UNC-system happenings, November 8, 2013

WCU senior adapts Stephen King work

Mike Hill, a senior at Westen Carolina University, recently won non-exclusive rights to produce a film adaptation of Stephen King’s short story “The Rest Stop” from his larger collection of works titled “Just After Sunset.”

“I have heard about people doing this program, the Dollar Baby program, and a lot of my idols in the film industry have done it,” Hill said.

Hill said the program is designed for student filmmakers who are working on their film degrees. It enables selected students to have non-exclusive rights to one of King’s short stories available to the program.

“He’ll let you make an adaptation of it for a dollar,” he said. “That is why it’s called a Dollar Baby.”

Hill said he hoped the film would be finished by the end of next summer.

UNC-G builds tunnel for student safety and convenience

UNC-Greensboro is in the process of constructing a tunnel to connect the existing campus to a new expanded section, including Spartan Village Apartments.

“The goal is to provide a convenient and safe connection from the existing campus for bicycles and pedestrians to the campus expansion along West Lee Street,” said Jorge Quintal, associate vice chancellor for facilities at UNC-G.

Plans for some kind of bridge or tunnel near campus had been in the works for more than 15 years — but Quintal said the biggest push came in 2009, when the school’s Board of Trustees approved a strategic housing plan that increased the number of students living on campus.

The university needed to expand, he said, and the idea of a tunnel grew out of the need to connect that expansion with the older sections of the campus.

The $10.5-million tunnel will include safety features such as robust lighting and security cameras. Quintal said the tunnel will be located adjacent to a new campus police station currently under construction.

UNC-P professor works towards Alzheimer cure

Ben Bahr, a professor of molecular biology at UNC-Pembroke, is working with a team of researchers toward a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.

Bahr said he admits there is still much work to be done before his team’s discoveries can benefit those affected by Alzheimer’s — but he said he believes what he has found is significant for the advancement of a cure for the disease.

“We have discovered the link in the brain to different proteins that can potentially slow down the deteriorating nature of Alzheimer’s disease,” he said.

Students from the university are on Bahr’s research team. He said working with them has been key to his accomplishments within the Alzheimer’s field so far.

Bahr added that he does not believe this is the end of research efforts to combat Alzheimer’s.

“This is not the end of anything,” he said. “This discovery is the beginning of everything.”

NCSSM teachers strive to make online classes more engaging

Candice Chambers and Amy Garrett , teachers at the N.C. School of Science and Math, are both working to make their online classes more interactive and fun for students.

Chambers, who teaches science and anthropology, said she assigns group projects where students can come to campus and complete activities together, such as investigating a reconstructed crime scene.

She said her students have shown an improvement in their writing skills after completing her new activities. They have also told her how much they enjoy doing them.

“They really look forward to these on-campus activities and on-campus weekends,” Chambers said. “Some of them have told me that this is the one thing they look forward to all year.”

Garrett said she has created online interactive labs, including a crash scene reconstruction activity, to encourage student participation.

“I just try to come up with as many ways as possible to make the activities engaging and encourage activity between the students,” she said.

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