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■m T USLllV 65/44
I ■ J H Today, cloudy and cooler, east
I I H ^ winds 5 to 15 mph. Tonight,
I M ^1 H doudy a 30 percent chance
BhB ■ ^B H ■ V showers. Wednesday, cooler,
■ V ■ ■ ■ 40 percent chance of light rain,
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William Lauer/DN
“It’s absolutely amazing what you can do with a two-liter pop bottle,”
Ron Bonnstetter, an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction,
said. The pop-bottle rocket helps illustrate Bonnstetter’s theory of
teaching things in an interesting way, he said.
Up, up and away
Professor’s tools launch learning
By Mike Lewis
r ■—-- Staff Report* _
If UNL professor Ronald Bonnstettcr
was in a crowded room, he might start
handing out his holographic business
cards.
Or he might ask people to help him fly a
kite. Or blow some bubbles. Or launch a
water-powered rocket.
For Bonnstettcr, an associate professor
of curriculum and in
struction and director of
secondary science edu
cation at the University
of Ncbraska-Lincoln,
these curious activities
help teach scientific
concepts in interesting
ways, he said.
Bonnstettcr builds innovative tools such
as kites and water-powered rockets and
then shows teachers nationwide how to use
these tools to help students learn, he said.
The holographic cards, for example, can
be used to teach people about optics, he
said. Optics is the branch of physics dealing
with light and vision.
“You find ... a tool that has appeal,” he
said. “You then allow the content to fit in .
.. as you leach it.”
Bonnstetter builds the devices not only to
provide teachers with learning aids, he said,
but also for personal reasons.
“I really enjoy figuring out answers to
questions,” he said.
And he said he had been driven by this
curiosity since he was young.
As a child, Bonnstetter and two neigh
borhood children had a laboratory,'he said.
But because the young scientists caused bad
smells and blew things up, they had to move
the laboratory from house to house, he said.
They finally moved the lab into one of
the children’s grandmother’s house,
Bonnstetter said. That worked well because
she could neither smell nor hear well.
Bonnstetter no longer works in that neigh
borhood laboratory, but he docs visit towns
nationwide to host workshops.
In the next 30 days, he said, he will be
hosting workshops in towns as close as
See BONNSTETTER on 3
Baldwin released ~
to psychiatric care
By Sean Green
Senior Reporter
UNL student Andrew Scott Baldwin was
released from Lancaster County Jail on
Monday after posting bail and agreeing
to conditions for his release.
After Baldwin’s attorney, Hal Anderson,
deposited a $10,(XX) check (10 percent of the
$100,000 bond), Baldwin was released for trans
fer to St. Joseph Center for Mental Health in
Omaha, where he will undergo psychiatric
treatment.
Baldwin, 22, was charged with assault for
allegedly beating Gina Simanck of Lincoln and
injuring a Lincoln police officer Jan. 18. If
convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.
Baldwin signed a bail order Tuesday morn
ing after telling Lancaster County District Court
Judge Paul Merritt that he would abide by the
conditions of the bond.
Baldwin’s next appearance in court is sched
uled for April 6, Merritt said.
Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey filed
a motion for a court order that would require
Baldwin to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Lacey said he was asking the judge to ap
point a psychiatrist to examine Baldwin be
cause his attorney was planning to enter a plea
of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Merritt scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m.
Wednesday to rule on whether Baldwin should
undergo the evaluation. Baldwin waived his
right to be present at the hearing.
In a press conference after the hearing,
Anderson said Baldwin was in belter spirits
now that he could begin treatment.
Anderson said Baldwin probably would spend
a week at St. Joscph’s'and then return to Lin
coln. Under the bond’s conditions, Baldwin
either will live with Nebraska assistant football
coach Frank Solich or with the Rev. Donald
Coleman, Sr.
“Scott will probably keep a pretty low pro
file when he returns to Lincoln,” Anderson
said. “Part of the plan was that he be allowed to
go to the Hewit Center to study, but he will still
have to abide by the conditions.”
. The Hewit Academic Center, located in the
West Stadium, houses the academic center and
training table for University of Ncbraska-Lin
coln student-athletes.
Tom Osborne, Nebraska football coach, told
Merritt that Baldwin could stay with him after
returning to Lincoln. Merrill declined to lake
up the issue at that time.
