STEAM (36)
STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. These are study subjects in which U.S. pupils are generally not at par with their peers in other developed countries. That reduces our chances of finding timely solutions to the dire crises that face our planet. It also diminishes the chances for the U.S. economy to remain competitive.
More people already know the STEM abbreviation. Some states and communities are now implementing STEM education programs. Many experts believe that Art education is important, too. Scientific studies have shown that STEM students and professionals who attended art classes are more likely to find crative solutions to new problems.
Empty halls, full hearts: Farragut students and teachers adapted with aplomb to pandemic challenge
Written by Ivy Zhang
An empty corridor at Farragut High School. Ivy Zhang/Hellbender Press
Despite COVID restrictions, Farragut High students still sought their shine
Hellbender Press intern Ivy Zhang is a junior at Farragut High School. She plans a career in journalism and digital media.
KNOXVILLE — For the 2020-2021 school year, Knox County Schools provided two choices for families: virtual learning or in-person schooling. Many students chose to do virtual school and participated in less extracurricular activities.
Students felt isolated. School clubs halted for the entire school year. The disruption caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) affected the whole world, as well as local communities.
Farragut High School, No. 2 in Knox County rankings, is a great example of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected students.
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Marie Kurz: Helping science on watersheds flow across disciplines
Written by Kristen Coyne
Marie Kurz is seen at a pond on the campus of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Carlos Jones/ORNL
From California canyons to German creeks: Science is personal and practical for ORNL scientist Marie Kurz
Kristen Coyne is a writer for Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
OAK RIDGE — Spanning no less than three disciplines, Marie Kurz’s title — hydrogeochemist — already gives you a sense of the collaborative, interdisciplinary nature of her research at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Still, those six syllables only hint at the vast web of relationships encompassed in her work.
Kurz studies how rivers flow through landscapes; what kinds of nutrients, contaminants and other material sail through them; and how they transform along the way. As an experimentalist, her favorite part of the job is getting into the field. Depending on the season, Kurz can be found clad in tights, gloves reaching her shoulders, a neon vest and a ponytail-taming cap as she sloshes in olive hip waders through the particular stream under her scrutiny. The getup, she said, always makes her feel a bit like the Michelin Man.
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It’s Sirius: Light pollution blots out the night sky but pockets of true darkness remain
Written by Rick Vaughan
The Southeast is seen at night from the International Space Station. NASA
Dark Sky parks, including some in East Tennessee, offer true views of heaven
“Look up at the sky. There is a light, a beauty up there, that no shadow can touch.” J. R. R. Tolkien
WARTBURG — Those who came before us read the night sky like we read maps today.
In ancient times, pointing to the stars, they imagined creatures, mythological heroes and common every-day objects. Because of their fixed positions, the constellations became a foolproof way to navigate across vast, featureless deserts and expansive seas. The stars marked the changing seasons and the passage of time. The star patterns were memorized and taught to each new generation.
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Hai! It’s a summer baby cuteness boom at the Tennessee Aquarium
Written by Casey Phillips
The Tennessee Aquarium’s Gentoo penguin chick weighs more than 2 kilograms at 28 weeks old. Casey Phillips/Tennessee Aquarium
Baby penguin, endangered turtles and puffer fish are the newest additions to the Tennessee Aquarium
(Casey Phillips is a communications specialist at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga)
As any parent knows, kids tend to do whatever you least expect. In the case of an endangered four-eyed turtle hatchling at the Tennessee Aquarium, however, merely existing was — in itself — a huge surprise.
On July 11, a volunteer was tending an enclosure in a backup area of the River Journey exhibit. This habitat was only supposed to house a female endangered four-eyed turtle (Sacalia quadriocellata, a largely montaine species native to parts of China and Vietnam), but the volunteer soon discovered that the adult turtle wasn’t alone. Perched atop a layer of vegetation was a tiny hatchling that, by all accounts, shouldn’t have been there.
“The adult female hadn’t been with a male in over a year, so we did not check to see if she had laid this year,” says Bill Hughes, the aquarium’s herpetology coordinator. “To say the least, finding an egg, let alone a hatchling, was unexpected.”
Tennessee Aquarium Herpetology Coordinator Bill Hughes holds a recently hatched endangered four-eyed turtle. Casey Phillips/Tennessee Aquarium
The days the Earth stood still (Part 2): South Knoxville’s Ijams Nature Center weathered Covid with grit, gifts and gratitude. Naturally.
