> ■o o a. a> u. cd > cd cd X) cd a> > 5 w u JL> (i> u ■o c VO ts T3 C (U X> fe > CQ Oh u bo rs 'C CQ u VO «N VO u 00 fN VO OO rn 00 c m yn b «N o VO Ov o a 00 rf r-- r- cn sc Cs Ov VO oo V 0) -a T) ■0 53 "O ■3 a e a a s C NM NM >*< .« 0 ■3 ■M ■«>* 0 0 0 0 0 0 od n PQ PQ pp pa o o D- o" o 0 o\ t\ 00 I ON NO 00 NO I On r- yn §0 S' > 00 in I Os m "S "w a X 4> 00 >n I o o o cfl <1> t30 c C8 X ~o c o ■§ 5 16 Table 8. Percent Contribution of Dominant Taxon for macroinvertebrates collected at fifteen sites on the upper Cahaba River: Summer 2001 (SuOl), Spring 2002 (Sp02), Fall 2002 (Fa02), and Summer 2003 (Su03); collecting and analysis by Riffle/Run (R), EPA (E), and ADEM (A) protocols; Goodner Mountain Road (GM), Deerfoot Parkway (DF), Grants Mill Road (GR), Caldwell Mill Road (CM), Riverford Drive (RD), above the Cahaba WWTP (UP), below the Cahaba WWTP (DN), Chace Lake CC (CL), Bains Bridge (BB), Hoover High School (HH), Deep cd B 03 X) a> o § D O o x: B o tt; lA a> > U o CQ o cx (U u. CO _ _ /—V -- § O- Cli x: 1/3 cu Q fS Os U 00 fS VO n VO 'll- C'l 00 m 00 rn © (U © CUi Oul Q. Oh On On 17 8 Oi u CQ a; w n r- 26 89J 'O m PB 95.8 > 5 cd B cd X) cd D X X ID o C 3 O o X •«>-» e o w ¥ (1> w U ■> (L> s T3 C CQ O (N T3 C OJ > OQ r> ■•-> CE 81.2 33 25 in r< £ 36 in 00 PB 95.8 o -- o - in oo 52d 127.0 00 U X) o U 3 rs Pi OQ •3^ ly 8 a, Di w fs rj t'' Os_ PQ oe Os (N o a. w% Os On Os 00 Os so oo a n rn o m o so Os 00 as to (N Tf so o a 00 Os Os c> OS 00 oo S os SO r' Os o OD OO Os so r-j Cd to to to < to V— H CN rs (N . LU o CD CM CO Q- CM ID 0. Q CD CD O O LO O ID 30 Figure 6a - Total Macroinvertebrate Taxa 31 Figure 6b - Total Macroinvertebrate Taxa 0^ Lu a: < LU v- CM CNJ CM CM 00 O O O O O O 3 d. (0 CO 3 CO CO C/) LL U- CO □ □ Bniifluiuiiiyiiiiiiii y///y//////////^^^ c nnnmiHHHiiiiiiiniiii IIIIIHIIillUHinill lllli[|l|!ill|l tw.H-W . : f y////y//////////////yM^^ i i:illlH!ii!ililiilSS!SS!SSS$S$$S$$$^^ my////////////M^^^ IlftBIBiflilIl -i!:;iriiii!ii!!i!vi';!!r:i!i!!!;i!;ii!:iiiii;:ii - lini!ll!l!lllllllllllllllllyli!ll!|ll!llllllli!llll!llll 1 1 - 1 ^ 1 O UO O UO ^O ID O CO CM CM T- T- O z Q CL iiiiiniiiiiiiii ^ - QC O £L O Q o 37 Figure 9b - Total EPT Taxa a: a: LU a: < uj t- CM CN CM CO CD C5 CD ^D CD 3 CD- Q. 05 03 13 O) CO CO LL LL CO □ □ inni h'll!in!lllifllll!llillliil!ll iiiiiiiiiiiiiiijiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii l!!illllll>lllllllll! y//y/////y/////y^^^^ 1 1 iiHniiiiiii llllUIIIOIIIllUlllllli n. jyiiffiii fifi'iivi ^ 1 1 ! 1 iimnnwi mn i O CO UD CM O CM m in LU o CO CM GO CL T3 CM lO CM to 0- Q CO CQ 38 Figure 10a - Percent Chironomids oc: ck: Lu a: < LjJ T- CNJ CNJ CM CM CO O O O O O O D CL CL CC CO 13 CO CO CO LL Li- CO □ ^ ^ □ n Q 0- Q CH O cr CD ll Q O O O 0.0 o o CD m Tj- CO CM T~ 39 Q: LJJ q: < LU T- CM CNJ CM CN CO O O O O O O 3 Q. CL (0 CO 3 CO CO CO U- Ll. CO n m m m tn ■o E o c o o c o o o Q. n o o 3 O) ■■■ LL m OQ CL ■o CM LO CM LO QL Q CQ CQ CO O lO O O CO O CM 40 Figure 11a - EPT/EPT + Chironomids cn a: LJJ < LU T— CNJ eg CM CM CO 0 0 0 0 0 0 ZJ Q. Q. 05 05 13 CO CO CO LL LL CO □ ■ W □ ■ luiluilii I myy/y/y//y///y///y////y^^^^ I- bSSi l!liHH!lllilllli;l!iil!i'!ll!!l!:|i| L 00 CD CM lll!lllllllllllllllllllll!!lill!lllllllll!lll!ll!llll{||ll|t!lllllllllllllll!lllllllin i Y/yyyy/////y////////y///y/^^^^ L m W/ YYYYYYYyYYYYYYYjy/yyy^yyyj. r illilllil!l!iII!lllllllll!IIIIl!l!lini!lilliii;!ilil|]lll!!l!l!lllilin!llljfill!liH!l!lflf!li!Illlill!llil!;!!ll^ yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy/ T- CX) CD CM O <3 d o CD LU o CD CM CD CL T3 CM ID CN ID CL Q 42 Davenport, et al. REFERENCES Alabama Department of Environmental Management. 1999. Standard operating procedures and quality control assurance manual, vol. 1: Freshwater macroinvertebrate biological assessment. ADEM, Montgomery, AL. Barbour, M. T., J. Gerritsen, B. D. Snyder, and J. B. Stribling. 1999. Rapid bioassessment protocols for use in streams and wadeable rivers: Periphyton, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish, 2"^ ed. EPA 841-B-99-002. U. S. Environmental Protection Agency; Office of Water; Washington, DC. Edmunds, G. F. Jr., S. L. Jensen, and L. Berner. 1976. The mayflies of North and Central America. Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN. Epler, J. H. 2001. Identification manual for the larval Chironomidae (Diptera) of North and South Carolina. NC Dept, of Environment and Natural Res., Div. of Water Quality. Harris, S. C., P. K. Lago, and P. E. O’Neil. 1984. Trichoptera of the Cahaba River system in Alabama. Entomol. News 95:103-1 12. Harris, S. C., R. W. Hanley, K. J. Tennessen, and P. E. O’Neil. 1987. Aquatic invertebrates in the Warrior Coal Basin of Alabama. Bulletin 127, Geol. Survey of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL. Hilsenhoff, W. L. 1987. An improved biotic index of organic stream pollution. Great Lakes Ent. 20:31-39. Howard, H. S., B. Quinn, M. C. Flexner, and R. L. Raschke. 2002. Cahaba River: Biological and water quality studies, Birmingham, Alabama; March/ April, September and July, 2002. US EPA, Region 4, Science and Ecosystem Support Div., Ecological Support Branch. Karr, J, R., K. D. Fausch, P. L. Angermeier, P. R. Yant, and 1. J. Schlosser. 1986. Assessing biological integrity in running waters: A method and its rationale. Special Publication 5, Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, IL. Mayden, R. L. and B. R. Kuhadja. 1989. Systematics of Notropis cahabae, a new cyprinid fish endemic to the Cahaba River of the Mobile basin. Bull. Alabama Museum Nat. Hist. 9:1-16. Merritt, R. W. and K. W. Cummins, eds. 1996. An introduction to the aquatic insects of North America, 3*^ ed. Kendall/Hunt Publ., Dubuque, lA. Mettee, M. F., P. E. O’Neil, and J. M. Pierson. 1996. Fishes of Alabama and the Mobile Basin. Oxmoor House, Birmingham, AL. O’Neil, P. E. 2002. A biological assessment of selected sites in the Cahaba River system, Alabama. Unpubl. MS submitted to the US EPA (Contract #2R-01 17-NAGF); Geol. Survey of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL. O’Neil, P. E. and T. E. Shepard. 2000. Application of the index of biological integrity for assessing biological condition of wadeable streams in the Black Warrior River system, Alabama. Bulletin 169, Geol. Survey of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL. Onorato, D., K. R. Marion and R. A. Angus. 1998. Longitudinal variations in the ichthyological assemblages of the upper Cahaba River: Possible effects of urbanization in a watershed. J. Freshwater Ecology 13:139-154. Pierson, J. M., W. M. Howell, R. A. Stiles, M. F. Mettee, P. E. O’Neil, R. D. Suttkus, and J. S. Ramsey. 1989. Fishes of the Cahaba River System in Alabama. Bulletin 1 34, Geol. Survey of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL. 43 Upper Cahaba River Fishes Shepard, T. E., P. E. O’Neil, S. W. McGregor, M. F. Mettee, and S. C. Harris. 1997. Biomonitoring and water-quality studies in the upper Cahaba River drainage of Alabama, 1989-94. Bulletin 165, Geol. Survey of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL. Smith, D. G. 2001. Pennak’s freshwater invertebrates of the United States, Porifera to Crustacea. John Wiley & Sons, New York. Thorp, J. H. and A. P. Covich, eds. 1991. Ecology and classification of North American freshwater invertebrates. Academic Press, San Diego, CA. Wiggins, G. B. 1996. Larvae of the North American caddisfly genera (Trichoptera), 2“^ ed. Univ. of Toronto Press, Toronto, Canada. 44 Davenport, et al. APPENDIX 1 22 . Goodncr Mountain Road (GM) RM 189.6 ^••Deerfoot Parkway (DF) RM 186.5 .y<-Grants Mill Road (GR) rm 161.3 .. Caldwell Mill Road (CM) ..••;;!- Riverford Drive (RD) ' the WWTP (GP) Below the WWTP (DN) t^'.—Chace Lake Country Club (CL) Bains Bndge (BB) Hoover High School (HH) •Deep Pool (DP) Highway 52 Bridge (52) Piper Bndge (PB) Highway 26 (26) . . Highway 82 Ccntrevillc (CE) 0 5 10 ' I I I miles RM 144.9 RM 141.5 RM 138.9 RM 138.6 RM 137.3 RM 136.8 RM 134.3 RM 131.2 RM 127.0 RM 95.8 RM89J RM81.2 Study sites on the upper Cahaba River, with abbreviations and “river miles” from the confluence with the Alabama River. 45 Davenport, et al. APPENDIX 2 IBI Metric Scoring Criteria for the Upper Cahaba River System in Alabama (modified after O’NeU [2002]). Scoring Criteria Category Metric Watershed Size 5 3 1 1. Nondier of q)ecies <10 mi* >11 7-11 <7 10-250 mi* >18 9-18 <9 >250 mi* >22 14-22 <14 2. Nomber (rf darter <10 mi* >1 1 0 C species 10-250 mi* >3 2-3 <2 o •a >250 mi* >5 3-5 <3 1 •g 3. Number of minnow <10 mi* >4 2-4 <2 species 10-250 mi* >6 3-6 <3 >250 mi* >9 4-9 <4 c3 4. Number of sunfish <10 mi* >2 1-2 0 a> q}ecies 10-250 mi* >3 1-3 0 Q >250 mi* >4 2-4 <2 3 5. Number of suckm* <10 mi* >1 1 0 1 L species 10-250 mi* >2 1-2 0 V3 >250 mi* >3 2-3 <2 6. Number of inbderant <500 mi* >1 1 0 ^)ecies >500 mi* >3 1-3 0 7. Proportitm as sunfislKS all sizes <15% 15-35% >35% G C 8. Prcqportion as omnivoFK all sizes <10% 10-30% >30% 1 and herbivores 9. Proportion as all sizes >40% 20-40% <20% a insectivorous Qininids ■ja & 10. Proportion of t<^ all sizes >2% 0.5-2% <0.5% t- camivoies 03 U 1 1. Nund)ar collected per <100 mi* >250 100-250 <100 hour >100 mi* >400 100-400 <100 X 12. Percent anomalies all sizes <2% 2-5% >5% < 46 Upper Cahaba River Fishes APPENDIX 3 The following table is a comparison of O’Neil’s (2002) IBI ratings (using minnow seines plus electroshocker and multiple-person collecting teams) with those obtained by us (using minnow seines only and two-person collecting teams). Six of the nine sites sampled in common (1-59 [our Deerfoot site], Grant’s Mill, Bain’s Bridge, Highway 52, Piper Bridge, and Centreville) received identical IBI ratings from both research groups. Eight of O’Neil’s sites rated either Fair or Good; one site, Altadena, rated Poor. All nine of our sites rated Fair or Good. Site O’Neil IBI Rating, 2002 Davenport et al., 2001-03' 1-59 (Deerfoot) Good Good Grant’s Mill Good Good Caldwell Mill Good Fair Altadena (Riverford) Poor Fair Bain’s Bridge Fair Fair Highway 52 Fair Fair Piper Bridge Fair Fair Riverbend/Bibb Co 26 Good Fair Centreville Good Good 'Based on average scores from two to four sampling seasons 47 Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 1, January 2005. ACTIVITY OF CYTOCHROME P-450 IN XENOPUS LAEVIS EMBRYOS AS DETERMINED BY MODIFIED ENZYME ASSAY Greg Gibson and James Rayburn 700 Pelham Rd. N. Jacksonville Sate University Biology Department Jacksonville, AL 36265 ABSTRACT Cytochrome P-450 is an important en2yme involved in detoxifieation of xenobiotics. The objective of these experiments was to measure its activity in early stage Xenopus laevis (South African clawed frog) embryos. In order to evaluate activity of cytochrome P-450 an enzymatic assay was used which measures the formaldehyde produced by available Cytochrome P-450 when aminopyrine is added as a substrate. Xenopus embryos were collected at 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96-hour intervals, and frozen in minimum volume Tris- HCL buffer solution. Frozen samples were thawed, homogenized and centrifuged at 9000Xg. The supernatant was collected and diluted to 0.2 ml with Tris-HCL buffer solution if needed. These S-9 (supernatant 9000Xg) preparations were then aliquoted into five test tubes that contained a prepared reaction mixture that served as a Metabolic Activation System (MAS). The reaction mixture used contained an NADPH generator system consisting of NADPH, gIucose-6-phosphate, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and magnesium chloride. Aminopyrine was used as the substrate in this system. A modified NASH assay was used to measure formaldehyde produced from aminopyrine using a UV-visible spectrophotometer at 412 nm. Following this, the remaining sample from S-9 was measured for protein. Results demonstrate activity ranging between 4.5 and 9.0 pM formaldehyde/min/mg. INTRODUCTION The cytochrome P-450 family contains a wide range of isoenzymes that metabolize over 200,000 substrates (Lewis et al., 1998). Cytochrome P-450 plays a critical role in detoxification and is among the most important of all the phase one biotransforming enzymes due to its versatility and large number of substrates (Klassen, 2001). Functionally, cytochrome P-450 serves as a monooxygenase by binding a single oxygen molecule to substrate and reducing the other Oxygen to water using NADPH. In mammals and other vertebrates the cytochrome P-450 system is used to oxidize a wide range of endogenous and exogenous compounds including fatty acids, steroids, drugs and pollutants (Geng et al., 1 997). Due to the wide utilization of cytochrome P-450, its role in the biotransformation of xenobiotics and developmental biology has been the subject of investigation (Roos et al., 1 999). However, the ontogeny of cytochrome P-450 through 96 hours in Xenopus laevis 48 Cytochrome P-450 embryos is not yet fully understood (Roos et al., 1999). Currently there is interest in further discerning the role of cytochrome P-450 in the embryonic development (Roos et al., 1999). The developmental process is inherently complicated, making a clear picture of the developmental role played by cytochrome P-450 difficult. A recent study has shown that cytochrome P-450s are expressed during early Xenopus embryogenesis and play an important role in gastrulation by regulating retinoic acid homeostasis (Roos et al., 1 999). The detection of cytochrome P-450 as an indicator of environmental toxicity has also been the focus of recent research (Lochmiller et al., 1999). Wild rats have been shown to react to certain environmental toxins with increased hepatic cytochrome P-450 levels (Lochmiller et al., 1999). Further studies involving the induction of cytochrome P-450 could be useful in identifying other substrates for cytochrome P-450 enzymes. Frog Embryo Teratogenesis Assay-Xenopus (FETAX) is a 96 hr bioassay used to determine the developmental toxicity of chemicals and mixtures in Xenopus embryos (ASTM, 1990). FETAX has been used with an exogenous metabolic activation system to identify chemicals that are pro-teratogens or chemicals inactivated by cytochrome P-450 (Fort et al., 1993; Rayburn et al., 1995). This system was chosen because the activity of cytochrome P- 450 is thought to be very low in Xenopus embryos (Bantle et al., 1990). Therefore, an objective of this study was to estimate the cytochrome P-450 activity in Xenopus embryos using the same techniques used with the exogenous metabolic activation system of FETAX (Fort et al., 1998). The FETAX system measures formaldehyde production from aminopyrine in tissues that have had cytochrome P-450 induced by a specific chemical (Bantle et al., 1 990). A second objective was to estimate cytochrome P-450 activity in different age embryos to help understand the development of the cytochrome P-450 system in early Xenopus embryos. MATERIALS AND METHODS Animal Care Mature Xenopus laevis were purchased from Xenopus 1 (Dexter, Michigan). Adults were fed high protein fish food. They were cycled through 12 H light/dark and maintained at 18-24°C. Males and females were fed high protein fish pellets (1/4 inch) daily. Frogs were maintained in recirculating tanks filled with dechlorinated water, and filters and tanks were cleaned every 2-6 weeks (Bantle et al., 1 990). Embryo Collection Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (300-600 units) was injected into the dorsal lymph- sac to induce amplexus in adult Xenopus (Bantle and Sabourin 1991). Embryos were collected in a false-bottom breeding chamber, transferred to a 125 ml Erlenmeyer flask and dejellied with 2% cysteine (Bantle and Sabourin 1991). Embryos were grown in FETAX solution composed of 10.695 mM NaCl, 1.143 mM NaHCOs, 0.402 mM KCl, 0.135 mM CaCb, 0.360 mM CaS04, 2H2O and 0.623 mM MgS04 per liter of distilled or deionized water, pH 7.6-7.9 (Bantle and Sabourin 1991). Samples of 100 embryos were collected at 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours after amplexus, placed in 2.2 ml cryovials with a minimum volume of 0.05M Tris HCL buffer solution and frozen at -70° C until prepared for S-9 extraction. S~9 Preparation For S-9 preparation, samples from each collection time were individually removed and transferred to a glass low volume homogenizer, kept at 4 C°, and homogenized. Samples 49 Gibson and Rayburn were then transferred to labeled micro-centrifiige tubes and centrifuged at 900Xg for 10 min and 9000Xg for 15 minutes (Bantle., et al. 1990). The supernatant contaira’ng membrane bound cytochrome P-450 was then removed and its volume recorded. If volume was less than 0.2 ml then Tris-HCL (0.05M) solution was added to bring the volume up to 0.2 mis (the minimum volume needed). Protein Assay Total protein in S-9 extracts was estimated using Sigma Diagnostics “Protein Assay Kit” with bovine serum albumin as a standard. Absorbance was measured for each sample at 750 nm. Modified Enzyme Assay The reaction mixture used to estimate cytochrome P-450 activity was modified from Bantle and coworkers (1991). The reaction mbcture consisting of 5 mM glucose-6-phosphate (126 pi of 840 mM glucose-6-phosphate), 0.4 mM NADPH (3360 pi of 2.5 mM NADPH), 20 mM magnesium chloride (178 pi of 235 mM MgCl2), 8 mM Aminopyrine (3780 pi of lOmM aminopyrine) and 10 units of gIucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase was mixed with 9129 pi of buffer 1 in a 125 ml Erlenmeyer flask. The reaction buffer was then aliquoted into 6 labeled sample tubes at 2900 pi per tube and 100 pi of S-9 sample were added to each. The sample tubes were then incubated at 37° C for 10 min. Two sets of microcentrifuge tubes were labeled (Reaction Blank, 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 H) had 1 ml from each tube was placed in their respective vials, creating a replicate measurement. To each 2 ml microcentrifuge tube 1.2 ml of 10% trichloroacetic acid was added to stop the reaction and precipitate the proteins. Microcentrifuge tubes were then centrifuged at 12,000Xg for 20 minutes. After this, 2 ml clear supernatant were removed and placed in labeled capped tubes. N-demethylase activity was estimated by a procedure modified from Nash (1995) and Lucier et al. (1971), using a reagent consisting of 5.838 M Ammonium Acetate, 0.059 mM Acetyl Acetone and 0.261 N Acetic Acid that was pH adjusted to 7.6. One ml of Nash reagent was added to each 2 ml sample, and the tubes were incubated in a 60° C water bath for 10 minutes. Reaction mixtures were then removed and the absorbance was measured @412 nm. N-demethylase activity was expressed as pM formaldehyde formed / minute / mg protein. Statistical analysis Four separate experiments were performed using embryos from four different clutches. Means and standard deviations for N-demethylase values obtained for samples representing the five ages of embryos were calculated for each sample and a 2-way ANOVA was used to determine differences between sample and experiments. Tukey’s multiple comparison test was used to determine if any sample was significantly different from another. RESULTS Initial experiments were conducted using 20 egg samples (data not shown). Through two consecutive experiments, final activity values were not discemable. This led to greater number of eggs being used in order to improve the sensitivity of the assay. A sample size of 50 Cytochrome P-450 100 embryos was determined to be the minimum size allowable for detection of cytochrome P-450. The protein content for all samples was between 13,41 and 53.11 pg/egg (Table 1). The average S-9 extractable protein for time 0, 24, 48, 72, and 96 Hour was 30.87 pg/egg, 26.17 pg/egg, 30.48 pg/egg, 31.03 pg/egg and 28.14 pg/egg, respectively. The protein concentration was variable with standard deviation between 8.2 and 12.4. Experiments appeared more consistent within experimental preparations of S-9. Overall the extractable protein per individual appeared independent of age. The highest mean activity for all four experiments occurred at the 96-hour interval (Table 2). The second highest mean activity occurred at day zero. The mean activities for 48- hour and 72-hour samples were roughly the same. The lowest mean activity occurred at the 24-hour interval. The difference between four experiments is not statistically significant (one factor of the two-factor analysis, p=0.101). The 2-factor analysis shows time of development as being statistically different only between the 96 and 24-hour intervals of 2.742 pM formaldehyde/min/mg (p<0.05) (Figure 1 ). The assay was used on two liver samples taken from an adult Xenopus laevis to act as a positive control (data not shown). The liver samples indicated a mean activity of 10.49 pM and 25.37pM formaldehyde/min/mg. The samples were more variable, but indicated that the assay was detecting Cytochrome P-450. Table 1. Amount (pg) of protein / egg from the S-9 centrifugation Hour 0 24 48 72 96 Exp. #1 13.41 19.84 19.71 N.A*. 