Sesame April/May 2002 - The Open University

6 Sesame April/May 2002 Issue 208VOXPo pVOX Pop is a chance for you to contribute. It lives onthe FirstClass Conference System. Look for Sesame in theCommon Room area of the Open University campus. To post yourVO XPop, simply create a new message and enter S e s a m eVOXPop into the field, enter your views into the body of the messageand send the message. If you’re not on FirstClass you canstill contribute – through Sesame Letters by post, or e-mail to:M.D.France@open.ac.ukWhat you wouldask the V-CIn the last issue of Sesame we asked: If youhad five minutes with the new V-C, whatburning issue would you like to raise? Hereare some of your replies.“There are a large number of errata sheets for bothcourse material and at exams. What are you”intending to do about correcting this?Ron G. Clark“A fairly high percentage of OU students are parentsand it is from this perspective that I would like to askwhether it would be possible to adapt the study timetable tomake it more parent-friendly? The six-week school holidaysmake it very difficult for many parents to study. Would it notbe possible to incorporate say a two-week study break”at some time? Otherwise, I think the OU is great!Sonja Hilborne-Clark“I would ask how she can ever change the perceptionof the OU? If the OU is still not considered a ‘proper’university, despite its increasing diversity, amd its academicperformance, then what can be done in future to raiseits credibility, and that of its students?Lesley Kandoloa”“Why does the OU send out course units piecemeal tostudents, when posting them all in one go wouldsurely save money and help those who, by some miracle,manage to get a bit ahead of the study calendar?Stuart Mealing“ ””“ ”I would love to discuss the exorbitant fees the CWEstudents are required to pay and the large increase everyyear they have to put up with in order to continue to studywith the OU.Ulrike B. ReichwaldI would like to discuss the odd way in which final marksare determined. I feel that an average wouldbe fairer.Joy ClarkFor next issue: The OU is shaping a raceequality policy (see p5). Do you feel the OUis sufficiently ‘open’ to minority ethnic groupsor do you have ideas about how it could bemore so?O U SA cardi d e n t i fies yo uin exa m sThe Students Association is offering to help out with newuniversity rules requiring anyone sitting an exam to producea photograph as well as a signature for identific a t i o n .The examination centre checks are designed to ensure theidentity of the person taking the exam.“While many students already have some form of officiali d e n t i fication such as a passport or new-style driving licence,others may be concerned that they do not have anythingsuitable,” Amanda Ryan of OUSA said. “However, the universitywill accept an OUSA membership card and all OpenUniversity students are entitled to apply for one of these.”Cards are free and can be obtained by sending a passportsizedphotograph, along with any proof of OU study suchas an official letter with your personal identifier on, plus astamped addressed envelope. However, OUSA warnsthat as it may take up to 28 days to process membership cardsit’s a good idea to apply in plenty of time. Write to:OUSA Membership, PO Box 397, Walton Hall, Milton KeynesMK7 6BE.ResearchWhen dinosaursove r- i n d u l ge d . . .The world’s oldest fossilisedvomit has been discovered in aclay quarry in Peterboroughby the OU’s Dr Jason Woodand Professor Peter Doyle of theUniversity of Greenwich.Their unsavoury find is believed tobe about 160 million years old and tohave come from the ichthyosaurs, largemarine reptiles which were commonLeftovers from another ageFRONT PAGE STORYBy Yvonne CookScreen savers which could help save the planet will begiven away worldwide as part of a massive climateprediction research project being launched this autumn.The OU’s Earth Sciences department, in partnership withthe Met Office, Rutherford-Appleton Laboratories and Oxfordand Reading universities, has won a £400,000 grant from theNatural Environment Research Council’s e-science initiativeto test and improve one of the leading computerised climateprediction models, using hundreds of thousands of personalcomputers.Professor Bob Spicer of Earth Sciences explained: “Withclimate change, so many variables are involved that we needto run the models over and over again, slightly varying thestarting conditions each time, and seeing what the spread ofresults is at the end.”The models try to simulate all the changes occurring over allthe earth’s atmosphere every few hours. And, because so muchdata is involved, they are usually run on supercomputers andtake up a lot of computer time. But by turning the bestavailable climate prediction programme, the Hadley Centremodel, into a screensaver, Bob and his fellow researchers hopeto harness PC power by persuading people to run it on their desktopmachines without interfering with their normal day’s work.“We will give the Hadley Centre model free to individuals,schools, universities, OU students and anyone who wants totake part, and ask them to run it for a specific set of conditionswhich we will supply. On average it will take about six monthsto run,” Bob told Sesame.“When they have the results they send them back to us andwe will build an enormous database with petabytes – a billionin the Jurassic era.It contains the remains of dozens ofbelemnites – squid-like shellfish – whosetough, bullet-shaped shells would havedamaged the ichthyosaurs if they had notbeen regurgitated.Wood and Doyle began their researchafter a mass of belemnite fossils werefound near Whitby on what has becomeknown as the dinosaur coast.They explained: “The Peterboroughshells, viewed under a powerful scanningelectron microscope, have revealed ‘acidetching’ marks caused by digestivefluids, proving the belemnites had beeneaten by a predator. The shells werevomited out, in much the same waythat the modern-day sperm whalesregurgitate the indigestible beaks of squidthey have eaten.”Save the planet from your screenmegabytes – of data generated by the aggregated model runs.“From the scientific research point of view it is aboutmaking the model better, and making the climate predictionsmore reliable,” said Bob.Part of the OU’s specific contribution to the project will be tomake the database user-friendly and to prepare supportingmaterial, including packs for schools with material relevant tothe National Curriculum. There are also plans to use the dataas the basis for an OU course. “This will be real science, beingdone by our students,” added Bob.Details of how to be involved will be published in a futureS e s a m e, and do note that if you’re planning to install thescreensaver on a work PC you’ll need permission from youremployer first.DA RT speeds up se a r c h e sA new service giving web access to research thesessubmitted by OU students was launched in February.DART (Digital Archive of Research Theses) hasbeen developed by the Library in collaboration withfaculties. Unlike other catalogues DART searches theentire contents of a thesis from your search term. Accessto these electronic versions of theses is available to allOU students and staff. www.open.ac.uk/library