Written by Thomas Fraser
Members of a Covid-era outdoor education class at Ijams Nature Center net insects. The South Knoxville nature center weathered the Covid-19 pandemic with donations, federal loan guarantees and common-sense maneuvering, like moving all educational programming outside. Photos courtesy Ijams Nature Center.
Ijams posted record visitation during pandemic even as resources were challenged
(This is the second in an occasional Hellbender Press series about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the natural world. Here's the first installment about air quality improvements in the Smokies.)
Individuals and organizations can learn a lot from a pandemic.
You up your technology game. You innovate and run harder and get leaner. You realize the importance of face time (the real face time).
You learn the power of allies and those who really love you.
And in the case of Ijams Nature Center in South Knoxville, you learn just how much people need and value the natural world and the outdoors, especially in times of acute stress and uncertainty.
Ijams played host to a record number of visitors in 2020; there was no usual winter slowdown. Parking lots were full virtually every day during the height of the pandemic that claimed the lives of at least 600,000 people in the U.S. That visitation trend has continued at Ijams, with the coronavirus somewhat comfortably in the rear-view mirror.
An estimated 160,000 people visit the popular nature center annually, but there’s no exact count. Officials said the 2020 visitation substantially surpassed that number, and they plan a visitation study because a very “porous border” prevents an accurate count.
“The one great thing that has come out of Covid, is that people have recognized the importance of nature in their lives; they’ve recognized it as a place for solace, a place to get out and be safe and feel comfortable,” said Ijams Nature Center Executive Director Amber Parker.
“The sheer mass number of people coming were new to Ijams, or maybe come once or twice coming multiple times a week,” said Ijams Development Director Cindy Hassil.
“We were so excited to be this refuge for everyone,” Parker added.
The two women spoke on a sunny spring afternoon on the fetching expanse of stone terrace behind the visitors center in the shade of tulip poplars, red buds and dogwoods. Cardinals chirped and early 17-year cicadas throbbed behind a natural green curtain.
Loghaven in South Knoxville melds natural and human habitats to serve regional artists
Written by Tracy Haun Owens
Sanders Pace Architecture blended the collection of the decades-old cabins at Loghaven in South Knoxville with the existing natural environment. Photos by Anna Lawrence/Hellbender Press
Loghaven: An award-winning natural and built environment in South Knoxville intends to get minds moving
Five years after he first saw the property that would become Loghaven Artist Residency, architect Brandon Pace was in one of the renovated cabins, listening to a performance by now-late composer Harold Budd, in town to perform at the 2019 Big Ears music festival.
The experience brought home the full potential of a truly special place.
“That was wonderful,” Pace said of that moment. “You could see it being a place for a composer. You saw this could be something. You could see how our city comes alive in events like this.”
This spring, Knoxville-based Sanders Pace Architecture was awarded a 2021 AIA Architecture Award for the design and architectural rehabilitation work at the 90-acre Loghaven property, which is owned and managed by the Aslan Foundation.
“The role they play in supporting good design in our community cannot be overstated,” Pace said of the Aslan Foundation.
Team member Michael Davis was awarded the 2021 AIA Young Architects Award.
On June 1, Loghaven Artist Residency opened up the application process for its second class of in-person residents, artists who work in visual, performing, literary, and interdisciplinary artistic fields.
“Save Loghaven”
Loghaven is a uniquely quirky part of Knoxville history. It began as a collection of log cabins in a heavily wooded area along Candora Road in South Knoxville.
The cabins were built as rental properties by single mom and entrepreneur Myssie Thompson in 1935, in the middle of the Great Depression. Her cabins, as well as one built by neighbor John Hightower, are the heart of the property.
Generations of UTK students and professors, young professionals, and others rented the alluring cabins. But by the late 1990s, the area was sinking into disrepair, with kudzu, privet, and other invasive plants growing up around the cabins and previously cleared areas.
Dollywood joins Tennessee Aquarium effort to limit the introduction of cigarette butts to our shared waterways.
“As all humans need access to clean water, it’s an incredibly important treasure to protect.” — Dr. Anna George, Tennessee Aquarium vice president of conservation science and education.
Cigarette butts are everywhere, and are perhaps so familiar they go unnoticed by the millions of people who pass them on our streets and roads.
Not only are they unsightly, they contaminate our water resources — the puddles after a sudden rainstorm, the streams that flow through our landscapes, and the stormwater drains that ultimately lead to the Tennessee River. The butts quickly break down, polluting water with “tiny plastic fibers and a devil’s cocktail of chemical compounds,” according to the Tennessee Aquarium.
Smokies bear vs. hog viral video: Yep. That’s about right.
Written by Thomas FraserSmokies biologist: Bear vs. hog video highlights nature taking its course