Another condition of Baldwin’s release on
bond prohibits him from talking to Simanck
and members of her family, and to Nebraska
football players Trcv Alberts and Travis Hill
and 18 other witnesses.
During thchcaring, Baldwin asked the judge
what he should do if Alberts or Hill approached
him.
“I know you may sec (Alberts or Hill) in the
weight room,” Merritt said. “But if they ap
proach you, don’t talk to them. Just turn around
and walk away.”
Merritt said that if he heard reports that
Baldwin had broken any of the conditions of
his bond, he would have Baldwin arrested and
returned to court to explain his actions.
Merritt said willful failure to appear in court
was a Class IV felony and would result in arrest
and a $5,000 fine added on to the other charges
against Baldwin.
Another condition of Baldwin’s release on
bond requires him to begin any outpatient
treatment program recommended by St. Jo
seph’s alter his return to Lincoln.
Bill would make more
students eligible for aid
Other provisions to
help middle-income
families, official says
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Senior Reporter_ __
More college sitidenis would be eligible
for federal aid to help finance Iheir
education if a bill passed in the U.S.
Senate on Friday becomes law.
The Senate passed the bill — part of the
rcauthori/alion of the Higher Education Act—
by a 93-1 vole.
The bill would raise the amount of federal
aid to students and increase the number of
students eligible to receive aid.
The maximum Pell grant would increase
from $2,4(X) to $3,6<X) in 1993-94, and then to
S4,8(X) by 1999. The maximum family income
to be eligible for a Pell grant would increase
from S3(),(KK) to $42,(XX), making more grants
available to middle-income students.
The bill would increase the guaranteed fed
eral student loans from S2.625 to S3,(XX) per
year lor lirst- and second-year undergraduate
students, S4,(XX) to $5,5(X) per year for third -
and lourlh-ycar undergraduates, and S7,5(X) to
S9,(XX) per year for graduate students.
In addition, it would exclude equity in a
family’s home or farm in determining how
much a student would receive in grants or loans
as long as the student's family did not earn
more than $5(),(XX) a year.
John Beacon, director of scholarships and
financial aid at the University of Ncbraska
Lincoln, said $7,1 IX,469 in Pell grants was
awarded at UNL in 1990-91. He said 4,943
students received the money — an average of
SI,440 each.
Beacon said the average family income of
students who applied for federal aid at UNL in
1990-91 was $3.1,800. A total of8,464 students
received federal aid, he said.
See GRANT on 2
Nebraska arboretum receives plant grant
By Mindy L. Leiter
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska Statewide Arbo
retum received a S9,4(X) grant
to continue its work in the
preservation of endangered plants, an
official said.
Art Ode, director of the arbore
tum, which has its headquarters at the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln, said
the grant came from the Center for
Plant Conservation at the Missouri
Botanical Garden in St. Louis.
Ode said the money would be used
mainly for the travel and manpower
expenses of tracking down rare plant
Director says money to help
preserve endangered species
species.
“The grant is really a contract,” he
said. “They gave the money to reim
burse what we have done.
“We have been working with the
plant center for years. We help them
identify plant populations that arc
endangered regionally or arc a rare
occurrence. Then we collect the seeds.”
Finding and tracking endangered
plants is a complicated process, in
volving “lots of time and gasoline,”
Ode said.
The curators travel throughout
Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota and
eastern Colorado looking for endan
gered species, he said. They contact
local arborctums for range maps and
times when the plants will be in bloom.
But the actual harvesting of the
seeds is a matter of lucky timing, Ode
said.
“If the weather is wrong, or the
seeds arc already dispersed or not ripe
ycl, you’ll have lo come back,” he
said.
Al ter the seeds arc collected, they
arc placed in cold storage or planted
lor research purposes, he said.
Among the more rare indigenous
species of plants sought by the arbo
retum are the blowout penslcmon and
the western prairie white-fringed
orchid.
The penstemon is a rare plant that
can live only on the edges of moving
sands, Ode said. Better range man
agement has eliminated the sand
“blowouts” that arc the plant’s habi
See ARBORETUM on 2
Two hard-hit sectors of the
economy got upbeat news as a
key manufacturing barometer
climbed out of recession terri
tory. Page 2.
INDEX
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Sports 7
A & E 9
Classifieds '* ~ 11
