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Distance learners

How do distance learners connect?

7/19/19

In a typical college classroom, social connections are formed through face-to-face interactions. Through informal chats before and after class, group project meetings, and other exchanges, students are able to build community with their classmates and peers that often enrich their academic experience.

But how do distance learners connect?

American Flag

Though politically divided, Americans remain patriotic

7/1/19

Despite increasing polarization, people across the political spectrum appear to be largely united on what it means to be patriotic, according to new findings from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy’s Mood of the Nation Poll.

red chili peppers

Milk: Best drink to reduce burn from chili peppers

6/25/19

People who order their Buffalo wings especially spicy and sometimes find them to be too "hot," should choose milk to reduce the burn, according to Penn State researchers, who also suggest it does not matter if it is whole or skim.

Barbara Korner speaking at APLU panel on arts and scientific research

Heard on Campus: Dean Korner on blending art and research to change lives

6/20/19

"I’ve been hammering away at the notion that if science researchers bring artists and designers to the table at the beginning, they will find that these creatives will ask new questions, will explode those questions and explode that research wide open, and will lead to new directions and new discoveries,” said Barbara Korner, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture.

Gettysburg battlefield photo

Partnership allows for the launch of the Pa. Civil War Deserters Database

6/19/19

After years of development, Penn State University Libraries, in partnership with the Richards Civil War Era Center, has launched the Pennsylvania Civil War Deserters Database. Containing more than 24,000 individual records of soldiers, the interactive database allows users to search the compiled records for individual solders by name, but also identify groups of soldiers by specific criteria.

Factory

Report: Pa. employment strong, but job growth leaves regions, industries behind

6/13/19

With the U.S. economy on track for potentially the longest expansion on record after the Great Recession of 2008-09, employment in Pennsylvania overall is strong. But the rosy statewide job numbers can mask persistent decline in various industries and regions across the state, according to economists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

woman eating chocolate bar

Sensing food textures is a matter of pressure

6/13/19

Food's texture affects whether it is eaten, liked or rejected, according to Penn State researchers, who say some people are better at detecting even minor differences in consistency because their tongues can perceive particle sizes.

Group Improv Session

Happy Valley Improv fuses artform with pedagogy

6/5/19

Penn State faculty Andrea McCloskey and Sam Tanner are quite serious about the often comedic artform of improv. They are two of the four founders of Happy Valley Improv, and behind the performative emotions the two are whittling away at how their artform can serve to transform teaching in the classroom.

Bokol Dora 1

Earliest flaked-stone tools found in Ethiopia

6/3/19

The origin of flaked-stone tool production is older than 2.58 million years ago, according to an international team of scientists working at the Bokol Dora 1 archaeological site in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Previously the oldest evidence of flaked-stone tools was younger than 2.58 million years ago.

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