August 2009

DSU Hosts ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Camp

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  June 24, 2009 Delaware State University served as the site for the June 14–26 ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp June 14–26, a science and math enrichment program for middle school students. The two-week camp—co-sponsored by the astronaut’s Harris Foundation and Exxon Mobil—was designed to provide middle school students from Delaware with a fun-filled setting to give them a greater understanding of science, technology, mathematics and engineering, as well as information about exciting careers in science. Dr. Bernard A. Harris Jr., a NASA space shuttle astronaut, came to DSU on June 23 to work with the students and speak to them about the importance of science and technology education. “Whatever your dream is, start working on it now,” Dr. Harris told the students, who all attend middle schools in Delaware. The participating students spent the mornings, afternoon and early evening learning biology, chemistry, physiology, physics and math. The subjects were taught under the theme of human survival, and students were given projects that were based on math, science and technology that would aid them in the wilderness. During media day on June 23, the students were challenged to construct a raft out of foil and drinking straws. The winning team’s raft was able to stay afloat while carrying the weight of more than 200 pennies. Dr. Bernard Harris spends some time at DSU  on June 23 giving the summer camp kids the benefit of his engineering and science knowledge. Dr. Harris was at NASA for ten years, where he conducted research in musculoskeletal physiology and disuse osteoporosis. Later, as head of the Exercise Countermeasure Project, he conducted clinical investigations of space adaptation and developed in-flight medical devices to extend astronaut stays in space. Selected into the Astronaut Corps in January 1990, Dr. Harris was a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia STS-55/Spacelab D-2 in 1993. As payload commander on Space Shuttle Discovery STS-63 in 1995, he served on the first flight of the joint Russian-American Space Program, becoming the “First African American to walk in Space.” A veteran astronaut for over nineteen years, he has logged more than 438 hours and traveled over 7.2 million miles in space.

New Distance Learning Director Appointed

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  August 24, 2009 Dr. Peter S. Cookson has been appointed to serve as the Delaware State University Director of Distance Education. For the past three years he served as the academic director of Consorcio Clavijero, a higher education network of 46 universities and other institutions that offered baccalaureate degrees via online distance education. He previously served as the director of the Center for Education and Information Technology at the United Nations-affiliated university in Costa Rica; professor of distance education and associate vice-president of academic and research at Athabasca University, Canada’s Open University; and associate professor and professor-in-charge of the graduate Adult Education Program at Penn State.  Dr. Peter S. Cookson   He currently serves as a book review editor of the journal, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (www.irrodl.org), of which he was the founding editor, and serves on the comité científico of Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, edited at the Universidad de Educación a Distancia (Spain) and published at the Universidad Tecnológica de Loja, Ecuador. He has served in professional leadership positions with the Commission of Professors of Adult Education (of North America), the Adult Education Association of the USA, and President of the Alberta Association of Adult and Continuing Education. A native of Liverpool, England, he has worked for many years in several countries in Latin America as well as in projects related to adult and continuing education and distance education in India, Sri Lanka, and Sudan. Dr. Cookson received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in sociology and Latin American studies from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. in adult education from the University of Chicago. He has authored numerous refereed publications and is author and editor of three books about program planning for continuing education and training for adults. With a personal and professional commitment to the promotion of distance education programs that expand access to educationally underserved adults, Dr. Cookson says, “I look forward to collaborating with DSU faculty members to build online distance education courses and programs that extend DSU’s dual land grant and HBCU mission to people of diversity not only within the state of Delaware, but also throughout the nation and internationally.”

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