A Plethora of Plenty

So - to end the update that began with the dentist and continued with the dog. I started getting itchy on Saturday - and noticed I had some red areas. No big deal, but I did wonder what was starting. Well, Sunday came and there were some really noticeable areas of redness, but again, not a huge deal. Monday came and now my arms are suddenly covered in red spots. I know it's not chicken pox, as I already had that and it's not pimply like pox is. Instead, it's kind of like blisters. So, of course, I show my co-workers in order to disturb them. Everyone has a different idea as to what it is, from chicken pox to shingles to poison ivy to scabies. Fortunately, I can get to see the doctor on Tuesday, but Monday night was horrible, with my arms swelling up so much that there wasn't any hive-less skin visible. Of course, by the morning, the swelling was gone, and so when I got to the doctor, there were only a very few minor spots. I'm also starting a cold at this point. A cold that wipes me out on Wednesday, resulting in classes being cancelled again. Arrrgh. This is in addition to the hives which come and go according to their own schedule. And I have people asking about the dog. And the molar-hole still hurts. Ah, it's a heck of a week.

In regards to the dog, I've decided to put Sam up on the adoption block. Though it pains me to do so, the thought of having a pet that almost took out a child's eye is too much to bear. I'm looking for a nice farm for him, one that will allow him to hunt squirrel and mice to his little hearts content.

Now, a week later, the cold is almost gone, though sniffles remain. The dog situation is still unresolved, though I have a lead on a farm that might take him. The molar-hole is doing much better, though a small piece of bone worked it's way out yesterday while I was talking to a coworker. That's just a bit weird, listening to someone, feeling the hole with my tongue and having part of my skeletal structure come loose. The dentist had warned me of it, but c'mon.

Much as the last contest, I need movie entries from y'all. This time, we're talking movies for a general psychology class. It looks as if I'll be teaching an Honors class in general psych, and we'll be using movies as the basis for class discussion. Basically, we cover 6 main topic areas in the class, and we'll show a movie at the beginning of each topic area and spend the rest of the time discussion how class material and the movie material correspond and/or how the movie got it right/wrong. So, I need a good number of movies to pick from for each of five categories. I have already decided on the movie for the category of “Historical and Current Psychology”. We’ll be using the movie “Requiem for a Dream”. For the remaining five, I'll pick the best (in terms of the class) from each category. The winners from each category get a prize. What that prize is, I'm not sure yet. However, the categories are listed below, along with a more detailed explanation. Contest ends December 1st. Good luck!

Biology (or the brain, neurons, nervous system, and endocrine system) It appears that Amanda has the lock on this. She found a research article devoted to this very question (Wiertelak, E. (2002). And the winner is: Inviting Hollywood into the neuroscience classroom. The Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, A4-A17.

There are almost 100 movies in the list, and I'll be spending the next couple of days looking at and choosing from that list. In addition, many may work for the remaining categories, so if you are going to submit, do it fast.

Behaviorism (or learning through reward and punishment)

Cognitive (or thinking, problem solving, creativity, memory)

Developmental (Changes across the lifespan)

Personality (unconsciousness, Freudian concepts, Jung, why happy people stay happy)

Well, let's see....what happened after that Sunday? Murray basically was shy for the next week, Sam was under quarantine (he had to stay in the house and not have contact with other animals or with people for 2 weeks), and Bob got better. Much better. As it turns out, he had to get 4 stitches under his eye, but that was it. Bob's off to the right there. No, his eyes typically don't look like that, but I wanted to show that he's fine but preserve anonymity as well. He's apparently healed up, had the stitches out, and is doing well. Still, I feel horribly guilty about the whole thing.

So, I spent that next week trying to catch up at work and things went back to normalcy until that Sunday, when Sam had a reaction to something and had a series of unfortunate emissions. More specifically, he threw up, walked off, and then came back and threw up again. I got him out of the house, so he could do his thing, and called Helen to give her an update on the whole situation. As I walk around to the back of the house to get something, I open the door and see where Sam had gone on his little between-barf walk. He had used the porch as a toilet. First time he's done that in over a year. So, Helen got to hear me swear.

And then on Monday came the hives.