16.59 Exp. #2 42.89 21.53 53.11 39.06 39.78 Exp. #3 34.13 48.47 34.18 31.44 35.79 Exp.#4 29.09 14.84 14.93 22.60 20.41 Mean 29.88 26.17 30.48 31.03 28.14 STD 12.37 15.14 17.16 8.24 11.36 *N.A.= Not Available Exp. Represent separate clutches of embryos and separate determinations of protein. 51 Gibson and Rayburn Table 2. Activity of Xenopus of Different ages in pM Formaldehyde/min/mg for each experiment. Hour 0 24 48 72 96 Exp. #1 4.51 5.32 6.60 N.A. 9.00 Exp. #2 6.51 7.40 5.78 7.26 8.06 Exp. #3 8.34 2.97 5.64 5.44 6.53 Exp.#4 6.19 3.88 5.56 4.81 6.95 Mean (from ANOVA) 6.305 4.895 5.934 5.898 7.638 STD (from ANOVA) 0.468 0.468 0.468 0.557 0.468 *N.A.= Not Available Exp. Represent separate clutches of embryos and separate determinations of activity. DISCUSSION The total S-9 extractable protein showed relatively high degree variability with values ranging between 13.41 and 53.1 Ipg/egg. This could be attributable to differences among individual clutches of embryos collected at different times. Differences between extracts could also be the case. As experimentation progressed, the technique used was also refined which could explain variability. The amount of S-9 extractable protein did not correlate with respect to age of embryo/ tadpole development. This is somewhat surprising because as the embryo develops size changes and yolk is utilized. The energy is used to metabolize proteins and promote development. Given this, a change in extractable protein was expected if protein is not introduced from an outside source, and no feeding occurred during the experiment. It may have been the variability that did not allow us to see the changes. There are many compounds known to inhibit as well as induce the production of cytochrome P-450 (Klassen, 2001). This assay, using Xenopus embryos, could be used to detect these or other chemicals for their capacity to affect the regulation of cytochrome P-450 activity. Future studies, would test use of compounds or mixtures suspected of altering cytochrome activity would need to be preformed at the 96-Hour interval. This is the time frame in which the highest overall activity is seen, and still be within a standard FETAX assay. If a chemical altered the activity of cytochrome P-450 by 2.47 pM Formaldehyde/min/mg or greater then it would be significantly different from a control. 52 Cytochrome P-450 Overall Mean C P-450 Activity for All Experiments Hours of Development Figure 1 . Mean activity of cytochrome P-450 in Xenopus embryos for each of the 5 days. Error bars indicate standard deviation. *statistically significant difference between averages at p<0.05 The average activity is lower than activity in liver samples treated by the same experiment. This is expected because the highest concentrations of cytochrome P-450 are found in liver cells (Parkinson, 2001). The demonstration of these activities in both liver and embryo samples show that the modified Nash assay can be used to asses the activity of cytochrome P-450 in Xenopus laevis and presumably could be used in other organisms. Due to its wide variety substrates, cytochrome P-450 is considered an indicator of pollutant chemicals if it’s activity can be shown to be higher than would be expected from natural variation (Lochmiller et al., 1999). The overall trend of activity illustrated in the bar graph shows an initial level of activity at time zero that drops off during the first 24 hours and gradually increases through 96 hours. This trend supports the tentative hypothesis that the initial level of cytochrome P-450 (time 0) is a reserve in the yolk and is not produced during the first 24 hours of development. 53 Gibson and Rayburn As rapid cell division begins to occur the residual cytochrome P-450 is exhausted, but production of new cytochrome P-450 is eclipsed by the extensive utilization of the genome associated with rapid cell division occurring in the first four days of Xenopus development. The increase in activity seems to correlate with the gradual slowing of development and organogenesis. A test of the activity of the oocytes would further evaluate this hypothesis. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank The Jacksonville Sate University faculty and student research Grants, Alabama Academy of Science and the Jacksonville State University Biology department for supporting this work. The authors would also like to thank Dr.s Mijitaba Hamissou and LaJoyce Debro for their guidance and we thank: Cody St. John, Andrea Wolfe, Randa Aladdin and Kristina Griebling for assistance with embryo collection. LITERATURE CITED Bantle, J.A., J.N. Dumont, R. Finch and G. Linder and C.W. Qualls Jr. (1990) Atlas of abnormalities; a Guide for the Performance of FETAX. Oklahoma State University Publications Department, Stillwater, OK. Bantle, J.A., Sabourin, T.A. (1991). Standard Guide for Conducting the Frog Embryo Teratogenesis Assay-Xenopus (FETAX), pp. 1-11. American Society for Testing and Materials Special Publication E1439-91. Philadelphia: American Society for Testing and Materials. Fort, Douglas J., Stover, Enos L., Rayburn, James R., Hull, Mendi, Bantle, John A. (1993). Evaluation of the Developmental Toxicity of Trichloroethylene and Detoxification of Metabolites Using Xenopus. Teratogenesis. Carcinogenesis, and Mutagenesis 13: 35- 45. Geng, Jun, Strobel, Henry W. (1997). Expression and induction of Cytochrome P-450 lAl and P-450 2D subfamily in the rat glioma C6 cell line. Brain Research 774: 11-19. Fort, D.J., Stover, E.L., Bantle, J.A., Rayburn, J.A., Hull, M.A., Finch, R.A., Burton, D.T., Turley, S.D., Dawson, D.A. (1998). Phase III: Interlaboratory study of Frog Embryo Teratogenesis Assay-Xenopus (FETAX). Phase II: Inter laboratory validation of an exogenous Metabolic Activation System for FETAX. Drug and Chemical Toxicology 2ii_No. 1 pp. 1-14. Hara, Masayuki. (2000), Application of P-450’s for biosensing: combination of biotechnology and electrochemistry. Materials Science and Engineering 12: 103- 109. Klassen, Curtis D. iCassaret and Doull 's Toxicology. McGraw Hill 2001 . Lewis, D., Watson, E., Lake, B.G. (1998), Evolution of the Cytochrome P-450 super-family: sequence alignments and pharmocogenetics. Mutation Research 410: 245-270. Lochmiller, R.L., McMurry S.T., Mcbee, K., Rafferty D.P., Lish, J.W. (1999). Seasonal hepatic Cytochrome P-450 induction in cotton rats (Sigmon hispidus) inhabiting petrochemical waste sites. Environmental pollution 105: 191-196. Lucier, G. McDaniel, 0.,Brubaker, P., Klien, R. (1971). Effects of methylmercury hydroxide on rat liver microsomal enzymes. Chemical and Biological Interactions 4: 265-280 Rayburn, James R., Bantle, John A., Qualls, Charles W. Jr., Freidman, Mendel. (1995) Glucose-6-phosphate and NADP protection of the developmental toxicity caused by*- chaconine. Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology 33: 1021-1025. 54 Cytochrome P-450 Nash, T. (1955). The colorimetric estimation of formaldehyde by means of the Hantzsch reaction. Biochemistry 55: 4 1 2-4 1 6. Roos, K., Sonneveld, E., Compaan, B., Berge, D., Durston, A.J., Saag, V. (1999) Expression of Retinoic acid 4-hydroxylase (CYP26) during mouse and Xenopus laevis embryogenesis. Mechanisms of development 82: 205-2 1 1 . 55 Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 1, January 2005. Dr. Ada Long and Dr. Dail Mullins Directors UAB Honors Program Biographical information; Dr. Ada Long, Professor of English, is the founding Director of the UAB Honors Program, which is in its 21®' year. The Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop, a summer insti¬ tute for high school students, has been created in her honor because of her lifelong advocacy for com¬ munity outreach and her beliefs in the enduring significance of literature. Dr. Dail Mullins, PhD. in Biochemistry, is Associate Director of the UAB Honors program. He is an advocate for science literacy and science education. Ada Long Today we brought the most recent syllabus for the annual fall-term interdisciplinary course offered by the UAB Honors Program. Every other year this 9-semester- hour, team- taught course has a science emphasis, and this year the topic was “Sightings: What We See and Why We See It.” We also brought a set of twenty projects that students were assigned in the course. I am going to do a Power Point presentation about our program in 5 minutes, really lickety-split — so you are going to have to read fast. Dail will then focus on science in our Honors Program. If Alabama and Auburn are (as Bob Halli and Jack Rogers pointed out) an apple and an orange, UAB is a pie or maybe a kumquat. Our program is, I think, one of the few in the country and certainly the only one in the state that replaces the core curriculum so that we have a total alternative curriculum. Figure 1 gives some sense of how we do it. We have a team-taught interdisciplinary course that is new each year. We design an interdisciplinary course every fall term that combines the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, and that often includes doctors, engineers, and community members. Our students come from all ma¬ jors offered at UAB. As Figure 1 also shows, our program is designed to be small, so we have to reject a lot of students, unfortunately. That’s the least favorite part of my job. Figure 2 shows our newly renovated Spencer Honors House, where all our courses are taught and which offers numerous recreational as well as educational facilities; it is open to students night and day, 24-7. Figure 3 shows some titles of our interdisciplinary courses, the 9-hour courses where we pretty much take over students’ minds and souls for Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the fall term. Also shown are sample topics of our honors seminars, also new each year. The student-teacher ratio is always 1 5 to 1 whether in seminars or in the interdisciplinary course. Steven Black and our previous Truman winner are teaching an honors seminar at UAB next year (as well as in Tuscaloosa) so we share some resources statewide. Figure 4 shows a few application statistics just to let you know what the application rate is and the acceptance rate. Members of the Honors Council interview all applicants, and the interviews figure heavily in the selection decisions. This year, I think we already have over 220 applicants, so we are getting to a point to where we are taking roughly every 1 out of every 2-1/2 applicants. 56 UAB Honors Figure 5 shows the disciplines of our students. You can see that it is fairly equally di¬ vided among humanities, natural sciences and mathematics, and social and behavioral sci¬ ences, with always a good representation from engineering, business, education, health-related professions, and so forth. Because one of our major commitments is ethnic diversity (Figure 6), our selection process works extremely well. It means we have to be untraditional in a lot of ways, espe¬ cially in our admission standards, but it has been the key strength of our program. One of our surveys of over 401 alumni shows that diversity is the feature they most value about their ex¬ perience at UAB and the Honors Program. You can see in Figures 7 and 8 that our admissions criteria are different from those of most other honors programs. The median ACT is 29. The current range of ACT scores is 17- 36. We have found that there is not very much difference in the average grades of students with very different average ACT scores, and some of our most distinguished alumni/ae scored very low on the ACT. Among students who scored 1 8 or lower, for instance, one has an MD from Washington University and another has a PhD from CUNY and is working at NIH. Our students are extremely active in extracurricular activities, many of which (Figure 9) are sponsored annually by the Honors Program. We sponsor about 60-70 extracurricular events each year, some of which are listed there. We also have a huge emphasis on community service (Figure 10). These activities listed here are ongoing and substantial commitments of the Honors Program. Most importantly, we have a reflective lecture series so the students think about the service they are doing, how it might potentially harm as well as help people, and what its social context is. In figures 12 and 13 you can see our retention data since the program began. Roughly 80% of the students who enroll in the Honors Program graduate from it, and another 7% com¬ plete many of the Honors requirements before graduating from UAB. In Figures 12, you can see what our students do after they graduate, roughly divided between graduate school, professional school, and regular, permanent employment. Medical schools are a biggy, but not as big as you might have expected. Figure 13 shows some of the graduate and professional schools our students have at¬ tended. They include Oxford. Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and a large variety of different graduate schools. Figure 14 points out the national post-baccalaureate scholarships of UAB Honors Pro¬ gram students, including Marshall, Rhodes, Goldwater, and Truman. As Figure 15 indicates, extramural funding and alumni giving are crucial to our pro¬ gram and have taken more and more of my time every year. Mostly within the last five years we have brought 4 million dollars into UAB, close to 4-1/2 million now. Finally, Figures 16a and 16b list some of the national activities of our program’s ad¬ ministration and students. So that is a really fast overview of the UAB Honors Program. Now Dail is going to talk about how science fits into it. I would just add before he speaks that most honors pro¬ grams have the hardest time adapting science to an interdisciplinary context, so we (especially Dail) have really worked hard on making science a strong and successfril component of our program. 57 UAB Honors Dail Mullins As Ada mentioned, 18 of the 33 hours of honors coursework are satisfied by two nine- semester-hour, team-taught interdisciplinary courses that are offered each fall semester. No course is ever repeated, at least with respect to content and guest faculty participation, al¬ though we will occasionally borrow the same course title. Since 1995, these fall semester in¬ terdisciplinary courses have alternated between a focus on the arts and the humanities one year and the natural sciences the next, with the social and behavioral sciences incorporated in either when appropriate. Figure 17 lists the science-focused courses we have offered in the program since 1996. “Science and Religion on a Pale Blue Dot,” of course, I borrowed from the title of one of Carl Sagan’s books. Dr. Mike Sloane, the incoming Director and who is with us today, taught in that course. Two years later we did “Galileo, Newton, Darwin and Einstein.” In 2000, we taught what was probably our most ambitious science course ever: “The Environ¬ ment - Earth, Air, Fire and Water.” We took the entire class of 100 students to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab for a week, and I know Judy [Stout] remembers that well. And two years ago — in what was my last year of involvement with a science-based course — we did a topic that is dear to my heart, “Origins.” We talked about modem scientific models of the origin of the universe, the earth and solar system, life, the human species, and consciousness. The hand-out I gave you includes the syllabus for the “Origins” course, and in your leisure you can thumb through it to see what kinds of lectures we offered in an interdiscipli¬ nary course that involved the participation of three scientists, but also a theologian from Sam- ford University and two English literary professors. There is also a kind of laboratory compo¬ nent to all of these science courses as well. As I mentioned before, there are about 100 stu¬ dents in each class. We divide them up into twenty groups of five each and assign each group a research project to do on their own time and with their own resources. If they need to pur¬ chase something for their project that is not too expensive, we can give them a little money from the honors program “slush fund,” but they are otherwise expected to use their own re¬ sources to complete the project. If you look at the second handout I gave you, you will see the nature of the kinds of research projects that we assign our students. Many of these I pulled from Scientific American’s, “Amateur Scientist” column, and Dr. Tom Wdowiak, an astro¬ physicist at UAB, has been a great help in suggesting and designing projects. But it has been a pretty successful format, and 1 think the students learn a lot about how scientific projects are conducted — more so than with standard cookbook laboratory exercises. I will leave it there and you can ask any questions later. 