Everything Nac

Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St. Dr. Jennifer Cruse-Sanders, director of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, will present “The Greater Atlanta Pollinator Partnership: A Model of Urban Pollinator Conservation.”

Cruse-Sanders was made director of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia at the University of Georgia at the beginning of the year. Prior to February, she served as vice-president for science and conservation at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, where she launched the Center for Southeastern Conservation and helped to host the inaugural Southeastern Partners in Plant Conservation meeting.

Cruse-Sanders was the recipient of the 2016 Marsh Award for International Plant Conservation from Botanic Garden Conservation International, 2016 Carl N. Becker Stewardship Award from the Natural Areas Association, and the 2015 USDA Forest Service Wings Across the Americas International Award for Urban Communities in Conservation. She also has published numerous conservation articles with collaborators and students at botanical gardens and universities.

The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month and includes a rare-plant raffle after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series fund are always appreciated.

Parking is available at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center and Raguet Elementary School, located at 2428 Raguet St.

For more information, call (936) 468-4129, or email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.

Dr. John T. Moore, Stephen F. Austin State University professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry, will offer the commencement address during the university’s summer graduation ceremony Saturday, Aug. 12.

Moore served SFA for 46 years in various roles, including lab coordinator, assistant professor, associate professor, professor, and interim chair for both the chemistry and biology departments. During his tenure, he also helped establish the Teaching Excellence Center and served as its director for eight years.

Dr. Michael Janusa, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at SFA, said Moore has been a major influence within the College of Sciences and Mathematics.

“Through the years, Dr. Moore has contributed to the important mission of teacher preparation, and he has affected the overall quality of teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade and the quality of education for young minds,” Janusa said.

As a passionate educator, Moore academically challenged his students to foster critical-thinking skills.

“I tried to ensure that each of my students had the opportunity to develop the critical-thinking skills that allowed them to be successful in the area of chemistry,” Moore said. “I maintained high academic standards and tried to facilitate my students’ learning.”

While SFA students may recognize him for wearing a tie-dye lab coat, Moore also is prominently known outside the university for authoring several books, including “Chemistry for Dummies” and “Chemistry II for Dummies,” and serving as co-author of “Biochemistry for Dummies” and “Organic Chemistry II for Dummies.”

He was named the 2008-09 Regents Professor, which is the highest honor SFA may bestow upon a faculty member. Additionally, he was awarded the SFASU Foundation Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching in 2006 and the Teaching Excellence Award for the College of Sciences and Mathematics in 2002.

“Dr. Moore’s dedication to teaching and SFA is evident by the numerous teaching accomplishments he has achieved during his career at SFA, which is particularly distinguished by his work in science education,” Janusa said. “His knowledge has been shared across the world, and his achievements have brought honor to SFA, the College of Sciences and Mathematics, and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.”

Moore holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Asheville-Biltmore College (now the University of North Carolina — Asheville), a master’s degree in chemistry from Furman University and a doctoral degree from Texas A&M University.

SFA’s summer commencement ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m. at Johnson Coliseum. Approximately 540 degrees are expected to be awarded, including 386 bachelor’s, 148 master’s and 10 doctoral degrees. More than 50 students are expected to graduate with honors, including 17 cum laude, 16 magna cum laude, 17 summa cum laude and eight university scholars.

Several Stephen F. Austin State University students majoring in geology recently completed a six-week field course where they worked on mapping projects and visited the Grand Canyon.

The field course was designed to help students bridge the gap between classroom lectures and real-world geology. SFA’s field camp is the capstone course for its geology majors. Students enrolled in the course complete a series of mapping projects in areas where rocks have been folded and faulted by ancient plate movements. SFA’s Geology Field Camp has been conducted almost every summer for more than 40 years.

“For geology students, the American Southwest is the perfect teaching lab because the rocks are easy to see. They’re not covered with grass and trees like they are in East Texas,” said Dr. Chris Barker, SFA associate professor and director of the Geology Field Camp.

Barker and SFA faculty members Dr. LaRell Nielson, professor of geology, and Dr. Mindy Faulkner, assistant professor of geology, teach the field camp each summer. Participants travel to several locations in the Southwest where faculty members train future geologists how to identify and unravel the stories in the rocks.

“Field camp gives students a valuable opportunity to put their classroom learning to practical use in real-world situations,” Barker said. “We always see a great amount of growth in the students’ ability to understand geology and in their confidence as field camp progresses.”

Throughout the six-week period, the group camps in the wilderness or resides in dormitories along the way.

“We head west because there are countless acres of federal lands with easy access, so we can do our mapping projects there,” Barker said. “Higher altitudes and lower humidity also result in more moderate summer heat.”

Traveling west also gives students an opportunity to see some of the geologic wonders of the world, including the Grand Canyon. Barker said for geologists, the Grand Canyon is a window into the history of North America. As the canyon was cut by downward erosion of the Colorado River, it uncovered layer after layer of ancient rock. Its great depth provides a glimpse into the early history of the continent.

SFA’s field camp not only benefits SFA geology majors, but it also attracts students from other universities across the country.

“Each year, we have a few openings for university students to attend the camp from outside SFA,” Barker said. “The response has been remarkable. We have been swamped with applications from university students who attend schools that do not offer a field camp. We have good word-of-mouth for being a field camp that focuses on the basics of field mapping and also one that travels to a variety of locations, so students get to see different geologic features.”

The students on the trip also visited several other national parks along their route, including Carlsbad Caverns and Zion, Arches and Bryce canyons, all of which are not only scenic but also geologically unique.