Humanities & Society

The Active-Learning Classroom (ALC) opened in fall 2012 on the lower level of Eads Hall as a pilot program. The classroom is a highly flexible space that facilitates collaborative group work as well as class discussions. The pilot program was such a success, it is hoped that additional active-learning classrooms will be designed throughout the Danforth Campus.

Nuts, avocados and even chocolate (in moderation) can help alleviate symptoms of stress.

Washington University in St. Louis is among the 10 newest university partners in Say Yes to Education, the national nonprofit group that helps organize and galvanize entire cities around making higher education accessible and affordable for the children in their communities.

Research on poverty led by Washington University in St. Louis’ Mark R. Rank, PhD, was cited by President Barack Obama in a landmark speech on economic mobility that laid out an agenda for the remainder of his presidency.

Heart disease, cancer and diabetes are chronic diseases that account for $1.1 billion in hospital charges, affecting many individuals and families. The need to better understand these issues is examined in the fifth and final policy brief from the groundbreaking study “For the Sake of All: A Report on the Health and Well-Being of African Americans in St. Louis.”

Stressbuster volunteers provide free backrubs to students, faculty and staff. The next Stressbusters event is the Stress-Free Zone, 1-3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, at Olin Library. Volunteer Delia Chassaing says massage helps reduce stress, muscle tension and anxiety.

The members of the Stereotypes, Washington University’s all-male a cappella ensemble, compete Friday, Dec. 6, for the title (and the tiara) of the Mr. Stereotype pageant. Music director and junior Kevin Vondrak talks about the group’s repertoire and new four-song EP.

For Amazon’s recently announced drone delivery system to get off the ground, the company will have to solve numerous difficult technological challenges. Chief among them will be increasing battery life, getting the drones to work without a central command and to “think” on their own, and determining what kind of navigation sensors they will use. As complicated as those tasks may be, says a WUSTL robotics expert, they will be much more easily solved than the seemingly more simple issues of regulation and insurance.

A new study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, University of California, Los Angeles, and Indiana University found that listeners can accurately determine the relative heights of speakers just by listening to them talk. The key clue may be contained in a particular type of sound produced in the lower airways of the lungs, known as a subglottal resonance.

Political scientist William Lowry has paid close attention to environmental issues for 25 years, marshaling what he learns each year and testing it in front of a class of critical students. He has honed his class “Environmental and Energy Issues” to the point where it is a white-water ride down a river of arguments and counterarguments that puts everything in context and lays out the facts — but skips the lecturing and fearmongering that characterize this debate. There can be no better guide to the perplexed.