58 UAB Honors Founded 1983 Replaces State Core Curriculum Requirements except for Math Requires 33 hours of horK>rs courseworic: 2 9-hour interdiscipHnary courses 9 3-hour seminars (with 3 of the seminars replaceable by disciplinary honors courses outside of the program) Admits 50 studerrts per year (up from 35 before 1999) Fig. 1 The UAB Hor>ors Program is located In the Spencer Horfors House (1190 Tenth Avenue South), the site of all courseworfc and extracunicuiar activides, available to students 24 hours a day every day. A recent gift from WHIIam M. and Virginia 8. Sper>cer III has provided fundir>g to completely rerK>vate the House and reconstruct the ^ehor. Fig. 2 Four example* out of 21 interdisciplinary course* • ‘‘VVhatWorXi*’' • ’‘The ErMronment: Earth. Air, Fire, and Water” • “The Nature/Nurlure Debate” « '‘Galiieo, Newton, Darwin, and Einatein” Eight example* out of 30(H seminar* • “Th* Literature and Cinema of Revenge ’ • "The World of Odysseus" • "Disease* of the Tropics: New and Reemerging Threat*” • "Evolution of the Vertebrate Brain” « "The Lure and Lore of Numbers” • "Philosophy and Physics” • "Representing the Holocaust” « "Electronic Publishing, intellectual Property, and the Internet" Brochures distributed 7,253 Applications distributed 1,746 Applications received 204 Students interviewed 183 Students accepted 90 Students enrolled 52 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 59 UAB Honors Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Median ACT Average ACT 29 28.3 Current Range of ACT: 17-36 Average UAB GPA Average Honors GPA 3.33 3.48 ACT Scores Number of Students 30 and above 86 20 and below 8 26 and above 156 25 and below 39 Fig. 7 ACT Scores Number of Students 30 and above 11 (8%) 20 and below 8 (10%) 26 and above 21 (7%) 25 and below 22 (12%) No ACT 15(28%) Fig. 8 60 UAB Honors * First Ttiursday Lecture Series * Fall Term Tuesday Night Film Series * Monthly Writers' Series » Ireland Scholar Lecture r Parents Day « Arrington Middle School Barbecues (2) * Holiday Fest * Orientation Barbecue * Honors Day * Intramural Softball I Volleyball / Basketball /FootbalV Soccer Teams Total of 69 extracurricular events in 2003-2004 Fig. 9 « Bread and Roses • Habitat for Humanity • Crisis Center • Recycling Center • Project Breakout • Arrington Middle School • Into the Streets • Big Brothers/Big Sisters Fig. 10 Total students enrolled 760 (1983 O 2003) Total students enrolled 760 (1983 O 2003) Students graduated with honors 400 (all honors requirements completed) Students enrolled In 2002-2003 216 RETENTION/GRADUATION RATE IN PROGRAM; 80% RETENTION/GRADUATION RATE AT UAB; 87% Fig. 11 Graduate School 28% Medical School 20% Temporary Employment 8% Law, Optometry, or Dental School 12% Regular or Permanent Employment 32% Fig. 12 61 UAB Honors Amartcan UmvwvKy Auburn Unbwatty Auburn Morttgumary ■rlgbam Young UntwarvKy City Univaralty of Naw York Columbia UniMralty Cumbactand Law School OaPaul University Emory Univarsity Forest instRuto for Professional Psychology Oaorga Washington University Oaorgetown University Msrvard Untverstty Indiana University Johns Hopkins Loulsitna State Univerelty Loyola University UCP Hshnsmann Meharry Mississippi Stale University New York Univerelty Nove Univerelty Oxford University Pann State University Peppanttne Ross UnlvsTBity (Oorramce) Semford University Sen Prarwisco Stata University Scripps Institute of Ocasnogrs^y South Taxes Cottage of Law Southwestern BapOsi Thaoioglcai Seminary Spring Htti Coltege Statson University SUNY BuiTaio UAB Uniwsity of Aiabsne University of Arizona UnivBfSity of Colorado UftiversRy of Georgia umvenlty of Houston UrHversity of Illinois at Chicago Urtiverslty of Wlnolt at Urbana- CharTk>algn University of Loulav^Ha University of Michigan University of Minnesota University of Mlsaourt University of MorttavsNo University of North Atabsms University of North Carolina. Chapel Hlli University of Pittsburgh Univerelty of South Alabama Univsrsity of South Cerollna University of Tannsases University of Tanrtesses/Marrtphls Health SclSTKe Cantor University of Texas. ArHngton University of Texas, Austin University of Vermont University of Virginia University of Vi^consln Vmderbllt University Washington and Lea Washington University Wright Stata University Yale University • Alpha Lambda Delta Graduate FellowBhip (1) • British Marshall Scholarship (1) • Conference USA Post-Graduate Scholarship (2) - Fulbrtght (2) • Gates Millennium Scholarship (1) • Goidwater Scholarship (2) • National Science Foundation Fellowship (2) • NCAA Postgraduate Fellowship (1) ■ Phi Kappa Phi Scholarship (5) • Phizer Undergraduate Fellowship (1) • Rhodes Scholarship (1) • Rotary international Undergraduate Scholarship (4) • Soros Scholarship ) < Truman Scholarship (3) • USA Today All-USA Collocate Academic First Team (2); Third Team (2) Fig. 13 Fig. 14 Annual Giving $202,829 Scholarship Endowment Gifts and Pledges $868,274 Scholarship Gifts $153,611 Activities Endowment $1,000,000 Capital Gift $2,000,000 TOTAL $4,224,614 Fig. 15 ActMttBB Of the Honort Director: * Past President of the National Collegiate Honors Council (representing 500^ honors colleges and programs) « Past President of the Soutiiern Regional Honors Council * Co-Founder of the Alabama Honors Council (with Auburn and UAH) * Author of The Handbook for Honors Administrators and co- editor/author of Place as Text Approaches to Active Learning * Paid consultant for 20 honors programs at (for Instance) Ctemson, James Madison University, Metropolitan College of Omver, University of Alabama. West Chester University, Stillman CoHege, Eastern Kentucky University, etc. Activities of the A>soclate DIfector « Published a two-article sequence on honors science courses in the National Honors Report * Chairs the NCHC Science and Math Committee ActivitieB of the Honor* Students: * 319 have attended honors conferences outside of Alabama * 110 have given academic presentations at honors conterences * 14 have atterided honors semesters (in Czechoslovakia, New York City, El Paso, Greece, the Grand Canyon, and Spain) * 3 have been nationally elected student members of the NCHC executive committee, and one has been stedent vice president of the SRHC Fig. 16a 62 UAB Honors UAB has hosted one SRHC conference (600 participants), three state conferences, and the first University of Alabama System Honors Research Day UAB is the headquarters of the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, with Ada Long, Dail Mullins, and Rusty Rushton serving as co-editors. In the fall of 2000, UAB sponsored a National Honors Semester at the University of AlcalS in Madrid, Spain, for 36 students from Honors Programs throughout the U.S. In April of 2003, Mullins and Long organized and taught an NCHC Faculty Institute on “Island as Text” on Skidaway Island, OA Fig. 16b The Science-Focused Courses 1996 Science and Religion on a Pale Blue Dot 1998 Galileo. Newton, Darwin and Einstein 2000 The Environment: Earth, Air, Fire and Water 2002 Origins Fig. 17 63 Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 1, January 2005. Dr. Jack Rogers University Honors College Auburn University Auburn, AL 36849 Biographical information: Dr. Jack Rogers is Professor of Mathematics and Director of the University Honors College at Auburn University. He received his B.A., M.S, and PhD at the University of Texas, Austin. Graduating in 1966, he taught first at Emory University and then, since 1973, at Auburn. He was one of the original members of the Auburn Honors Council in 1978, and has served as Director of the University Honors College since 1998. I would like to express my appreciation for the invitation to talk about Auburn University Honors College. The program at Auburn began 25 years ago in the School of Arts and Sciences, becoming a university- wide program in the early 1980s. It was named Alabama’s first Honors College in 1 998. Auburn has about 23,000 students, 19,000 of whom are undergraduates. Recent entering Ireshman classes have numbered around 3,700 students. By comparison, the Honors College currently has around 630 students, slightly over 3% of the undergraduate student body. A typical Honors entering freshman class is around 230 students. The minimum requirements for admission to the College for an incoming freshman are an ACT of 29 and a high school GPA of 3.5, Currently enrolled Auburn students can apply if their Auburn GPA is at least 3.4. Every school and college at Auburn has students in Honors. Over a quarter are in Engineering, another quarter are in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, 20% are in the College of Liberal Arts, and 11% in the College of Business. Other schools and colleges contribute smaller percentages. The academic program of the Honors College has two levels, the Junior Program and the Senior Program. Entering Honors freshmen begin in the Junior Program, which is based on Auburn’s Core Curriculum, a program of 41 semester hours of courses in English, mathematics, sciences, humanities, etc., that are required of all undergraduates. The College offers special Honors versions of nearly all the Core courses. These sections are kept small (typically in the range of 25-30 students, compared to regular sections that sometimes number in the hundreds), they emphasize significant student involvement and interaction in the learning process, and they are all taught by professorial level faculty. A major difference between the Honors and non-Honors versions of Core courses involves the students themselves. Honors students are exceptionally well-motivated and they are much better prepared for the college experience than the average student. They want to learn, to ask relevant questions, and to contribute to class discussions. Because of the extra effort these students put into their classes, they get much more out of them. To complete the Junior Program, students must take a minimum of 24 hours of these courses and maintain a 3.2 GPA. While the Junior Program focuses on general Core courses, the Senior Program focuses on the student’s major. There are two options. The non-thesis option requires four upper level courses in the major to be taken as contract courses, that is, the student and the 64 Auburn Honors teacher develop a contract explaining how the course will serve as an Honors experience for the student, perhaps by including a research component where there normally is not one, or deepening or broadening the research component if there is already one. The experience may include a class presentation, developing a web page, or any number of other options. Our students have shown considerable originality in this regard. The contract must be approved by the Honors Office. The thesis option is essentially an undergraduate research experience, mentored by a faculty member in the major department, and resulting in a written thesis following the formatting guidelines of the Graduate School. A bound copy of the thesis is placed in the stacks of the library, available to be checked out. Most of our students who complete the Senior Program choose the thesis option, since they are aware that graduate and professional schools today increasingly favor students who have already participated in a significant research project as undergraduates. Students who complete both the Junior and the Senior Programs with a 3.4 GPA graduate as University Honors Scholars, a distinction that is noted on their permanent record and on their diploma. They are also recognized during graduation. At Auburn, we strive to offer our Honors students many of the benefits of a small college in addition to the array of opportunities available at a large, comprehensive university. As noted earlier, our incoming freshman class is only about 230 of the 3,700 new freshmen at Auburn every year. We offer two special Honors Orientation sessions during the summer for our freshmen, allowing them to get to get acquainted with half of their Honors peers before they come on campus in the fall. Our Honors Mentor Program, run by our Honors Congress, the student representative body for the College, assigns upper-class Honors students to mentor the incoming freshmen. Honors students have priority at the four Honors Residence Halls, which are centrally located on campus. They are not restricted to Honors students, and they are very popular among parents because the large number of Honors students gives them the reputation of offering a more studious atmosphere for impressionable freshmen than many of the other dorms on campus. This is just one way of many that Honors students contribute to the campus community in return for the benefits they enjoy. This is just a quick overview of our program at Auburn. I thank you once again for your attention, and I will leave everything else for the question period. 65 Alabama Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 1, January 2005. John S. Mebane University of Alabama in Huntsville Biographical information: John S. Mebane is Professor of English and Director of the Honors Program at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where he has also served as chair of the English Department and as Associate Dean and Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. He received his B. A. at Presbyterian College and his PhD at Emory University and is author of two books and a number of articles on Shakespeare, Renaissance literature and culture, and literary theory. He served on the committee that designed the UAH Honors Program in 1988, has taught in the program frequently, and has served as Director since 2002. I would like to begin with a brief statement about the role of Honors Programs in the American higher education system. As we all know, state-supported colleges and universities provide academic opportunities at a cost that makes them accessible to a very wide range of students. Honors programs are an important extension of those institutions’ mission to promote egalitarianism; we provide intellectual, cultural and economic opportunities for our most talented and well-prepared students at a cost that is typically much less than that of highly selective private schools, and, for students who go to school in their home state, is less than out-of-state tuition. There is evidence that students who remain in their home state to attend college are more likely to remain there after graduation; one benefit of Honors Programs is that they tend to attract and retain talented students whose gifts will be put to work in Alabama once they have completed school. Alabama does not have a tiered university system to the extent that some other states do. In California, h is much more difficult for students to be accepted at Univ. of California at Berkeley or UCLA than at the California State system, even though the California State system is excellent. There are similar situations in North Carolina, Virginia, and some other states. Honors programs enable universities that serve a fairly broad range of students to have two or three levels of instruction: developmental courses; standard courses; and an Honors program. Entering freshmen at UAH are invited to join the Honors Program if they have a 28 composite on the ACT or a 1200 on the SAT plus a 3.5 grade point average in high school. Students who have taken at least twelve semester hours at UAH and have attained a grade point average of 3.3 may also be admitted. Honors curricula typically fall into two categories. One approach is to have a core curriculum that is unique to the Honors Program and substitutes for the usual general education requirements. The alternative is to have fewer courses that are required of all students in the program and to offer more Honors sections in various departments that serve different majors. UAH has chosen the second of these options, in part because it helps us to serve the different needs of students in professional schools-especially engjneering-as well as those in arts and sciences disciplines. Our program has four major components. First, we offer Honors sections of selected freshman and sophomore courses. All incoming freshmen are required to take English 105: Honors English Seminar. This one-semester course fulfills the freshman composition requirement, and it provides the advanced writing and research skills that are the foundation of 66 UAH Honors more advanced Honors course work. Additional freshman and sophomore courses typically offered each year include Honors World Literature, Introduction to Philosophy, Ethics, Introduction to Music Literature, and Honors laboratory sections of Physics and Computer Engineering. Some Honors sections (though not all) are smaller than standard courses, and all are taught by carefully selected full-time faculty. The second component is Honors Forum, a one-semester-hour course that students take four times, typically in the freshman and sophomore years. Honors Forum provides lectures by UAH faculty from virtually all academic departments, as well as by speakers from outside the university. Forum also includes poetry readings, musical performances and other cultural events. Presentations are free and open to the university community and the public, and we often work in partnership with organizations on campus and in the community. Visiting speakers and artists often attend a luncheon and informal discussion with Honors students after the formal presentation. To cite just a few examples, in recent semesters we have had presentations by Mike Durant, renowned for his heroism in the military operations in Somalia that were the subject of the book and film Blackhawk Down; Shelley Stewart, whose rise from a life of severe deprivation and hardship to prominence as one of Alabama’s most successful African-American businessmen is the subject of his recent book. The Road South: and former astronaut and prominent medical researcher Millie Hughes-Fulford, who spoke on her research on osteoporosis in space. UAH faculty have spoken on such topics as international trade, the human genome project, and the challenges of nation building in Iraq. Cultural programs range from a poetry reading by Visiting Eminent Professor Kelly Cherry to a performance and discussion by Joyce Cauthen and The Red Mountain String Band on Alabama’s Old-Time Music heritage. Honors Forum thus exposes students to a very wide array of areas of study, possible careers and intellectual and cultural interests. The third major component of the program is composed of junior-level interdisciplinary seminars and other upper-level Honors courses. To complete the Honors diploma each student must take either two interdisciplinary seminars or one seminar and an upper-level Honors course in the student’s major. Faculty members submit proposals for interdisciplinary seminars, and the Honors Council selects the most promising ones. The course that has been offered most frequently is entitled “Theories of the Universe.” The lead professor is John Dimmock, an eminent physicist and former director of the UAH Center for Applied Optics. Dr. Dimmock assembles a team of six or seven faculty members in science, social science, and the humanities who discuss the major cosmological theories developed by human beings over history, as well as the cultural and psychological implications of those theories. Other recent or forthcoming seminars include classes on “Ethics on the Internet” (team-taught by a computer scientist, a philosopher, and a musician); “The Bible and Western Literature”; “The Emergence of the Global City: Paris, Berlin, Tokyo; and “Civil Rights in Alabama,” a course centered around a series of presentations by prominent leaders of the civil rights movement. Most of the upper-level courses in students’ majors are done by Honors contracts, which are agreements between students and teachers for enhancements of existing courses. Next fall, however, we will offer an Honors section of “Electrical Engineering 300: Circuits,” a course required of all engineering majors. The Honors Senior Project is the capstone of the program. It is an independent research activity conducted in the student’s area of interest and mentored by a faculty advisor. Since UAH has a research establishment that is larger than that of many universities its size, we feel we are well equipped to provide outstanding research opportunities for many of our undergraduates, and the Honors Program takes advantage of those opportunities. 