The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 178, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 17, 2008 Page: 4 of 10
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Features
Page 4
the j-Tag
January 17, 2008
success story
■ Graduate student receives
honors for outstanding work
in instructing fellow fexans
i
By REBECCA
HOEFFNER
Staff Writer
The International Center
for Supplemental Instruction
has awarded Amanda Bar-
more, a graduate student at
Tarleton, the "Outstanding SI
Leader of the Year" award.
"She has a lot of humility
about how good she is," said
Kayla Wood, Director of Aca-
demic Support Programs.
Barmore is from Spring,
TX and graduated from Tar-
leton with a bachelor's degree
in marine biology in Decem-
ber 2006. After obtaining her
master7s degree, Barmore plans
to attend Texas A&M at Cor-
pus Christi for her doctorate.
Barmore's interest in be-
ing an SI leader started when
she went to her first SI session
and found it unproductive.
"I left the session intrigued
with thoughts of what the
program could be and what I
could potentially bring to SI,"
Barmore said in her essay for
the award application.
After taking Karen Murray's
general biology class, Barmore
switched her major from ani-
mal science and began work-
ing as an SI for general biol-
ogy in spring 2005, and right
away had a more profound
effect than other SI leaders.
"Immediately I noticed
that the attendance for that
class more than quadrupled
from previous semesters,"
said Wood,
When she asked Bar-
more what she was doing to
get attendance so high, Bar-
more simply replied, "I don't
know—I get to know their
names and I speak to them if I
see them across campus."
Wood sat in on a few of
Barmore's sessions and dis-
covered she did more than
develop relationships with the
students. Barmore came up
with creative and interactive
ways to teach the students,
like using gummy worms and
hand motions to help the stu-
dents remember the stages of
mitosis—the process by which
cells divide. "I try to incorpo-
rate activities that appeal to
all of their unique learning
needs," she said.
Barmore says she has
a passion for teaching, and
has seen it pay off. During a
test Barmore was proctoring,
her students were "using the
hand motions to recreate mi-
tosis and successfully answer
test questions."
Barmore has not only
taught students who are try-
ing to pass their classes, she
has taught other SI leaders to
do the same. She has been a SI
leader mentor for four of the
eight semesters she has been a
student SI.
Courtesy: Kayla Wood
AMANDA BARMORE
According to Wood,
Barmore is so admired
by Tarleton students she
even has a hard time going
around campus without be-
ing stopped.
"She came into my office
one day and said 'What do
I do? People keep approach-
ing me in the library and I
can't study.' That's a good
problem to have," Wood
said with a laugh.
Barmore will accept her
award at the conference in
Orlando, Fla. on May 30.
"I can't think of anything
to say that isn't obvious... [I
feel] honored, happy, what-
ever the normal [reaction] is
I guess," she said.
"I think what I'm most
excited about with the award
is that it finally shines some
light on the SI program,"
Barmore said, "So many
times I've heard students
say 'man I wish we had
an SI for this or that,' and I
think this award has the op-
portunity to show what we
do in the program and that
Tarleton produces some
pretty amazing SI leaders.
All of us are hand-selected
by Kayla Wood and she has
high expectations of us. It's
what makes all of us good."
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High-tech
hide-and-seek
■ Students spend
break learning
new hobby
By JOLYNN ELKINS
Staff Writer
Geocaching is a high-ex-
citement, low-cost hobby that
is perfect for students in the
Tarleton area. I started geo-
caching in December and am
now addicted to the game.
Geocaching is a form of
modern-day treasure hunt-
ing, but what is sought is not
golden loot, but rather ad-
venture itself. According to
geocaching.com, the game is
also referred to as "GPS Stash
Hunt", and geocaching has
quickly become a truly glob-
al event, with participating
seekers in countries such as,
but not limited to, Germany,
Japan, China, Fiji, Mexico,
Norway, Britain, and even
Saudi Arabia.
