Contact: Maridith Geuder
Two educational programs at Mississippi State University are among several being recognized for contributions to the state during the past year.
The Wood Science Fair Mobile Classroom and the MAGNOLIA--Mississippi Alliance for Gaining New Opportunities through Library Information Access--are 1998 honorees in annual competition sponsored by the Public Education Forum of Mississippi.
The awards program recognizes "educational excellence that impacts on the lives of students."
The mobile classroom is an extension of the Wood Magic Science Fair, a popular Forest Products Laboratory/Forest and Wildlife Research Center-sponsored event that annually draws thousands to campus. Equally successful, the mobile classroom travels throughout Mississippi, reaching more than 7,500 students and teachers during 1997 alone.
Wood Magic and the mobile classroom both provide hands-on educational programs that introduce students to a range of activities relating to trees and the environment. Papermaking, plywood manufacture, and termite demonstrations are some of the activities.
The MSU forestry department, Cooperative Extension Service, U.S. Forest Service, Lumberman's Educational Foundation, Georgia-Pacific Corp., International Paper Co., and Mississippi Loggers Association are among other collaborators on the project.
MAGNOLIA, the other honored program, is a statewide collaboration designed to bring new library resources to Mississippi public schools and communities.
With funding by the Mississippi Legislature, MAGNOLIA provides Internet access and a variety of computer databases. Among others, these include "Facts on File," more than 2,000 full-text journals and various newspapers, serials, and business and education resources.
Benefiting approximately 1,200 public school, community college, university, and public libraries, the alliance is chaired by MSU Dean of Libraries Frances Coleman. The effort also is supported by the state's Council on Education Technology, chaired by Larry Anderson, MSU professor of technology and education.
Other local MAGNOLIA participants include steering committee members Florence Box of Starkville High School, Stephen Cunetto and Susanna Turner of MSU, and Patricia Matthes of Mississippi University for Women.
Box is SHS head librarian; Cunetto, MSU libraries' systems administrator; Turner, head of the libraries' public service; and Matthes, head of public services and serials at MUW's Fant Memorial Library. Cunetto serves as MAGNOLIA's technical adviser, while Turner chairs its database selection/technology committee and Matthes heads its budget committee.