67 UAH Honors When prospective students and parents ask me, “What are the advantages of the Honors Program?” my first response is that it provides genuine, intense intellectual excitement. I believe strongly that the intrinsic value of the enhanced academic experience must be the primary advantage. Secondly, the Honors Program provides a community of students with shared commitments and academic values. We strive to enhance this sense of community through a variety of extracurricular activities. We travel together to meetings such as the Alabama Honors Council convention, and we encourage Honors students to attend academic and cultural events together. Especially noteworthy are the performances by the nationally recognized Shenandoah Shakespeare company that are co-sponsored by the Honors Program each spring at UAH and the increasingly impressive Huntsville Chamber Music Guild. The Honors Program provides a limited number of free tickets to the Chamber Music series, which featured a performance by soprano Marilyn Home in 2003 and will include performances by violinist Itzhak Perlman in 2004 and Cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 2005. In fall, 2004, we will have housing for students in the Honors Program in an Honors section of the North Campus Residence Hall. Among the practical advantages of earning an Honors Diploma is that all Honors course work and the Honors Senior Project are clearly identified on every official transcript. Employers and graduate and professional schools thus receive clear evidence of Honors students’ superior education and achievements. In conclusion, I would re-emphasize that the Honors Program is one of many ways that the University of Alabama in Huntsville strives to provide the appropriate level of instruction for all students, so that each student will have the degree of challenge and the types of academic support services that are right for the individual. 68 Alabama Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 1, January 2005. THE HARTE HONORS CURRICULUM: A SPECIAL PROGRAM AT STILLMAN COLLEGE Dr. Chinita A. Heard Director of Harte Honors College Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Stillman College Tuscaloosa, AL 35403 Email; cheard@.stillman.edu INTRODUCTION In recent years, it has become common practice for colleges and universities to establish honors programs. However, some programs exist without a structured curriculum. At Stillman College, a structured honors curriculum is in place for high achieving students. Stillman, a private historically black liberal arts institution with approximately 1,500 students, has 30 outstanding students who are members of the Harte Honors College. They are the recipients of an honors curriculum that offers an “uncommon opportunity to uncommon students.” The purpose of this paper is to share information regarding the uniqueness of the Harte Honors curriculum. This paper will focus on the establishment of the Harte Honors College, including the selection criteria, purpose and benefits; general education requirements for Harte Honors students; honors courses and descriptions; practical experiences through enriehment activities; graduation requirements; and accomplishments of honors students. This information should help the reader gain insight on how Stillman offers a very structured, managed curriculum for students enrolled in the prestigious Harte Honors College. A significant portion of the information diseussed in this paper is available in sources published by the College, such as brochures and Stillman’s College Catalog for 2003 - 2005. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HARTE HONORS COLLEGE The Harte Honors College was established in 1 998 under the leadership of Dr. Ernest McNealey, the fifth President of Stillman College. The honors college is named after The Harte Family of Texas because of their generous contributions to Stillman College. It was established to provide a highly challenging intellectual atmosphere for outstanding students who are invited to become members. Students who qualify for Harte Honors College are invited to become members regardless of their major. Students have the option of majoring in art, biology, business administration, computer science, elementary education, English, health and physical education, history, mathematics, music, and religion and philosophy. In other words, the Harte Honors College was established as a campus-wide initiative inclusive of all disciplines. 69 Stillman Honors HARTE HONORS SELECTION CRITERIA The Harte Honors College selection criteria include: a completed application with a minimum high school grade point average of A-, minimum SAT of 1150 or ACT of 25, demonstrated success in the arts, strong performance in the sciences, demonstrated leadership ability, and two letters of recommendation. High school seniors who meet these qualifications are invited to apply for membership into the Harte Honors College. Once applications are submitted, the Director of the Harte Honors College meets with an Advisory Committee to review applications and make recommendations regarding eligibility for membership. Upon approval, candidates are notified. Once enrolled, students must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or above. After earning the requisite Stillman grade point average of at least a 3.0 at the end of the fall semester, the Advisory Committee will recommend that an Induction Ceremony be held during the spring semester. At that time, students are officially recognized as members of the Harte Honors College. PURPOSE AND BENEFITS There are a number of advantages to enrolling at Stillman College and being accepted into membership of the Harte Honors College. It provides unique opportunities for high achieving students to participate in rigorous intellectual experiences specifically designed to prepare a new generation of leaders who are expected to become visionaries with a commitment to excellence and leadership. It offers a unique interdisciplinary liberal arts curriculum with innovative coursework ranging from classical languages to advanced research. The courses are designed to stimulate intellectual curiosity, enhance oral and written skills, and to foster the student’s ability to become independent critical thinkers who are able to integrate and analyze knowledge from different viewpoints and perspectives. Honor seminars, in particular, place special emphasis on developing The Scholar, The Scientist, The Artist, The Leader, and The Citizen. These seminars, which have small class sizes, allow students greater interaction with nationally recognized faculty. A unique incentive is that all full-time Stillman students, regardless of membership in Harte Honors, are assigned laptop computers. Therefore, faculty members have the ability to instantly communicate with students through Blackboard Technology within and outside of the classroom. This wireless technology provides greater access for students to log on to the information superhighway to complete assignments, to identify current research, and to explore opportunities for graduate and professional schools. Since Stillman is a liberal arts institution whose purpose is to produce undergraduates who will qualify for admission to and success in graduate and professional schools, Harte Honors students are strongly advised and encouraged to take advantage of campus resources. Stillman provides superior preparation for a graduate and professional education. Assistance is provided with applications for prestigious summer programs, graduate fellowships, and scholarships. The College has a simulated testing program for graduate and professional examinations (GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT). Students may participate in workshops to prepare them for these examinations. These opportunities have proven to be extremely beneficial for all students who take advantage of these resources. Consequently, the College has an excellent track record for students being admitted to graduate and professional schools. The Harte Honors College, in particular, offers an array of additional benefits for its membership. For instance, honors housing allows students the opportunity to live and study 70 Stillman Honors together. This arrangement increases opportunities for ongoing discussions regarding classroom and extracurricular activities. Also, exposure to a variety of cultural, civic, and social activities generates new ideas, provides insight for different ways of viewing the world, and enhances intellectual dialogue within and outside of the classroom. Specific examples of how practical activities help to enhance knowledge and understanding of course content will be discussed in greater detail later in this paper. The historical background, selection criteria, purpose, and benefits of the Harte Honors College are discussed to provide the reader with an understanding of how the program was instituted along with its overall mission. It is equally important to provide insight related to Harte Honors general education requirements, course descriptions, practical aspects of enrichment activities, graduation requirements, and the accomplishments of Harte Honors students. This information about the Honors College at Stillman may serve as a model for college and university administrators who are interested in developing or enhancing honors programs. HARTE HONORS GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS A total of 54 General Education Credits are required for all Harte Honors students. Thirty-four credit hours consist of the following courses: religion, English, public speaking, mathematics, physical science, computer literacy, biology, world civilization, and health. Three credit hours are for fulfilling Chapel requirements. At Stillman, all students are required to enroll in a half credit of Chapel each semester until they reach the senior year. While a few requirements may vary depending on the major, the courses listed above are required for all students enrolled at Stillman. In addition to these courses, Harte Honors students must complete courses specifically designated as Harte Honors (HRT) courses. Honors seminars are: The Scholar (Freshmen), The Researcher (Sophomores), The Artist (Juniors), The Leader (Juniors), and The Citizen (Seniors). Other honors courses are: African Heritage, Logic, and Latin. All honors courses have small class sizes. In order to develop scholars, researchers, artists, leaders, and productive citizens, these core courses are taught by outstanding faculty who provide the highest level of intellectual interaction. They provide essential qualities for critical, analytical, and integrative thinking that will enable students to solve problems, to make the most objective intellectual and value judgments, and to productively function in a global society. A closer look at these courses is provided in the next section. HARTE HONORS COURSES AND DESCRIPTIONS Listed below are Harte Honors courses and descriptions. This information is taken directly from pages 83 and 84 of Stillman’s 2003-2005 College Catalog. These courses and descriptions are included in this paper to provide the reader with a better understanding of the structure and content of the curriculum. HRT 120 Harte Honors Seminar: The Scholar An introduction to the nature and implications of scholarly activity in higher education. The course provides students with experiences designed to encourage them to habitually raise and answer questions about the nature and relevance of new information. Through experiences 71 Stillman Honors such as these, students will begin developing the skills and attitudes of life-long learners. Prerequisite: Admission into the Harte Honors College. HRT 131 Honors African Heritage An in-depth study of African American life from its African origins to the present. Concentrated study given to African influences in political forces, social structures, religion, music, and art. Prerequisite: Admission into the Harte Honors College. HRT 220 Harte Honors Seminar: The Researcher An introduction to the nature and implications of research in all disciplines. Course assignments are designed to give students opportunities to explore and discover concepts relevant to the natural and social sciences. In addition, students will learn the importance of research and how to conduct research that will facilitate the successful completion of their Senior Thesis. Prerequisites: HRT 120 and admission into the Harte Honors College. HRT 232 Honors Logic An in-depth study of how reality is conceptualized and how concepts can be used as the basis for drawing rational conclusions. Students will study various methods for evaluating whether premises of an argument adequately support a conclusion. Prerequisite: Admission into the Harte Honors College. HRT 320 Harte Honors Seminar: The Artist An introduction to the nature of design and the creative process. Students will explore works of fine art such as painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, film, poetry, music, drama, and dance for both structure and meaning. Assignments will be given to help students explore creative abilities in two or more of these areas. Prerequisites: HRT 120, HRT 220, and admission into the Harte Honors College. HRT 322 Harte Honors Seminar: Leadership An introduction to fundamental principles and processes of leadership. Students will explore the roles of leadership and the global implications of leadership decisions in a rapidly changing society. Prerequisites: HRT 320 and admission into the Harte Honors College. HRT 332 Honors Latin The study of pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary designed for students to understand, speak, read, translate, and write simple Latin. Students will be introduced to mythological and historical characters as well as ancient Mediterranean and European civilizations that include people of many different cultures and social levels ranging from slaves to emperors. Prerequisites: ENG 131, ENG 132, and admission into the Harte Honors College. HRT 420 Harte Honors Seminar: The Citizen An introduction to issues of citizenship. This course provides an overview of the historical, legal, and social implications of citizenship. It introduces the theoretical framework for conducting community service projects. Students will engage in community service projects as expressions of becoming a good citizen. Prerequisites: HRT 322 and admission into the Harte Honors College. 72 Stillman Honors Overall, this type of curriculum structure allows sequential intellectual growth and development. Starting with the freshman course (The Scholar), the same cohort of honor students progress from course to course until the final course (The Citizen) is completed during the senior year. This type of managed curriculum does not interfere with courses in the major. In fact, the curriculum is designed and courses are scheduled in such a manner that students are able to stay on track with their course of study in the major as well as with courses within the honors college. This cohort approach also provides the opportunity for students to establish and maintain life-long bonds. INTEGRATING THEORY WITH PRACTICE: CULTURAL AND ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES Outside of the classroom, Harte Honors members are expected to participate in academic, social, and cultural enrichment activities. By doing so, students experience the practical aspects of course discussions. For example, on a regular basis, Harte Honors students attend presentations by nationally recognized scholars and researchers during campus events such as the President’s Colloquium and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series. They have been exposed to historical and contemporary documentaries of outstanding leaders and citizens such as viewing simulated reenactments of pioneers in the struggle for civil rights at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery. They have visited rare artistic and cultural exhibits on display at museums such as the Mobile Museum of Art and the Warner Museum in Tuscaloosa. They have attended classic performances such as Romeo and Juliet at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and To Kill a Mockingbird at Shelton State Community College. All of these enrichment activities bring real life meaning to courses such as The Scholar, The Researcher, The Artist, The Leader, The Citizen, African Heritage, Logic, and Latin. Harte Honors students are campus leaders who promote excellence in leadership, citizenship, and service. For example, their sponsorship of Governor Riley’s visit to Stillman’s campus for a discussion on tax reform provided citizens with information regarding the proposed impact of tax reform prior to voting. Harte Honors students demonstrated excellence in leadership when they planned and implemented the first W.E.B. DuBois Honors Conference for high achieving high school students. Service was exemplified when, some of the Harte Honors students volunteered to participate in Drop Everything And Read (D.E.A.R.) at Stillman Heights Elementary School. These are just a few examples of how the Harte Honors College offers opportunities to prepare students for leadership and service in society. HARTE HONORS COLLEGE GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS Stillman’s College Catalog for 2003-2005 outlines graduation requirements for members of the Harte Honors College on Page 76. Candidates eligible for the Harte Honors College Diploma must have completed at least 124 credit hours of college-level coursework, with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.00 in the major and have completed at least 12 credit hours each semester with a grade of “B” or better, and an overall cumulative grade point average of at least 3.00. Additional requirements are completion of the following: all Harte Honors General Education requirements (54 credit hours) including all Harte Honors courses; a major consisting of a minimum of 30 credit hours; the Sophomore-Junior Examination; Senior 73 Stillman Honors Thesis; Senior Departmental Examination; a graduate or professional school entrance examination; and Harte Honors cultural and enrichment activities. Except for Harte Honors General Education requirements, maintaining at least a 3.00 grade point average, and participating in Harte Honors cultural and enrichment activities; the graduation requirements listed above are expected for all students who graduate from Stillman College. ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF HARTE HONORS STUDENTS Stillman faculty members consistently require and encourage students to participate in various programs in their discipline. Several members of Harte Honors College have participated in a number of challenging programs to help prepare them for advanced degrees and their career field. Some of these programs include the following: Howard Hughes Summer Undergraduate Medical Program at the University of Alabama; National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates at the University of South Alabama; Premedical Academic Enrichment Program at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine; and the Minority Medical Education Program sponsored by the American Association of Medical Colleges at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. As a result of involvement in these programs, the students are better prepared for competitive opportunities in their disciplines. The accomplishments of Harte Honors graduates are constantly evolving. Five students were in the first class to graduate from Harte Honors College in May of 2002. Seventeen graduated in 2003 and twelve in 2004. All of these graduates are academically prepared for the next level of achievement. In fact, several of the graduates have chosen to pursue advanced degrees. Three biology majors have chosen medical school. One is attending the University of Cincinnati and two are attending the Medical College of Georgia. All of them were members of Stillman’s Pre-Med Program. Recently, one of our biology majors earned a master’s degree in Genetics from Purdue University. Two biology majors are pursuing advanced degrees at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. A music major is in graduate school at the University of Alabama. Two English majors are attending law school at Southern University and Marshall Law School in Cleveland. A history major has been accepted to attend law school at Florida Coastal School of Law in the Fall of 2004. Stillman’s Pre-Law Program helped to prepare these students for law school. A business major has been accepted into the graduate school of management at the University of Alabama in Huntsville while working as a Co-Op Student Trainee for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Some of the graduates have delayed graduate school and have decided to become certified teachers within school systems throughout the State of Alabama. These graduates majored in elementary education, English, and math. Recently, Stillman’s Division of Education earned an “A” on its teacher education report card with the State. Therefore, we are confident that our majors are already highly qualified prior to entering the classroom. These are just a few accomplishments of Harte Honors graduates. Additional information regarding career plans of other Harte Honors alumni and the most recent graduates is forthcoming. Given the above-mentioned accomplishments, Stillman is proud to continue its tradition of preparing students for leadership roles and service opportunities in a rapidly changing society. 74 Stillman Honors CONCLUSION In summary, the essential aspects of Harte Honors College have been presented in this paper. The curriculum may serve as a model for college and university officials who are interested in establishing or restructuring honors programs. Overall, the benefits to the students and ultimately to the College are enormous. REFERENCES Information included in this paper is located in the Harte Honors College Brochure on “’Educating Thinkers for the New Millennium ” and Stillman’s College Catalog for 2003-2005. The author would like to acknowledge the following individuals for providing helpful comments during an earlier draft of this manuscript: Dr. Ernest McNealey-President of Stillman College, Mrs. Cresandra Smothers-Director of Public Relations, and Dr. Willa Lowe- Department of English Chair and member of the Harte Honors Advisory Committee. 75 Journal of the AJabama Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 1, January 2005. HONORS EDUCATION IN ALABAMA UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS Ellen B. Buckner DSN, RN Coordinator of Honors in Nursing University of Alabama School of Nursing University of Alabama at Birmingham Biographical information; Dr. Ellen Buckner, has degrees in religion and physiology and the Doctor of Science in Nursing, teaches in Nursing at UAB. She has been on the UAB Honors Council for more than 10 years, and is the coordinator of the Nursing Departmental Honors Program. It is my joy to be here today. I agree with Judy Stout who was here this morning that doing the honors program in nursing has absolutely been the most exciting thing I have done professionally. It continues to surprise me what the students are able to put together in their honors projects-- their scholarship, willingness to investigate clinically relevant problems and ability to carry the project through to completion. What I wanted to talk to you today is how honors students can do presentations and publications — a topic that really applies to all of our programs, both those that are university based and those that are departmentally based. There are many options for presentations and publications and these are growing. This stage of dissemination is particularly important to the work because it brings closure to the student’s scholastic process, allows for peer critique and encourages students to engage in dialog with others from numerous backgrounds and levels on the topics of the student’s work. Thus it is an important stage in their professional development. Participation in undergraduate research conferences is an open area nationally for the development of our students and I think we in Alabama have a tremendous opportunity to send our students to the national levels. This promotes not only the quality of education of our state but also supports our curricula as we get new ideas and have the potential to develop our program further. What I try to do in our program is to have our students present their honors work three times, once each at a local level, at a state level and at the national level. I will begin by telling you about some of the national presentation opportunities that are available. The first I would list is the National Collegiate Honors Council noting that many of the participants here today are members of that council. It holds an annual meeting in the fall. About every other year it is in the mid states area, usually in Chicago or somewhere close by. Students are eligible to attend, to send an abstract for a poster presentation or groups can get together and do a presentation. Student papers may also be submitted to the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, which is a national peer-reviewed publication. I think you heard today that one of the students at the University of Alabama had recently won the Portz Scholar award, again with the National Collegiate Honors Council. These are undergraduate publication and presentation opportunities at the national level. The NCHC presentation poster section is very well attended with approximately 50-100 posters and many students wandering around conversing with other students about their work. For those of you who have done poster presentations, having a steady stream of people to talk to your student is really what you are looking for in a poster session. 76 UAB Nursing Honors The second one I would recommend is NCUR: The National Conference on Undergraduate Research. It holds an annual meeting each spring— this April in Indianapolis— and it varies from site to site each year. One interesting thing about this is that there are over 2,000 undergraduates at this meeting-undergraduates from all disciplines. Although a substantial number are coming from honors education, some are coming from other internship experiences, special projects with professors, or other sources, so it is not all honors but it is all some form of individual or group research project. Students must submit their abstracts online the previous October and they may or may not get accepted, so there is an acceptance process to that. Students can choose to present either verbal or a poster presentation. They also have a very nice opportunity with NCUR to publish their paper as a Proceedings document. This is handled through the University of North Carolina, Ashville, and they have been doing the Proceedings for a number of years. One of the things that is sort of fun about that is that to submit their paper, the student has to develop their completed Proceedings paper, limited to 8 pages single spaced according to format either mailed ahead of time or they may bring it with them to the conference. They have a review room set up by the Proceedings staff. You turn your paper in and you get a code number and there is a giant board and when it goes to the first reviewer, you get a blue dot. When it goes to the second reviewer, you get a green dot. When it is ready for pickup, you get a red dot. So literally the students are always in and out of this room checking on what the status of their paper is and the review process. We have been fortunate that most of ours have been accepted. But what was funny last year was one of our student’s papers was lost and she kept going back over and over and there were no dots, so we found that literally that it had been lost. We had to go find another copy of the paper that brings up one of my other favorite tips which is “Dr. Buckner’s Two Building Rule” which is that you should always e-mail your paper to a friend, in order to have your paper in two buildings in case one of the buildings bums down. So send it to me, send it to your boyfriend or if it is somebody in Australia, but have the document in two buildings. So in this particular case, we had it on another disk and we went and pulled it up and got it back through the review process. So it is a great opportunity for students to deal with the anxieties of publishing in a fun format and again as they leave their conference, they have in their hand, an acceptance or rejection or “accept with revisions” and what the revisions need to be which then they submit back within in about a month. So it is an excellent opportunity to get them into the publishing process. Next are regional and state publication and presentation opportunities. The Southern Collegiate Honors Council, Southern Region is actually is part of a NCHC but it is independent in its membership with separate membership. They have an annual meeting in one of the southern states and again students may present posters and verbal presentations. Another 1 put in the regional category is the Southeastern Psychology Association that again was set up originally to encourage students in psychology to present to their regional peers. In state presentations, of course, there is none finer than the Alabama Academy of Science. We have an annual spring meeting that moves to various colleges and universities around the state. We have sections in biology, chemistry, physics, but we also have social sciences and we have a new section in an ethics and the history of philosophy of science. It is quite possible that we could have a humanities section in the future. We do have a humanities section at the Junior Academy level, so I am not excluding that from the possibility that we will become “Alabama Academy of Arts and Sciences”, but right now, we are the Alabama Academy of Science. Abstracts of all presentations are published in the Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science. There again, that is an actual publication they can put on their resume', they can put on their curriculum vitae' and they can put forward as they go forward to 77 UAB Nursing Honors submit graduate applications. Another thing that the Academy does that I am extremely proud of is that we sponsor student award competitions. Again, this gets the student to entering on a deadline basis. They are judged against their peers and again every section of the Academy offers an award, so if you are in the Health Sciences or Social Sciences, you have an opportunity for the award in your area. Again, you are being judged against your peers, I say your peers, but we have had undergraduate students head to head with graduate students. It is very obvious to me that there is no preference given in the award for just being in graduate school, it is an earned honor, by the qualities of your ideas and how you put it together, but also how you defend it that matters. Sometimes the award goes to a person standing up there who has done the project from scratch, albeit at a lower level than the one that has tagged onto a mentor or faculty member and essentially has done a part of his or her research. So we are quite proud of that. The Academy has a longstanding commitment to what I was talking about developmental process of getting people at the beginning level for career scholarships. The other thing that is very helpful to students, who are chronically poor, is that we have a Student Travel Award program which will help support their expenses of the registration or membership in the Academy. Again, if they win, they will have a small cash award, so that’s something to get some thinking. Actually before I go on, I mentioned two other statewide opportunities that I should have had on the slide. One is the University of Alabama Systems Honors Research Day that will be held April 9 that has been rotating around three campuses of the University of Alabama System. The other, 1 believe the honors faculty in the State has had in the past a state Honors Conference that students are welcome to attend. There may be some other presentation opportunities in Alabama. Some of you noticed when you got here yesterday there was signs posted all over the campus announcing an Undergraduate Research Day. There again, more and more universities host conferences where students can pool their efforts and share their ideas with their colleagues from other institutions. The next piece is the publication piece and I have already mentioned that you can publish in the Proceedings of NCUR. All of the sources that I have consulted (and I have read a number of them because I keep making sure I tell students the right information) state that if you are published in a local forum, such as a Proceedings of a conference that does not preclude your publishing at a national peer-reviewed level. Again I have seen that published repeatedly in nursing editorials that you can’t publish in the same work in multiple national peer-reviews. Once you published it, it is published. But if you are publishing it in a local forum, like an abstract in a Journal or Conference or in the proceedings of a conference, that does not preclude sending that same research the national level. So we would certainly say that the students should aim for a national peer-review journal publication. There are a couple of tips I would give you on this. First, go to a journal that is related to the contents of the student’s paper. Obviously in nursing, I am going to send them to a nursing journal, or nursing ethics journal or something that is related to the content like Pediatric Nursing. So the next thing that I strongly recommend is a query E-mail to the editor. In that query E-mail, I would include the question of will that journal consider student work? Some will categorically say no, so we don’t need to be sending a manuscript to them obviously. The other thing that I always include the abstract, because the editor will then have a good flavor for is the work and whether it is something that relates to the journal. Now obviously the student should have been using that journal in the development of that project and ideally should go do a final literature research to be sure they have picked up that last article that came in the previous issue that relates to their topic and cite it. But the point being, if they are familiar with the journal, if the journal then sees their work as potentially contributing to that journal’s mission, then you have higher chances of a favorable review. It is also appropriate at 78 UAB Nursing Honors this point to bring in mentors, advisors, as co-authors if appropriate. I don’t have any pre-set formula but I tell my students you should look at the contribution level of that mentor, you should look at the contribution level of the clinical mentor in our case, including the degree to which they have they opened doors for you. Have they contributed substantially to the development of the project? If so, then I think co-authorship is appropriate. Just putting my name on it as faculty advisor if 1 haven’t done much is not acceptable. We tell them it is your work and you need to be sure that you are claiming credit for that work. They certainly have to abide by author guidelines, and submit to only one national journal at a time. There are a number of other undergraduate research or undergraduate journals that are making their way into the scene. These are listed in Table 1. There is a Berkley Journal Psychology, a journal for Young Investigators of the National Science Foundation, the Journal of Undergraduate Sciences of Harvard. There are online ones undergraduate journals listed in Table 2., including the Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal, and the Honors Review. These are some of undergraduate only journals. If you are only competing against undergraduate, you have a high chance of publication. There are also several online sources of other journals that will publish undergraduate work and these are called undergraduate journal directories and are listed in Table 3. These are several websites of lists of journals that encourage undergraduate students submission. Table 1. Undergraduate Journals Berkeley Undergraduate Journal This journal publishes original undergraduate academic papers in the humanities and social sciences The Undergraduate Journal of Psychology, UNC Charlotte This journal published original research or literature reviews Journal of Young Investigators of the National Science Foundation Journal of Undergraduate Sciences Journal produced by Harvard University students Table 2. On-line Undergraduate Journals Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal This journal is devoted entirely to papers written by undergraduates on topics related to mathematics for work completed before graduation. Honors Review On-line journal of the Honors Program at Augsburg College This journal includes academic papers, opinion pieces, poetry, art, and music. 