Friday, February 27, 1976
7
Prof leads students to love of learning
By GREG BASHAW
Staff Writer
Colors danced from an oversized television screen, the images controlled by a silver-haired man hitting keys on a black computer console.
As he punched a bizarre pattern onto the screen, he turned from the computer, looking like a boy satisfied with a favorite toy.
"I'm only playing with images, grabbing some energy from space," says Robert
Nunley's play with the visual computer on the fourth floor of Nichols Hall is part of his experimental work with computer graphics.
Computer graphics is the description of energy as it diffuses in space by use of patterns and images controlled by a computer. Nunlev said yesterday.
"Every course I teach deals with energy in space, because that's what makes up the universe. Every discipline, be they painting, music, you, can use these managing techniques."
Nunley said he had fun and learned at the same time while experimenting with the computer. It's this combination of joy and learning. Nunley wants his students to experience.
"Learning is as ectastic for the human as is sex," he said, "but how do you explain sex to someone? They just have to learn it for themselves."
Nunley said his courses were designed to give students insights into the process of learning rather than to get them to grasp specific concepts or principles. He teaches geography, remote sensing and cybernetics.
my challenge is to keep alive this personal involvement and thrill in learning in spite of the academic bureaucracy," he said. Nunley he thought that academic interests should be an integral part of the student's learning experience by thwarting his natural interest in the world.
Nunley answers his own challenge by emphasizing experiential learning in his classes. He mentions, for example, monthly reports by the student replace term papers and exams. These reports can be at most one page long and are concerned with geography. Nunley said.
"We limit it to one page because we don't want verbal diarrhea," he said. "We want to know just what our students are really thinking."
Students are encouraged to write about whatever strikes their fancies, Nunley said. The reports have been about everything like windmills to how to build a hang glider.
"It's not necessary for students to write on a geographical topic, but I defy anyone to give me a paper that I can't make more of." I apply applying geographical constructs to."
The project option reflects Nunley's ultimate concern: finding a way to build an educational environment for personal learning experience in his classes. Nunley's Geography 106 students may decide early in the semester to devote full attention to a special project rather than to the regular class, he said.
"My biggest concern in teaching should be whether I can turn my student on, keep them interested for themselves," he said, "and I can."
Nunley said that he could guarantee to excite every member of a small seminar. In a large lecture class like Geography 106, he would teach that interest more than half of his students.
"It's funny, when I say I'm out to excite students, a lot of them put an emotional wall against me," he said. "Then of course I've got them because they've already changed a part of themselves, already put some emotion into our class."
Nunley believes the emotional satisfaction of learning has long been satisfied for a long time.
"You may learn in one of my classes that the earth rotates around the sun, but when you're through, I want you to look up and yourself on the earth being rotated," he said.
To work towards an integration of emotional and intellectual learning, Nunley gives his students assignments that encourage self-exploration and discovery. His students are assigned to browse at bookstores, talk with a veterinarian and sit in quiet corners to think
Nunley said some of his colleagues had charged him with offering unstructured classes, giving out too many good grades and lowering academic standards. He said he had worked to help achieve goal with these educators but used different techniques to achieve his purpose.
Nunley said he sat in on one class a year taught by another KU professor to help him with his research.
"Besides," he said, "If I have to sit
Staff photo by DON PIERCE
Computer geography
Robert Nunley, professor of geography, tries to get his students hooked on learning by reviving the basic satisfaction in learning. The visual computer in the background is used in many of his classes to encourage self-exploration and discovery.
through boring lectures then I'll try to make mine more interesting for others."
Nunley pushed back his glasses and pointed to his computer console, which he held.
By using the computer to recall stored images, a researcher can study land use, urban sprawl and secondary oil exploration problems in three dimensions." he said.
A picture of Kansas City's urban area finared across the screen in vibrant color.
"You run the risk of being hooked on learning if you take one of my classes," says Kate.
Groups say alimony should stay
Almamy shouldn't be eliminated in the union of Linda Karp and president of the State University.
