PSU Magazine Fall 2004

0 U N D T H E PA R K BLOCKS Relearning a language and regaining a heritage lris Galloza Vance's firsL language was Spanish; her Puerto Rican parents spoke it al home. But as her family moved wiLh her father from base to base in Lhe U.S. Army, the language and cultural familiarity faded. Vance wants iL back, and LhaL is why she is enrolled in the University's new HeriLage Language Program this fall. PSU is presenting six languages for heritage learners-students who may have more advanced verbal skills than first-year students but lack the reading or grammar ability to skip directly to upper-level classes. The typical heritage speaker was born in the UniLed States, learned his or her immigrant parents' native language as a child at home but never mastered iL before swiLching Lo English for school. Vance regrets Lhat she didn't even try to speak Spanish wiLh her two daughters, who are now 21 and 15. Portland Stale is the first university in Oregon to offer heritage language classes. lt will stan with Arabic, Russ– ian, Spanish, Tagalog, Urdu, and Viet– namese. A mix of PSU faculty, community members, and Fulbright– funded teachers from lraq, Pakistan, and Turkey-all of whom are naLive speakers-will teach the courses and tailor them to the skills of students who enroll. HeriLage learners are considered an untapped national resource by Lhe fed– eral government, industry, and social services. These sectors have an increas– ing demand for employees who speak more than English. Heritage speakers often have extensive vocabularies, have mastered naLive pronunciation, and are familiar with cultural aspects of effec– tive communicaLion. These skills would take a sLudent new to a lan– guage years to learn. Vance sees the advantage Lo being proficient in both English and Spanish. Once she masters her childhood lan– guage, she would like to become a medical interpreter. Architecture students test sleeping bag in space Could falling asleep in zero gravity really be all that hard Lo do? A mattress can never be too hard or too soft and pillows are ... immaterial. A group of P U architecture students went Lo the mat on this question and designed a special sleeping bag, which Lhey tested onboard NASA's zero gravity plane, a KC-135. They are the first archiLecture studems to participaLe in NASA's Microgravity University program. The studems decided that sleeping without the weight of a blanket or comfort of a mattress was unaccept– able. "Human beings are not used Lo the space environmenl. Many of us like Lo feel enclosed when we sleep," says Michael Rudis, lead researcher of Lhe Off Planet Architecture team com– prised of And rew Brahe, Zach Davis, Brandon Dole, Amy Graeff, Allison Plass, and Ela Steich. The Learn designed a zippered and laced sleeping bag wiLh tubes of com– pressed air to mimic weight. After a year of work, four proposals, an Oregon Space Grant, and reviews by 2 PSU MAGAZINE FALL 2004 both PSU and ASA research boards, the Off Planet Architecture team was accepted into NASA:s Microgravity pro– gram, which resulLed in a week and a half at the Johnson Space Center in Students Michael Rudis (right) and Zach Davis test their zero gravity bed aboard NASA's KC-135 . HousLon and Lwo days of experi– mems on the KC-135. On July 15 and 16, the PSU stu– dems, in teams of two, along with five other student teams, tested their projects as Lhe plane attained zero graviLy for 18 to 20 seconds, 30 times in a row. To reach that state, Lhe KC-135 flies in a parabolic arc. On the second day, the student teams had special guests join them in flight: James Locke, a NA A flight surgeon, and astronaut David Wolf, who has logged more than 100 nights in space. Both had taken an early interest in the PSU student project. Wolf liked the sleeping bag, says Rudis, and offered constructive comments. Rudis, who is a senior, hopes to work with anoLher Learn and puL Wolfs insights into a redesign and another proposal to NASA this coming academic year. To see the sleeping bag design, go Lo the Web site www.offplanetar– chitecutre.pdx.edu .