79 UAB Nursing Honors Table 3. Undergraduate Journal Directories Undergraduate Journals and Conferences Directory http://www. mercy hurst. edu/UPD/ Undergraduate Philosophy Journals, Conferences, & Essay Contests http://www.earlham.edu/~phil/undjoum.htm Council on Undergraduate Research http;//www.cur.org/uaournal.html Students do gain a tremendous amount from presenting and publishing. They gain poise, they gain confidence as they critique and cut their presentation down to 1 0 minutes or meet other criteria. They have to field questions from the audience and they have to show their work in an interdisciplinary external fomm. Through those processes the work then becomes integrated into the general knowledge of the field and not Just reflecting what they got from a given department. Poster sessions are wonderful first time experiences for students. The student can have an informal discussion one on one with whoever walks by and it is a much less intimidating forum than in a large room, so I usually recommend students start with a poster presentation. I would like to acknowledge again before I step down, Dr. Ada Long, without whose encouragement I would not be here today. She has absolutely stimulated my thinking about honors education for lo these many years and I appreciate all she has given to me. I would also like to mention Dr. Janet Alexander of Samford. Janet first introduced me to NCUR many years ago and again it has been a great opportunity. She was also one of my colleagues at UAB doing research before she moved to Samford. I would also like to thank again the longstanding commitment of this Alabama Academy of Science, and the Science Education Section for sponsoring this symposium. The AAS has a long history of supporting the development of students at all levels of K-12. The top students of the Alabama Junior Academy of Science, through the presentations and competitions of the science fairs and Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, certainly stimulates honors and honors achievement. Thank you very much. Questions and Answers Session 1 Question: 1 guess my question is mostly directed to UAB, but everyone else can comment to it. I was interested that you took a range of ACT score students and I wondered if you could elaborate on that experience a little bit more. Dr. Long: First, I should introduce my colleague who will be taking over the Honors program when 1 leave. He is sitting right there and I am waving at him, Dr. Michael Sloane. 1 think it is the single most important thing that we have done. It is allowing and for one thing there is a halo effect. You bring kids into a university and you tell them that they are remedial and they behave remedial. You bring kids in and tell them that they are honors students and they become honors and that transcends, not only ACT scores, but also high school grades. So they come in and typically they have very different experiences in that afterwards, white, high grade getting and high national score achieving, suburban kids that get the scholarships, you know and we do funny things at the universities. We give scholarships to the students that don’t need them and so you get kids coming in through our program maybe raising kids, 80 UAB Nursing Honors have a full time job, have a hard time getting to school. You put that in a real community of learning with the kids whose mommy and dad are buying them a car, giving him all the advantages. That is a magical education experience for both students. I mean everybody benefits and why it is not done more often, I don’t know. And due to the high ACT, do the people with 30 and above have a higher GPA on average than the people with 20 and below? Yes. Is it a traumatic difference? No, about 0.5 points maximum and often it is 0.2, so for that, you are going to sacrifice what is a really phenomenon, an enriching experience, so that works great. Do you have to put a lot of energy into it? Yes! I mean you can’t just go put everybody together and let them go, but to me it has been the single most important, exciting factor in the success of honors program and in the success of our brightest students. Dr. Mullins: We invite this in our literature or at least I guess by kind of an exaggeration of what the wording says in our application information. Although the threshold is 27 ACT, we indicated if the student thinks that they are begin honors and should be in honors, to apply anyway. The lowest ACTs we have actually admitted into the program was 24 and that wasn’t by choice, that happened to be the lowest we had applicants for and we had 3 24 and they have done very well. As Ada says, you have to be a little bit more deliberate, kind of keeping an eye on things, just to make sure that you are not doing anything to harm them. I would agree that one could put too much emphasis on standardized test scores. I think high school grades have shown to be a better predictor of success in school. The best predictor of success in school is previous success in school. I have had and we can make some exceptions, but I have had some experiences with students who have found themselves in course work that they found overloaded. So I do want to have some indication that we are not going to be putting people in classes that they can’t handle. Dr. Halli: Our program at Alabama, admittedly is kind of schizophrenic, because we don’t care about anything other than their test scores when they come in. Then after they get in, we don’t care about their test scores. We just care about their GPA. So we have seen a number of students who haven’t had the test scores who have joined the program later and have done very, very well. At the end of the fall semester, I send out an E-mail to all of the kids who have just completed their first semester and have a 3.3 or better. It is clear they are successful freshman so the E-mail out to them trying to get them into the honors program. I was particularly pleased this spring that we were able to admit to the honors program, someone who had been a conditional admit to the university who had been required to come to the university in the summer and prove that that student had earned at least a C where that student was allowed to get into fall term and the student had a 3.7 and it was just wonderful to get that freshman. Dr. Rogers: At Auburn, our minimum ACT is a 29 and our minimum GPA is a 3.5 and I have been looking at that, I really think we need to change that for a couple of reasons. We have a 3.2 minimum to remain in the program and 1 have been concerned that the number of students who have difficulty keeping that 3.2. I think a part of that is that has to be reflected in your entrance requirements; you really need to be getting people in who can succeed in the program. So I have been looking at the GPAs at the end of their freshman year and it appears to me that we might for example need to lower our ACT, perhaps to 28 or a 27, along with a dramatic range of the GPA. At that level, the student with a 27 and a 4.0 has a pretty good chance, about an 80% chance of having 3.2 at the end of their freshman year. By the time their ACT is up to about 33, they might be able to go down to a GPA of about 3.7. But 3.5 now is way too low, because all of the schools are weighing their GPAs, so the average freshman GPA incoming class at Auburn next year is something like a 3.6. We obviously have to raise the GPA level. The thing that I am looking at is the end result and what I really 81 UAB Nursing Honors am interested in is retention. So what I have to try to do is to get those so that they make it more likely that I am getting students who can in fact survive the program, who can maintain their GPAs once again in the program. Question: You just stated that you take their GPA as it is as given from a high school and the high school teacher is that every college admissions person, recalculates the GPA and takes away the honor point they have received for AP courses, honor courses or IV courses. Dr. Rogers; Auburn did that about 5 years ago, but the bad thing and other complications, we quit doing that, so we now go simply by the GPA from high school census. Dr. Long: UAB does that too. We at UAB started to change that 2 years ago. As a result, I have seen GPAs that are up near 6 on a 4.0 scale. Right. We have two programs that they applied to as incoming freshman, an advanced acceptance to medical schools and honors, both of which the admissions office does waive their GPA. It is a smaller number they are dealing with. Dr. Mebane: At UAH, we calculate grade point average on what we call the academic core line. We leave out PE and art and a couple of other things. But we do retain the weighting for AP courses and IB courses. Question: I also want to ask Dr. Halli— You mentioned that you expect the students to find a mentor to do the research. Is there any way that you facilitate their finding a mentor, because you didn’t mention that? Dr. Halli: Yes, now we were talking about earlier on computer-based honors program here and what we do is we canvas the faculty and simply ask the faculty what projects they have, that they would like to have one of these hot trot undergraduates work with them on and we always have more faculty who want people, than we have people to match up with that. There is a certain amount of informal recruiting that goes on too. For example, the Caldwell’s are hot shot neurobiologists and when they are teaching the honors biology section, they will say “Hey, anybody out there want to go work in our lab, you can come work in our lab.” It’s no money, no credit, you know, you just do it, get involved in that. Dr. Stan Jones in engineering does much the same thing. He was a mentor of Brad Davis, our Portz Scholar. But we will be canvassing the entire faculty every year to see if they have projects we can match up young people with. A lot of the honors theses are done out of class. You know a student will have a teacher and have a really good experiencing class and will want to do something more that has been done in that class and we see the mentoring relationships begin that way too. Also to some extent, part of the research experience is finding your mentor. We are not going to leave them entirely on their own. We will tell them to go talk to the department head. The department head will know faculty in his department that have projects available. Even if it is not related to honors, we have an undergraduate research program that is independent of honors although it is closely connected. A lot of the students that we look at, I have just been going through the applications for that. A lot of those students have already found research mentors out there and they have been working in labs for a year or two. It is really amazing how much of that goes on. Many faculty such as engineering and sciences, actually have as part of their grants, funding for undergraduate researchers. I know I have some former students who are doing that at the University of Alabama and who just done in every minute of it. They are already getting paid. The pay is good. 1 had a student that said she would be financially independent by the beginning of her sophomore year. We do several things when we have selected the entering class and know what they say. At that point, I ask the department chair that assigns them a preliminary mentor and that person begins to make contact with them during the summer before they get 82 UAB Nursing Honors to campus. That person along with the mentor and the department chair begins a partnership helps them find mentors. I also begin meeting them at the end of their sophomore very deliberately to help them find mentors. Dr. Long; Yes, 1 had a hard time finding mentors as well. But for some of our students, we have research stipends so they get extra money for working in these labs but you know some of our universities but not necessarily but some of the ones here have the luxury of a lot of active labs, that there are a lot of possibilities for research positions and that is a huge plus going to a research university like any of ours. Question: I was wondering about the GPA level for retention in a program, whether there is any indication that you are busy getting students continuing to focus on GPA and in getting in the way of actually getting an education, that you are actually are just prolonging a high school mentality about maintaining GPA and inhibiting their kind of freedom in terms of pursuing something in real depth. Dr. Halli: To stay in an honors program there is a minimum GPA. I would think that is one of the things we have found is that our honors students make higher grades in honors courses than they make in non-honors courses. I find that just a fascinating kind of thing, because the courses are more challenging. They include more different components than the non-honors courses. But I think there are two things at work here. First, it is a more stimulating environment and the students lean into it more and the teachers simply expect more of honors students and therefore getting predicts more in those classes. So I am happy with our 3.3. We have mechanism that if a student falls below that, the student is put on probation. If they start moving back up towards it, they can stay on probation, where they get back to up they are supposed to be, they are off of probation. I think we need some kind of a quantitative measure of what is to be expected of an honors student overall. Oddly enough, we do NOT have a GPA requirement in our most exclusive program, the computer-based honors program; simply half of the people really do research work exceptionally as you go through. Dr. Rogers; I am not sure if this is a part of your question, but sometimes parents ask me, “Is being an honors, something that is going to have a negative effect on my child’s GPA because he or she is going to be a pre-med student and that 4.0 is really important and I am concerned that if they are in honors that that is going to cost them?” So this past year, I did a study on the entire incoming freshman that met our minimum incoming requirements, that is ACT 29, GPA, 3.5. Those broke into two groups. We had about 200 of those students who ended up in the honors college and we had about 1 80 who did not for various reasons, most of whom had the choice of entering if they chose, but they chose not to. Those two groups, as far as 1 can tell, were virtually at the same level, in other words, they had I think within a tenth of a point the same average ACT and GPA, the average GPA of both groups was a 4.0. At the end of their first year, their GPA at Auburn was within a tenth of a point with the honors students were just a little bit higher coming in and they were a little bit higher at the end of that year. So that includes the honors, the special honors classes they took that the parents are so concerned about. On the average, I would say being in honors is not going to affect your GPA. It will affect your educational experience. Another thing is you know will all of these courses be harder than regular courses? Part of my answer to that is to think about that world history class. For you would it be harder sitting up there taking notes and periodically taking these tests or being in a small class where you can sit down and discuss these things with other people. For you, what would be harder? I am not claiming the honor the classes might not be harder for students who aren’t very well prepared. I know for me, I would hate first, very much prefer the second. 