Although many feminists think alimony shouldn't be accepted, Weipert said yesterday that payment of alimony to a woman is all right, depending on the circumstances.
John Kopek, student director of Douglas County Legal Aid Society, Inc., said, "Almity is payment by one's spouse—the spouse that earns the income—to the other for support of the lifestyle they are accustomed to."
Koepke, Lawrence third-year law student, said he had observed that fewer women were asking for alimony. He said women would have to have one of two attitudes on alimony.
The first attitude is to try to penalize the husband by making him pay for everything he does.
The second is an attitude that the woman plans to become part of the economic system again, Koepee said, and therefore will either refuse alimony or ask only for temporary alimony until she is able to complete her education or find a job.
AURH elects board officers
AURH Executive Board officers were elected last night by the 30 members of the AURH Resident's Assembly. The officer's terms will last one year and begin last
Officers elected are; president, Mike Taraboulos, Prairie Village junior; vice president, Paul Rabinovitz, Overland Park sophomore; secretary, Beth Anne MacCurdy, Leawood sophomore; treasurer, Jim Ken, Columbia, Mo., junior; and communications coordinator, Chunk Wilson, Sundance, Wyo.
Nancy Reber, treasurer of the Commission on the Status of Women, agreed that alimony should be granted if it were needed or wanted.
Rebel gave the examples of women who were unable to work because of a physical handicap or who needed monetary support to remarry if that was the lifestyle preferred.
Koepke said he thought women were entitled to alimony if they had put their husbands through school and their husbands were now filing for a divorce.
Most of the cases that the Legal Aid Society handles are concerned with students, Koepee said. He said that when student couples divorced they usually did so without paying any alimony since neither was financially capable.
Koope said they were presently handling a case that involved temporary alimony for the late wife.
He said he thought temporary alumny was terrific and that it would be inconsistent for feminists to ask for long-term alumny if the woman was capable of work.
when its people are malnourished, hungry or live under the threat of hunger; when its small businesses use out-dated, ineffective practices; when its people are illiterate, under-educated, unable to communicate effectively with more developed communities; when its people suffer from debilitating ailments with no hope of proper care.
CREATE OPTIONS A community has few options—
The Peace Corps and VISTA were developed from the assumption that most people don't want a hand-out or a free-ride—they just want someone to show them how they can help themselves. For more than a decade, Peace Corps and VISTA Volunteers have been doing just that and finding out, in the process, how rewarding the experience can be.
If you are a U.S. citizen, male or female, healthy, degred or skillful in some aspect of agriculture, business, education, health or some other field, contact a Peace Corps/VISTA representative on campus about opportunities for you in 1976.
Good Luck Jayhawks
THE STUDENT SENATE NEEDS YOUR INVOLVEMENT NOW
INVOLVED? COMMITED?
Membership now open on the seven standing committees of the Student Senate
•Academic Affairs
•Communications
•Culture
•Finance and Auditing
Sports
•Student Rights, Privileges,
and Responsibilities
•Student Services
- Membership now open on the five sub-committees of the Student Senate
●Elections
●Minority Affairs
●Transportation
●Committee on Classroom Teaching
●Recreation Advisory Board
- MEMBERSHIP NOW OPEN ON THE ATHLETIC SEATING BOARD (4 STUDENT POSITIONS AVAILABLE)
1. Complaint Service Director
POSITIONS AVAILABLE IN THE STUDENT SENATE OFFICE
2. Coordinator for Public Relations
3. Executive Secretary
Length of Appointment March 1976 to March 1977
Salary $60.00/Month
Duties
1. Compile and distribute minutes for Student Senate meetings and for the Student Executive Committee meetings.
2. Responsible for the assemblage and codification of legislation pertinent to the Student Senate.
3. Responsible for management of the Student Senate office and maintenance of the Student Senate Re-
Requirements
Available 15 hours/week
The Student Senate is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Qualified men and women of all races are encouraged to participate.
Pick up applications at the Student Senate office, 105 B, Kansas Union
Deadline for applications: March 5,1976 THE STUDENT SENATE IS FUNDED FROM THE STUDENT ACTIVITY FEE