So - to continue the update from before, the Saturday after getting the molar pulled was pretty much spent puttering about the house and trying not to bleed too much. Sunday came and I was feeling a lot better, so I decided to grab the dogs and go to visit my old neighbors and their dog Dotty. I should point out that I reference them as such, not because of their age, but because they were my neighbors a year and a half ago, when I first moved into Ohio. Well, they had other visitors as well, their son and 2 of their grandchildren and their son's dog Oreo. Dotty and Oreo are Newfoundlands, absolutely great dogs. Dotty plays with Sam and Murray all the time, even though she finds it hard to keep up with them.

Well, the grandson - we'll call him Bob, wanted to play with the dogs, which is understandable. Us adults basically said that wasn't a good idea. With 400 lbs of dog, 50 of those being Sam, it makes sense. Sam is basically a good dog, he's just, um, special. I think I'll do an update post on just him sometime later. Sam hasn't figured out how to deal with people very well, and his reactions to most things are pretty exaggerated. Well, Bob (who I'm guessing is in first grade) sort of went around the building to where the dogs were playing with a huge ball, the adults went around the building yelling at him to get away from the dogs, and then Sam bit Bob. As I later learned, Sam bit him three times. Once under the eye, once on the lip, and once on the arm. At the time, all I saw was blood coming out from under his eye after his dad scooped him up and ran past us to get Bob to the hospital. Everything happened so fast, it was incredible. Bob has to be one of the fastest children on earth to get to where the dogs were before we got around the building. I grabbed Sam and Murray to prevent them from getting in the way, and Murray was noticeably subdued. Sam, on the other hand, acted as if nothing had just happened. My guess is that if he was capable of speech (and cognition), he'd say that nothing out of the ordinary happened.

So - on Sunday night, I'm left with the guilt of nearly causing an eye injury to a kid, a dog that bit a child 3 times, a dog that didn't bite a child but is hiding under the bed, and a molar-hole that has taken to bleeding again.

Ah, good times.

I'll have a detailed description of what happened during this trip at some point in the near future. Yes, I mean it. However, here's the 'official' version (from the Wright State website).

September 8, 2006

A Journey of A Lifetime: 17 Students Head West for a Field Study Course

Trekking across the Badlands of South Dakota… exploring Mammoth Hot Springs… meeting “Stan,” the Tyrannosaurus Rex… combing through Como Bluffs… getting pounded by a wicked hail storm…

When seventeen willing, able and excited students registered for an eleven-day field study with Wright State University-Lake Campus Associate Professor of Geology Dr. Chuck Ciampaglio, no preliminary course description could have prepared them for these experiences and much more as they traveled throughout the Western states, examining geology and learning much more than they might from a text book.

“This course was a once in a lifetime experience, and I am thrilled to have been part of it,” says Jennifer Burnett, a senior criminal justice major from Celina. “I had a wonderful time, and I learned a great deal.”

Ciampaglio is a strong advocate of field study courses, particularly in science, in which students can learn through experience rather than from a textbook. “Putting your hands on something that’s 250 million years old, there’s no way to teach that in a classroom,” he passionately states. “You’re touching an antiquity, and you just can’t get that in a book.”

Based on this philosophy, Dr. Ciampaglio worked more than 8 months planning this field study that would expose his class to a vast array of Western geology and paleontology. After choosing the field sites he wanted to include, he planned an itinerary that would give the students the most bang for their proverbial buck – in eleven days, the group went 4500 miles and saw more than 20 historic, scientific and geological wonders.

After leaving the Lake Campus in the early morning hours in late August, the group loaded their gear into four vehicles and headed toward their first stop, Albertlee, Minnesota. Here they looked at the The Dells of the Wisconsin River, where the group studied and rock formations carved into Cambrian sandstone that were formed between 510-520 million years ago.

This stop was just the tip of the iceberg, however, in terms of what the students would be discovering on their journey. The next stop would be at a ranch on the outskirts of the Black Hills in South Dakota. Here the group would experience their first dig, where Ciampaglio says they “collected ammonites and crabs and snails... all things from the Cretaceous seaway.”

As they collected from this area, including “The Breaks”, which are areas of exposed rock in the hills, the students found iridescent mother-of-pearl specimens. “The fossils we saw were really cool,” smiles Ciampaglio. “You had these pearly ammonites and you were finding them by looking for these round nodules. You’d hit the nodule with a hammer, break it open, and there would be the fossil.”