83 UAB Nursing Honors Nationally, the GPA honors is typically at least a 0.2 higher than the GPA outside of honors and for those reasons that Jack and Bob just talked about. So actually they are typically higher in honors and they do have outside of honors. I think Mike’s question is really interesting one, because many, many honors programs have a higher GPA requirements for retention. You have to maintain a 3.5 in the program and 3.5 overall or whatever and there has been a lot of - we have a national list service - there has been a lot of discussion about that at that point. There are a lot of simple philosophies about it. My own thought is - 1 mean a lot of my faculty here have complained that their students are interested only in grades. They don’t come and ask how can I learn the material. They come and ask, “How do 1 get an A?” I think we create a situation where they have to care only about grades and we complain that they care only about their grades. So I think we need to think about that in maintaining a minimum GPA to stay in the honors program. Dr, Mebane: I think an honors diploma is a different kind of honor from Latin honors that is based just on the grade point average. Particularly because all our students have to do is substantial honors senior project. They demonstrated some organization skill in perseverance. Some students finish everything except the honors senior project. But nonetheless, I am committed to retaining that requirement because it says a lot of students. We recently changed our grade point requirements at UAH from a 3.3 to stay in the program to a 3.0. Moderator: I think we have heard a variety of really important issues and we will address some more issues in the next session. Questions and Answers-Session 2 Question: Do faculty other than honors faculty support the programs? Dr. Buckner: Ours are becoming increasingly involved with the program to the benefit of both. The faculty members compliment the students, they brag about our honors students and what they are doing. They sent personal E-mail notes to students about their presentations. This was unheard of before the program began. Nobody is that encouraging to students in my discipline as a general rule. We are told in nursing we “eat our young” so we are really working through the honors program to find new ways for students and faculty to relate to one another. I am here to tell you it has been night and day and what I am seeing again is that the faculty has taken a stake in this. They want to see the students succeed, they want to be able to talk about how many awards we won at this particular meeting and I am unbelievably committed again to seeing that. Overall there is an infusion of the excitement of the research from the honors students to the other students. It is very important to get that relationship. Question: I guess it is for Ellen and I know that you are school is one of the youngest honors programs at UAB and one of the I would say one of the three most successfiil honors program. I want to know how you did that. Dr. Buckner: Thank you for the question. It is the combination of experience and the theoretical-practical end phase. Experience, being that I have been at UAB so long and I have so many friends in so many places, that I can literally pick up the UAB directory and find 20 mentors within an hour, because I have essentially been placing them there for the last 25 years, so I can find neonatal or intensive care nurses, you know a mental health nurse who deals with substance abuse in pregnancy, I mean at 84 UAB Nursing Honors will. So the mentorship networking has been huge and when my Dean starts fussing at me about having too many students admitted to program, they said “How can you possibly find enough mentors for these peopled’ And I said, “Well so far, we are ok.” As long as I can say that, I am hoping that will continue to facilitate the program’s growth. Tfie other one is a more philosophical reason. In nursing, we have typically looked at - I think this is really other discipline as well. We have typically experienced a disconnect between theory, classrooms and clinical practice. In nursing honors, we are able to pull those together. I take all of the students who have never had a day in nursing and I start asking them what are you ideas about nursing and ask them to relate it to a nursing theory. We put together a project that is practical, feasible and again has a rigor for the research methodology to be reasonable for an undergraduate student. So that combination starting at square 0 and not requiring them to learn everything about nursing before they initiate their project, is precious. One student for example wanted to do a project with pregnancy. She was a marathon runner and she wanted to know about women who decide to continue running while they are pregnant. She didn’t know anything about the American College of OB/GYN on whether women can exercise in pregnancy, so I sent her to that group, to that website. She acquired the knowledge of obstetric nursing in the process of doing her project and others have as well. Question; I was curious, could you explain what the institutional relations are— these are departmental honors programs and the university wide honors program? Dr. Rigney: Well, the university wide honors program is not exclusive. Our students participate in both programs, but UAB wanted to be able to get more students in honors experience, so several other partners were encouraged to try to develop this program. I think it is quite right? Some have worked better than others. When I decided that I want to make ours work a little more efficiently, Ellen was the first person I called. My daughter actually did it and knows that her programs work very well. So we decided to do something to model our program after what they were doing. One of the complaints that I was getting fi-om faculty was that the students were coming into their laboratories and they really weren’t prepared and didn’t how to do the research methodology and they didn’t know how to do literature, so they and a second discussion of their time to try to teach them how to do. Ellen had a similar type courses that were getting her students trained so that they could go into the laboratory and be ftmctioning, so we decided to do these course to do that as well. In doing that, I think we could get more of my faculty on board with the idea of taking undergraduate students into their laboratories and then turning it into a researching finding. Dr. Buckner: I would say departmental honors has ability to articulate well. I think as juniors and seniors they are at a point in their academic thought where they need to be able to concentrate in their major and I think departmental honors generally gives them that opportunity. We are again, in a heterogeneous situation at UAB because on University honors curriculum plan has currently 5 seminars and they can do 3 of these in their departmental honors or 6 hours or 2 of them in their departmental honors. So truly they can articulate from one to the other, very easily and that allows them to 85 UAB Nursing Honors complete the earning of the University honors with the departmental honors and that is a delightful Question: Did I hear you that you gave all of your incoming students a laptop or do you not do that? Dr. Heard: All students at Stillman, regardless of whether they are in the honors college, are assigned lap top computers. Question: Do they get to keep them when they graduate? Dr. Heard: Well, that’s something that we are discussing. Last year they did not. Dr. Buckner: I speak of that in terms of again facilitating these experiences, I don’t think I could have done what we have accomplished in the era pre-computers for 2 reasons. Students have had tremendous ability to search online for articles and again, literature searches for a comb and bedroom slippers, whatever. Again, thinking of the families, the ones who have kids, how could they have ever spent that many hours in the library that are they are now spending on the computer getting access to journals and journal articles. The second one is the availability for E-mail consultation. My husband still fusses at me, I come home and spend 2 hours on the computer doing nothing but answering E-mails from students, reading papers back and forth and giving feedback. I would not have had nearly that capability of even 5-10 years ago, so that has tremendously accelerated our interaction process. Dr. Heard: Yes, we have what is called required technology and all of the students in the Harte Honors College are enrolled in Harte 400, that is how I communicate with them, with announcements, postings and the professors have courses, in blackboard as well, campus line. 86 Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 1, January 2005. Dr. Robert W. Halli Dean of the Honors College University of Alabama Biographical information: A native of Maryland, Dr. Robert Halli has served on the English Faculty of The University of Alabama since 1972. He teaches, and publishes on, the literature of the English Renaissance, ballads and folksongs, the detective novel, and the macabre. Halli has won many awards for excellence in teaching and academic service, and has been President of the Southeastern Renaissance Conference, the UA Faculty Senate, the Association of College English Teachers of Alabama, and Sigma Tau Delta-The International English Honors Society. His authoritative collection of our state’s folksongs. An Alabama Songbook, was published in 2004, and for it he has been given ACETA’s 2005 Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinguished Literary Scholarship. He is the Founding Dean of the Honors College at The University of Alabama. The University of Alabama is rare, perhaps even unique, in having three separate university-wide honors programs. The University Honors Program (UHP), which I direct in addition to being the Honors College’s dean, is the largest of the three, at 1,700 students from all eight degree-granting colleges on campus. The admission requirement for entering freshman is an ACT score of 28 ACT or an SAT score of 1240. Once admitted, UHP members must maintain a 3.3 GPA. A student, who does not have those test scores on entering UA, may join the UHP upon earning an overall GPA of 3.3 in at least twelve hours of courses. Members of the University Honors Program are required to complete a minimum of 18 hours in honors courses over the course of their undergraduate careers, and six of those hours must be in UH offerings. The rest of those hours are normally taken in courses such as Honors English, Honors Biology, Honors Accounting, and in other disciplinary honors courses. The International Honors Program (IHP) is obviously designed for folks who would like to study abroad. It includes one basic course. Culture and Human Experience, which seeks to sensitize students to the cultural differences of various nations. IHP members must have at least 2 years of a modem foreign language, and many students with a strong language background in high school will place out of this requirement immediately. IHP students must take two courses that have some sort of international component (Arts of Asia, Geography of Latin Ameriea, Politics of Eastern Europe, etc.) and do work in them different from the work assigned regular students to turn these into honors offerings. IHP members must study abroad for one full academic semester or for two summer mini-semesters. The entrance requirements here are a little lower: a 26 ACT or an 1 190 SAT. Students must maintain a 3.0 overall GPA, and students without those test scores on entering the university may enter the program after earning a 3.0 on at least twelve hours of courses. Both the University Honors Program and the International Honors Program mesh with the academic careers of their students. They do not add on to the credit hours needed if the students simply take honors sections of courses they would have to take under any circumstances to fulfill major, minor, and general studies requirements. 87 Honors Programs at the University of Alabama The third program, which may be of the most interest to you in its scientific orientation, is a highly selective one. This is the Computer-Based Honors Program (CBHP). It is perhaps the oldest undergraduate research program in the United States, dating back to 1 968. We admit only 40 students per year, and their average ACT score is around 32. These students spend one year learning to program in various computer languages, and then they are paired with professors to help the professors with their individualized research. Very frequently these students will wind up with co-authorship of a number of articles. Unlike the UHP and the IHP, which integrate with normal academic careers, the CBHP is a free-standing program. Students will take a CBH course a semester for at least 6 semesters, and they will earn a minor in the program. The honors courses at Alabama, and, 1 suspect, at most other schools, tend to be smaller, more intimate seminars than the courses taken by the regular students. We have our top teachers in honors. Every discipline wants to woo the best students to major in its subject and so, sensibly, staffs the honors sections with the teachers most likely to produce converts. To staff our University Honors Program seminars, which never have more than 15 students enrolled, I recruit our top teachers on campus, but also I try to bring in people from off campus. Last year, Stephen Black, the 2002 Democratic candidate for State Treasurer and a grandson of Hugo Black, taught “Justice and Civil Society in America” for us in Tuscaloosa. A science fiction writer who has won two Lovecraft awards and has been nominated four times for the Nebula (the Oscar of sci-fi writing) teaches for us “Strange New Worlds: The Science Fiction of the 2U* Century.” We applied for and were awarded a Fulbright scholar. Dr. Haifaa Jawad, who taught for us “The World of Islam.” A native Iraqi, Dr. Jawad had a position at the University of Baghdad, but was finishing her doctorate in England, when Saddam Hussein came to power. When he called home all the Iraqi professionals abroad, she decided she would prefer not to work under his rule, and he had her terminated. Now she is a senior lecturer in theology at the University of Birmingham in England, and we had her teaching 1 5 Alabama students. There are some practical benefits to being in the Honors College at The University of Alabama. Our students are guaranteed the best housing — new residences to be completed for fall 2005. These are four-story, neo-Georgian buildings in which most students will live in four-person suites, with a living room, dining area, kitchenette with a full-size refrigerator and a microwave. On alternate floors are full kitchens and laundries. In the suites there is a door that can close off the noise of the common area from the bedroom corridor. Each student has a private bedroom, and there are two full baths in each suite. The grounds of this complex contain picnic pavilions, barbecue grills, a party patio, a sand volleyball court, a small amphitheatre, a swimming pool, and a clubhouse with a huge living room, a TV room with theatre-style chairs, a game room and an Einstein’s Bagels. The surrounding parking lot has the same number of spaces as there are beds in the complex. Also, Honors College students have registration priority. Entering students may come to the first two registration periods, to which non-honors program students are not admitted. Once on campus. Honors College students enter the registration system in the first two days of each two week period, guaranteeing that they will get the courses they want at the times they want them. The 2005-6 academic year will see the creation of the Honors College’s Honors Academy. This will be our liaison with the high schools. We will establish close working relations with the teachers of honors/advanced/ AP/IB courses throughout the state to endeavor to make the educational experience of our best students as seamless and as successful as possible. The Director of the Honors Academy will recruit the best UA professors to visit the high schools as classroom resources, and will facilitate those visits. We will establish a 88 Honors Programs at the University of Alabama system of honors dual enrollments for those high school students qualified to take University of Alabama honors courses. On campus we are very excited about these prospects, and they seem to have generated equal excitement in the secondary schools. In the Honors College at The University of Alabama, our mission is to empower our students to achieve to the top of their ability and then to be recognized for that achievement. And we have had considerable success. Many of our students who have achieved greatest success have come from the sciences, from engineering, and from mathematics. In 2003, 5 students from The University of Alabama were named to the 80-student USA Today All-USA College Academic Team, the first time any school had placed five on a team in the fourteen- year history of the award. Harvard, with 3, was our runner-up. In 2004, Harvard topped UA 5-4, but in 2005 UA was again first in the nation with 5 to runner-up Yale’s 3. Harvard had 2 and the Crimson Tide has moved out to a 3-year lead over the Crimson of 14-10. Two years ago, the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) instituted an Honors Student of the Year Award. We nominated our two-time President of the Honors Program Student Association who was also the founder of our service-learning program, “Alabama Action,” and she won, giving us the first and, for one year, the only NCHC Honors Student of the Year. The NCHC also gives three “Portz Scholar” awards each year to the top undergraduate researchers in the country. Last year one of our young men won the award, and this year one of our young women made the final seven. Our honors programs have fostered well students in the sciences and engineering. By the time he graduated last May, the Portz winner, Rob Davis, had had published or accepted seven papers in leading engineering journals. His research on penetration studies that related to projectile shape is now the basis for the series of tests being done by the United States Air Force. On our campus, Dr. Guy Caldwell, a neuro-biologist, has managed to place one of his students on each of the last four U.S. Today All-Academic teams. They have won grants from the National Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, the Michael K. Fox Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Basically, when bright students come to the campus, if they are interested in scientific research, they will find teachers who invite them into their laboratories right from the very beginning and they will participate in professional research. I think this is quite an important thing. As our Honors College students approach graduation, we ask them two questions: “What are you most pleased at having done here at Alabama?” and “What are you going to do now?” We read the responses, anonymously, at the Honors College graduation dinner, and we print them as a profile of each class: “What we’ve done; Where we’re going.” Students are proud, of course, of their Goldwater and Truman Scholarships and of their NCHC awards, but one or two will list as their greatest accomplishment: “I grew up a little in these four years.” And students are going off to medical school, to Harvard or Yale or Virginia Law School, to super positions in business. We were pleased to have a graduate get a better starting package than Chelsea Clinton got in her year to enter business. But my favorite response is that of one of our most talented and awarded graduates: “I’m going to move to Madrid, Spain, and get a job.” That’s the kind of independence we like to produce in the Honors College of The University of Alabama. 