For students studying to become teachers, student teaching marks the culmination of their college experience and the first time they’re responsible for what goes on in a classroom, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. But last year, as the pandemic caused major disruptions in schools and student teaching nationwide. Holly Hungerford-Kresser, a UT Arlington associate professor of curriculum and instruction, said the UTA education majors who went through student teaching last year didn’t get a traditional experience. However, the changes during the pandemic also gave those students different ways of delivering education and how to be flexible.
New presidential search
The University of Texas System is restarting its search for a new president at the University of Texas at Arlington campus more than a year after the pandemic disrupted the process, The Dallas Morning News and Targeted News Service reported.
Study shows coral disease resistance
In a new study, UT Arlington biologists report that a coral reef’s tolerance for overall microbial imbalance when challenged with white plague disease reflects the coral’s overall disease resistance, U.S. Fed News and Mirage News reported. The new study appears in the Nature online journal Communications Biology. The lead author was Nicholas MacKnight, a fourth-year doctoral student in the lab of Laura Mydlarz, professor of biology and associate dean of the College of Science.
UTA STEM professor featured
A life-sized sculpture of a UT Arlington mathematics professor, Minerva Cordero, is featured in an exhibit depicting female STEM professionals, U.S. Fed News reported. Cordero, who is also the senior associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Science, is one of 122 women featured as 3D-printed statues in the #IfThenSheCan exhibit at NorthPark Center in Dallas.
Solar storm impacts
Even though a recent Internet rumor about an impending solar storm hitting Earth is false, a massive solar storm could impact the planet soon, Lifewire reported. Yue Deng, a UT Arlington physics professor, told Lifewire that during those storms, high energetic particles, electric currents and electromagnetic energy flowing into the upper atmosphere increase, and can induce currents on power lines, which damage the transformer.