This was certainly not the delicate work one might think of when you envision the careful excavation of a paleontologist. Digging these particular fossils was something that Ciampaglio heard about from a colleague, Tad Rust, whom he met at the North Carolina Museum of Natural History. After spending the night at the breathtaking Badlands Monument, the group traveled to Rust’s shop in Rapid City. There they examined the various fossils that Rust prepped and sells.

Ryan Steinbrunner, a senior middle childhood education major from Ft. Recovery, learned a great deal from the ranch dig and the tour of the shop. “The most valuable learning experience was when we met with Tad and got to dig on his land,” he says. “He knew what he was doing and really helped us out. It was very educational to go to his shop and see his collection and how he works.”

Exposing the students to this type of work was certainly one of the objectives that Ciampaglio set out to achieve. “Some of these students had never been west of the Mississippi, nor did they understand what this type of work all involves,” he says. “Showing [the students] things they might never see, and then seeing the reaction, that’s definitely something to watch.”

The next stops, at Edgemont, South Dakota, where they worked on 2-foot diameter boulders containing dozens of ammonites during a tremendous lightning storm, and at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, were definitely something extraordinary for the students to have the opportunity to see. A couple million years ago, two dozen mammoths died at a sinkhole in the Hot Springs, where the belief is that the beasts slipped and died as they fell. Scientists who found the mammoths excavated around them, and a museum was built so the mammoths could be viewed right where they fell.

From the Hot Springs, the group trekked to Custer State Park for camping and a view of the Crazy Horse Monument and Mount Rushmore. As they camped, the group saw buffalo and other wildlife in the state park. “I loved seeing the wildlife of the West,” says Steinbrunner. “I got to get up real close to a wild buffalo and get some pictures of it, what a thrill!!”

The wildlife the students saw in the state park would not compare to the animal they would see next on their journey. The Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota, is a personal favorite of Ciampaglio’s. Founded by the Larson brothers, this museum was the base for their work on “Sue,” the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever assembled. Although Sue no longer lives at the Black Hills Institute — she’s in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago —another T-Rex called “Stan” resides in the museum. Stan is the second-most complete, and an awesome sight.

“There is no one better than this group for prep,” says Ciampaglio. “Neal Larson [one of the founding brothers] gave a few of us a tour of his prep shop and it’s incomparable to any other.”

“They’re prepping a T-Rex that has skin impressions,” he adds. “It’s incredible.”

Seeing the prep shop was the right incentive for the next stop on the journey, where the students explored and excavated Como Bluffs in Wyoming. Here were the “Bone Wars” of the 1880s, where E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh competed for dinosaurs in a land rich with fossil remains. In the 1900s a museum built from actual dinosaur bones was erected and the area became known as the “home of the American dinosaurs.”

“We collected in the back of the Bluffs, where we had permission to dig in the marine area that was covered by the Sundance Sea at one time,” says Ciampaglio.

More extensive marine collection would take place at Ulrich’s Fish Gallery, “the fossil fish capital of the world.” Here, Carl Ulrich, who owns the quarry perched 7800 ft. above sea level, allows groups to chisel in the limestone and search for fossils.

“We spent about 4 hours there,” says Ciampaglio. “You can really feel that elevation when you’re working that hard.”

Steinbrunner adds Ulrich’s Fish Gallery was phenomenal. “The guides there were very knowledgeable and fun and I was able to find some really cool fish fossils.”

After driving through the Flaming Gorge in Utah, where the Colorado River has cut through and exposed amazing red rocks, the group visited another museum and Dinosaur National Monument. Although they were scheduled to then dig in Delta, Utah, a tremendous hailstorm derailed the drive.

“You could see the storm coming,” says Ciampaglio, who captured the clouds on camera. “We were heading to Delta on Route 10, getting close to Route 70, when this hit. Here we are, in the canyon lands of Utah, and there’s no where to go.”

Fifteen minutes later, three of the vehicles had shattered windshields and all of the cars sustained major damage from the tennis ball-sized hail. Unfortunately, this same storm was headed to Delta, where Ciampaglio and the students had hoped to dig for trilobites. Instead, they traveled to Salina, Utah, to re-group, and to find someone to fix the windshields.