89 Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 1, January 2005. Dr. Doug Rigney UAB Engineering Honors Program Biographical information; Dr. Doug Rigney coordinates the departmental programs in Honors in Engineering at UAB. He is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering and the Associate Dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is also the course master for the School’s freshman engineering course, EGR 100. We are trying something new with Departmental Honors in the School of Engineering. Previously, three of our five programs had an honors experience, but we had some difficulty in tracking students all the way through this program. Many times students would enter the program and never complete the requirements. We are now trying to coordinate more of these efforts from the Dean’s Office to benefit the whole school. We now have a commitment for participation from the two undergraduate programs in which we didn’t have an honors program, and all the programs have agreed to common selection criteria for the students. They’ve also agreed to the inclusion of three one-hour seminars and are committed to providing individual research or team-based research projects for the students in their programs. By pulling the recruiting of students into the Dean’s office and developing two training seminars for the students, we have convinced our two departments that did not have an honors program to come on board. As a result we now have honors experiences in biomedical engineering, civil and environment engineering, electrical and computer engineering, materials engineering and mechanical engineering. We have set our criteria for student recruitment as someone who has completed Math 227, which is Calculus III with an overall UAB gpa of at least 3.25. In engineering, we found that it is not as productive for us to bring students in as freshman in an honors program. We have found that success in Calculus II is a good indicator of success or commitment to the engineering program. We plan to send out letters inviting students to apply to the honors program. This is something we learned from the school of nursing’s experience. Letters will go out to eligible students inviting them to apply to the program. Our departments will then have the opportunity to interview those students to see who they would feel are good candidates for undergraduate research. We are creating two one-hour courses that the Dean and I will teach together. Engineering 301 is will be Honors Research I and will focus on research methodology, engineering ethics, data analysis and communications. Engineering 301 is intended to prepare the students for the next step which will be Engineering 302. In this course we hope to introduce the students to research possibilities within the school of engineering. Hopefully this will facilitate the process of getting them connected with research mentors. Another goal of the second course will be the development of a research proposal that they can then execute in their senior year. Additional requirements will be a one-hour seminar course in their department in the area that they intend to perform research. They will finish out with six hours of thesis or project research for a total of 9 semester hours for honors. This will be above our 128 semester-hour engineering degree. We are going to accomplish research in two different ways. We have students who will probably follow the traditional model; performing mentored research, writing a thesis paper followed by a public presentation and defense. Within the School of Engineering, we have faculty involved in research fields as diverse as environmental engineering and 90 UAB Engineering Honors orthopedics, from cardiac electrophysiology to composites engineering, so there are a lot of areas for students to get plugged into. However, we also have students who are less interested in that kind of traditional mentored research project but more interested in team-based engineering design projects. In engineering we have a number of opportunities for competitive design experiences and we would like to allow the students who work on those projects to be a part of our honors program. Some of you may be aware that many engineering programs participate in both regional and national design competitions. Electrical engineering students participate in designing an autonomous robot car and actually we have it done quite well in this competition over the years. Civil engineering students compete every year in a concrete-canoe competition which may sound strange to of people, but engineers can make concrete float, they do it all the time. We currently have a team in Florida competing in this competition. There is also a competition for a concrete Frisbee and a concrete bowling ball. 1 wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of either one of those. The biomedical engineering students have worked for several years now on projects to aid the disabled. Many of their designs have been for children with cerebral palsy. What they have designed here is a stair trainer (Figure 1). It actually has two different types of stairs to get up to a platform. The one set of stairs has widely-spaced steps while the other is a set of more closely-spaced steps. It is used to train the children on how to mount the different types of stairs but there is at the end because they get to slide down a slide. The child-care center had a number of design constraints for this apparatus. It had to be light-weight so that the teachers could easily move it around. It had to be easily disassembled for storage because they had space limitations and it had to be durable so that the children could play/leam on it everyday. Our students designed the stair trainer out of high-strength plastic composites to achieve all the specifications of the child-care center. Mechanical engineering is also very active in team-based projects. These are three of our mechanical engineering student projects. The one in the left hand comer is the Baja competition car (Figure 2), a competition where they have to design and build a dune buggy and then race it. We have built cars two years in a row. We’re proud to say we have always completed the race but we still need to work on the finish time. The photo in the upper right hand comer is a moon buggy competition (Figure 3). The difference between the Baja car and the moon buggy is that the first is a motorized vehicle and the latter has to be “people- powered.” The idea is that it would be a collapsible, light-weight vehicle that astronauts might be able to unpack and use to cross the moon’s surface. The common thread in both of these design competitions is that they have to be completely designed and constructed by the students. The picture in the lower middle section is a group our students who have for the last three or four years participated in the Alabama Space Grant Consortium project on micro-gravity research. They have flown experiments which they have designed themselves on NASA’s experimental aircraft, the KC-135. The KC-135 flies parabolic flight maneuvers over the Gulf of Mexico making it the world’s most intense roller coaster ride. As the plane enters the top of each parabola, its flight crew and all its contents experience a moment of weightlessness. Our students are researching the effects of low-gravity on the behavior of combustion flames. The students must compete for this opportunity against students fi'om engineering schools all over the country. We are very serious in engineering about students learning about research and engineering design early in the educational process. We introduce them to design in the very first course they take in engineering. We are now putting a 5-week research and design 91 UAB Engineering Honors project into our freshman engineering course, EGR 100. We hope that this will inspire some of our students later on to Join us in the honor’s program. Some of our most recent projects are shown here. One of our first projects was skateboards made from composite materials. Typically, skateboards are made out of maple to achieve a certain flexibility and strength. In the classroom students have to attempt to mimic that capability using high-strength composite materials. They must design the board, select the materials and construct the skateboard decks. Students have had a tremendous experience doing this. We have even tested their boards with professional skateboard riders by setting up a test track in our parking lot (Figure 4). The professionals were quite impressed, not enough that they would give up their maple boards, but they were surprised at what the students had been able to do with the composite materials. Our mechanical engineering department has helped us to do a project in the freshman class creating hover-crafts. These are small personalized hover crafts designed to illustrate the concept (Figure 5). Our first testing of hover crafts occurred last year at our annual School of Engineering/School of Business spring picnic. We expect the students in this program to maintain at least a 3.0 or better to be able to get the designation of graduating with honors in engineering. Whether they choose individual research or a team-based design project, the experience alone will be a tremendous benefit. We hope that many of students will be attracted enough to research to decide to go on for a master’s degree or perhaps a doctorate. Students in the research track could identify a research topic that they might be able to pursue for a higher degree. Any research hours they register for beyond the nine hours in the honors program can be applied towards their graduate program. This gives them the advantage of a head start if they choose to go on to graduate school. I will be happy to answer questions later on. Figure 1 92 UAB Engineering Honors Figure 2 Figure 3 93 UAB Engineering Honors Figure 4 Figure 5 94 Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 1, January 2005. BOOK REVIEW FISHES OF ALABAMA - A NEW CLASSIC? Andrew L. Rypel Department of Biological Sciences University of Alabama E-mail: rypel001@bama.ua.edu Fishes of Alabama, Herbert Boschung and Richard Mayden. Illustrations by Joseph Tomelleri. 640pp. plus glossary and index, Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Books, 2004. INTRODUCTION Dr.’s Herbert Boschung, Richard Mayden and Joseph Tomelleri have created a masterpiece with the much anticipated release of “Fishes of Alabama”. The amount of information pooled into this 960 page book is staggering. It is clear that this book represents the pinnacle of Boschung’s career as an ichthyologist, naturalist and scientist. The book is a mosaic of Boschung’s life-long data-sets and observations, Mayden’s intricate fish species keys and Joseph Tomelleri’s unmatched artistic talents. Many ichthyologists consider “Fishes of Virginia” (Robert E. Jenkins and Noel M. Burkhead ^1994), “Fishes of Tennessee” (David A. Etnier and Wayne C. Starnes ®1994) and “Fishes of Wisconsin” (George C. Becker ®2001) to be the current champions of the “Fishes of’ genre. Nonetheless, there remains no doubt that “Fishes of Alabama” will be among these elite books. As a bonus, Boschung provides detailed histories of the academic fish programs in Alabama. It is a tall order to discuss the groundbreaking fisheries work of Homer Swingle at Auburn University and switch to the incredible fish collections and ichthyologists at the University of Alabama in a swift movement, but Boschung succeeds with ease in the opening chapter of the book. “Fishes of Alabama” replaces its predecessor “Fishes of Alabama and the Mobile Basin ®1996”, written by Maurice F. Mettee, Patrick E. O'Neil and J. Malcolm Pierson, a wonderful and adequate book in its own right. However, Boschung and company went all out with this book making it a must have for any naturalist worth their salt, especially in Alabama. The trump card for this book is the voluminous information provided by Boschung and the artistic renderings of Tomelleri. In a recent book signing, Boschung revealed the existence of a substantial amount of information not included in the book to maintain a manageable size. He discussed the possibility of publishing this information as a companion to the current book in the future. As a fish ecologist, 1 cannot help but marvel not only at the lavish information included for each fish species, but at the elegant writing of Boschung throughout the book. For a recent scientific manuscript, I needed to look up a series of life-history values for 6 Alabama fish species. Not only was the information provided for each of the six species in an intelligible way, but the writing was graceful enough that 1 was compelled to read the entirety of information for each species; a clear sign of good writing. Tomelleri’s artistic renderings of each species are equally stunning. The most amazing part of Tomelleri’s illustrations is his accuracy. Not only do his illustrations match up in color and appearance, but they are accurate down to the scale count. Drawing any fish can be a challenging endeavor, let alone 95 Rypel the darters and minnows which dominate Alabama fish diversity. It is hard to imagine the time and effort Tomelleri put into the 709 color illustrations included in the book. It would not be a stretch to say that Tomelleri is the best illustrator of fishes in the world. INTERVIEWS I interviewed several published ichthyologists to find commonalities in the strengths and weaknesses of this book. I asked each person to name at least one strength and weakness. All agreed that the effort put into the book was remarkable. One ichthyologist went so far as to say Boschung, “wrote it with his own blood.” Each interviewee also commented that the keys developed by Mayden were comprehensive and consistent. One scientist said, “It doesn’t tell you to just measure the snout, but tells you where on the snout you need to measure, which is important.” Nevertheless, everyone interviewed mentioned that the book’s size makes it too cumbersome. At 960 pages, it can be hard to extract the information you need in a timely fashion. Cutting writing of such caliber can be difficult, but could have possibly been done more to keep the book trim and concise. A common complaint some had was that they do not like using it in the lab or the field because it is, “too nice.” Some prefer to keep the book on the shelf or coffee table, when it should brought into the workplace as a tool. Additionally, some would have preferred pictures over the artistic renderings of Tomelleri. Some commented that lay people and students may not see key features in the paintings as well as they might in photographs. Most interviewees commented on the exceptionally detailed distributional maps provided for each species although one commented that the county boundaries were hard to see and there were no physiographic regions on the maps which can help clarify the nature of a species distribution in some instances. For example, certain fish species such as the dollar sunfish {Lepomis marginatus) are limited to a specific physiographic region (e.g. the coastal plains). A skilled reader would already know this information, whereas a novice may have benefited from auxiliary information on the map. Also, one scientist accurately pointed out an error in the stoneroller (genus Campostoma) plates. It appears that the female largescale stoneroller (Campostoma oligolepis) has breeding tubercles. Nuptial male stonerollers develop breeding tubercles on their head and fins which appear as blunt, homy lesions, but females do not. COMMENTARY With the arrival of “Fishes of Alabama” in 2004 and “Fishes of Alabama and the Mobile Basin” less than 1 0 years old, the authors of both books may not have realized that the readers are left with confusing signals to as to which book to choose. Most people who work with fish will undoubtedly use both and simply read both book’s species descriptions. This could be considered a strongpoint at times; an appearance of having twice the information. However, more often than not, the information is repeated and the reader is left with the task of sifting through 2 books to find unique information left by one book and not the other. Aside from minor details however, it is hard to find much wrong with this life-long effort. The current book price is pleasing to the eye to as well. “Fishes of Alabama” retails for 47.67 US dollars on Amazon.com and ~50 US dollars in most Alabama book stores. At such a price, it would be hard not to own this book which is bound to become a classic. 96 r.i “-.t '■ -^ •'9^ ' * :Si** Jf ♦, . , *n^"m t»4 S INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS Editorial Policy: Publication of the Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science is restricted to members. Membership application forms can be obtained on the Academy’s web site: www.alabamaacademyofscience.org. Subject matter should address original research in one of the discipline sections of the Academy; Biological Sciences; Chemistry; Geology: Forestry, Geography, Conservation, and Planning; Physics and Mathematics; Industry and Economics, Science Education; Social Sciences; Health Sciences; Engineering and Computer Science; and Anthropology. Timely review articles of exceptional quality and general readership interest will also be considered. Invited articles dealing with Science Activities in Alabama are occasionally published. Book reviews of Alabama authors are also solicited. Submission of an article for publication in the implies that it has not been published previously and that it not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. Each manuscript will receive at least two simultaneous peer reviews. Submission: Submit an original and two copies to the editor. Papers which are unrea¬ sonably long and verbose, such as uncut theses, will be returned. The title page should contain the author’s name, affiliation, and address, including zip code. The editor may request that manuscripts be submitted on a diskette upon their revision or acceptance. Manuscripts: Consult recent issues of the Journal for format. Double-space manuscripts throughout, allowing 1-inch margins. Number all pages. An abstract not exceeding 200 words will be published if the author so desires. Use heading and subdivisions where necessary for clarity. Common headings are: Introduction (including literature review). Procedures (or Materials and Methods), Results, Discussion, and Literature Cited. Other formats may be more appropriate for certain subject matter areas. Headings should be in all caps and centered on the typed page; sub-headings should be italicized (underlined) and placed at the margin. Skip footnote number(s) if one or more authors must have their present address footnoted. Illustrations: Submit original inked drawings (graphs and diagrams) or clear black and white glossy photographs. Width must not exceed 15 cm and height must not exceed 20 cm. Illustrations not conforming to these dimensions will be returned to the author. Use lettering that will still be legible after a 30% reduction. Designate all illustrations as figures, number consecutively, and cite all figures in the text. Type figure captions on a separate sheet of paper. Send two extra sets of illustrations; xeroxed photographs are satisfactory for review purposes. Tables: Place each table on a separate sheet. Place a table title directly above each table. Number tables consecutively. Use symbols or letters, not numerals, for table footnotes. Cite all tables in the text. Literature Cited: Only references cited in the text should be listed under Literature Cited. Do not group references according to source (books, periodicals, newspapers, etc.). List in alphabetical order of senior author names. Cite references in the text par¬ enthetically by author-date. Clj o if -tt ♦•***♦ .(I LU « M £ t CL c o z o q. d cr> « ssvio IBHIJ I uneJu It The Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science. American Museum of Natural History Received on*. amnh 100232739 D D Ol a— ' CO o o "cS _C a— > ’ — ' Z; Oh < r- o a— > CO s £ C/1 p -S ID c/1 V-i D r\ 'L- > r- O J-H C3 u P c3 5 Dh v- o C/) o « _ 1 « _ , "s * c fl j D r-' c D c/:i < o P E B *5 g S •i-s g'^'i