A cache is a waterproof
container, ranging in size
from smaller than a film can-
ister to army ammo crates,
which someone has hidden
with a log book inside. If large
enough, people will bring
trinkets to leave in the cache,
which they log in the book.
They then post the cache lo-
cation on a geocaching Web
site, www.geocaching.com the
largest U.S.-based site with a
clue about the location. It is
then up to the seeker to use
the clue and the coordinates
to locate the object, whether
in the great outdoors, or just
out the door of a department
store.
To participate, one needs
to have a Global Positioning
System (GPS) to find coordi-
nates in directions and de-
grees, a computer with Inter-
net access and a good pair of
comfortable shoes. The desire
to achieve, find solace in na-
ture, and the occasional fit of
one-up-manship is also need-
ed.Egos are optional.
The Cross Timbers region
is an excellent place to begin
geocaching, as geocaching.
JoLynn Elkirts/The J-TAC
Charles Elkins opens a paint can that holds Kramatodie
Kash, the only cache found on "reptile rock'' in Lake Bu-
chanan, near Llano and Burnet.
com shows there are almost
400 caches registered that are
within 30 miles of Stephen-
ville, and nearly 22,000 caches
in Texas, ranging between be-
ginner to advanced. The Tar-
leton campus is also home to
several caches hidden by stu-
dents and their parents.
I went geocaching for the
first time over the holiday
break. I knew that my hus-
band, Charles, had an uncle
that had been participating
for several years, but I didn't
know much about it. I con-
sider myself to be a woman of
equal parts nature lover and
geek, and this game appeals
to both parts beautifully.
The first stop was Dino-
saur Valley State Park, just
outside Glen Rose. Tucked
amid beautiful scenery and
challenging mountain bike
trails are numerous caches.
The first cache was titled
"Lonesome Dove," I assumed
it had to do with wide open
spaces, so I looked in a nearby
empty field, with no success.
Later we discovered from a
geocacher's Web site that the
cache is a small container
hanging in a tree. Disappoint-
ed, we turned our attention
to "Bereft of Information,"
The coordinates led us right
to a trail information booth.
Tucked inside the rafters was
a microcache — a small weath-
erproof match container that
had been camouflaged. We
signed the log and took a
photo, excited to see our hard
work had already paid off. We
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picnicked while we made our
strategy to seek the remaining
coordinates.
After creating way points
on the GPS we headed out
for the trail. We discovered
three more on the back trails
of Dinosaur Valley, includ-
ing "STICKERZ" which we
hiked 500ft. up a 60 degree
incline through cactus and
thorn bushes to find. 'Torren-
tial Downpour' was the most
exciting of the day, we found
it just as the sun was setting
lower in the sky and the light
was fading. We found a travel
bug—a track-able token that a
seeker takes to a new location
and logs the move on geocach-
ing.com so other seekers can
watch the travel bug's move-
ments. We decided to leave it
for a more serious seeker who
could take it further.
We ended up running
out of light before we made
it back to the car, we had less
than ten minutes to make it
through nearly a mile of trail,
which towards the end had
us crossing the Paluxy river
with no bridge. We decided
to make our own short cut to
the trail head, allowing us to
cross the river sooner. I took
of my shoes to cross the icy
Paluxy in the diminishing
twilight. We arrived at the car
just as the sun slipped behind
the hills.
Exhausted and cold, we
drove to the closest restaurant
with hot food. Sliding into
a booth at an Italian restau-
rant, we discussed the day's
finds. After consulting the
GPS odometer, we discovered
we had walked well over six
miles in one day. Also, I had
the record with three finds to
Charles' one.
Having been bitten by the
geocaching bug, my husband
and I set our sights on some-
thing a little trickier—the Kra-
matodie Kash, a cache
See GEOCACHING, Page 6
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Hensely, Joanna. The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 178, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 17, 2008, newspaper, January 17, 2008; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth476543/m1/4/: accessed June 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.