“We were all pretty rattled. We got to Salina, made calls, and found someone in Grand Rapids, Colorado, about 220 miles away, who could fix the cars on a Saturday,” Ciampaglio says. “We missed the trilobites, but that was the only thing we had scheduled that we didn’t get to do.”

With three new windshields, the refreshed group loaded back into the cars and headed to the Rocky Mountains. Stops here included the Red Rock Concert Hall, which was built into the red Arkosic mountain rocks, and Dinosaur Ridge. These big platforms are naturally exposed rock with embedded dinosaur footprints.

“You can actually see where a big dinosaur walked next to a little dinosaur,” says Ciampaglio. The students really enjoyed this portion of the tour, where it made the dinosaurs much more real creatures.”

Burnett agrees as she adds, “I really enjoyed the dinosaur trackways.”

Following another museum stop, the group started the trek back to Ohio, but even this drive was not without an educational adventure. Ciampaglio chose six spots along the way that he referred to as “road cuts,” where the students collected fossils such as shark teeth and clams from the Cretaceous period. They also gathered specimens from the Permian and Pennsylvanian periods as they traveled home, stopping along the highway to dig through the rock.

Arriving back in Ohio, the group unloaded their gear, over five thousand photos and over six thousand specimens. In addition, many acquired a new-found appreciation for geology and the arduous work that the scientists dedicate themselves to in order to uncover the mysteries of the past.

“This course really spiked my interest in geology. My original intention was go on this trip as a vacation to get away for awhile,” Steinbrunner reveals. “But I really enjoyed the geology learning experience and plan on going on a lot more of Dr. Ciampaglio’s geology trips each quarter. I am even thinking about choosing a minor in Geology now!”

Hearing this, Ciampaglio knows that the goals he set to achieve with the carefully planned field course were met.

“I wanted to teach about the geology of the west and give these students the experience of a lifetime,” he says. “I can talk about the Badlands, but letting them see how beautiful and majestic everything out there is, from the Black Hills to the buffalo, to the national monuments to the dinosaur trackways… I just wanted them to experience that for themselves.”

For more information, contact Sandi Holdheide, 419 586-0359.

It's been one of those months. On the 28th, I had a molar pulled. Nasty little thing. Here's the saga of the molar. First though, a piece of advise. Despite what your gorgeous roommate who's incredibly intelligent tells you, don't go to a dentist who sidelines as an acupuncturist and whose most redeeming feature is his low cost. Yes, I should have known this, but I was in graduate school at the time and money was tight. So, I had gone to him several years ago because the filling in a molar had cracked and had to be replaced. As I recall, my jaw hurt for at least a week after that, as he really dug in deep. Well, fast forward to a year ago, when surprise, surprise, the filling popped out, leaving a hole big enough to hide a cyanide capsule in. The dentist here (Hurray dental coverage!) warned me that although he could fill it again, half of the tooth was gone and there might not be enough left to provide a foundation for the filling. Well, he was right. About 3 months ago, the new rebuilt molar split and fell out. It's weird finding a half-a-tooth in your mouth when you wake up. Enough back story.

So - I finally put on my big boy pants and get it pulled. The dentist says it'll be quick and painless, because it's the last molar in the line. I laugh at him. I look at the attendant and ask her to be a witness to the fact that the dentist said this. As it turns out, I was right. While it was painless, it surely wasn't easy. Apparently, every time he grabbed onto it, the tooth flaked. In addition, the sucker cracked so that he had to go in and take out each of the roots. Poor guy, he should have known better than to say it would be easy. The attendant, after all was said and done, grinned at me.

Driving to the pharmacy afterward, I grinned in the mirror and noticed that there was so much numbing agent in my face that only half of my grin appeared. I hadn't realized that it affected muscle control. Odd seeing what I'll look like when I have my eventual stroke.

At the pharmacy, I got Vicodan, which I've never had before and probably will never have again. I thought that since I could take some every 6 hours, the effects wore off after 6 hours. This was incorrect. Horribly incorrect. I took a dose before bed and was loopy for most of Friday. While I kept it together during my first class, I cancelled the second because I just wasn't going to be able to do it. Thus, we get to the weekend, where things went from run-of-the-mill-bad to wow-that’s-bad. You’ll have to wait for that update though.