UW President And Professor To Visit Rock Springs High School Tomorrow

0
605
Photo Credit: University of Wyoming

University of Wyoming President Laurie Nichols and University of Wyoming Professor Danny Dale will be in Rock Springs tomorrow as the two plan to visit with students at Rock Springs High School.

Dale will visit with students in Tracy Watkins’ science class to discuss the UW Science Initiative which began in 2014 when Gov. Matt Mead and the Wyoming Legislature challenged UW to develop a plan to address outdated science laboratories at UW and improve the quality of instruction and research in the sciences.

A task force, appointed by Mead and informed by faculty representatives, developed a transformational vision for UW’s core science programs in botany, zoology and physiology, molecular biology, chemistry, and physics and astronomy.

During his latest visits to the Sheridan schools, Dale focused his lessons on dark matter in space and the search for exoplanets.

“My story is exoplanets — planets outside our solar system,” Dale explains. “It’s Hannah Jang-Condell’s (a UW associate professor of physics and astronomy) research. It’s pretty cool.”

The message Dale hopes to get across is that students should go to any school, be it the University or a Community College in Wyoming.

“If a student wants to transfer after they get the associate degree, come to UW. We just want to get students to go to college.” Dale said.

President Nichols will visit with students as well but is in the area to meet with Sweetwater County legislators in the evening as part of the UW president’s annual round of statewide visits before the legislative session.