An Aroostook County family recently honored the memory of their father and grandfather, Edgar Doak – and his example of service to his community – with the donation of an electric scooter chair to the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

The scooter chair, valued at more than $5,400, will be made available to campus visitors as well as students, faculty, and staff who need mobility assistance in order to travel around campus. The chair will be kept in South Hall and signed out on a need-to-use basis.

Edgar Doak was born in Caribou and lived in Aroostook County for his entire life. He was 93 years old when he passed away this summer. Doak was well known to many through his work over the years as a farmer and with the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad. In retirement, he volunteered at Cary Medical Center, where he received honors for providing more than 1,500 hours of community service.

Dr. Bonnie Wood, Professor of Biology at the University of Maine at Presque, was recently in Denver, Colorado, to present a Special Workshop entitled Lecture-Free Teaching: A Learning Partnership between Science Educators and their Students at the 2009 Professional Development Conference of the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT). Each participant received a copy of Dr. Wood’s newly-published book of the same title (NSTA Press, 2009), the cost of which was included in the Special Workshop fee. The book was used as a workbook during the session.

An Education professor at UMPI recently was in Spain to present at the Global Conference on Inclusive Education, an event organized by Inclusion International, a global federation of organizations advocating for the human rights of people with intellectual disabilities worldwide.

Dr. JoAnne Putnam gave a presentation titled Teacher Education Program Models for Inclusion during the conference, which was held in Salamanca, Spain from Oct. 21-23. Inclusive education involves including students with special needs in the same educational arrangements as the majority of children through quality education and support for different styles and rates of learning.

A professor at the University of Maine at Presque Isle has found a unique way to honor the veterans of World War II and ensure that their service to their country is never forgotten.

Each year without fail, Professor Anderson Giles makes at least one pilgrimage to the Pacific islands to participate in commemoration ceremonies, lead trips to historic battle sites, and preserve through film, photographs and interviews the history and stories of what happened there more than 60 years ago.

With its wind turbine spinning and lots of questions about renewable energy, the environment, climate change and sustainability in the air, the University of Maine at Presque Isle will offer during the Spring 2010 semester the first of many energy courses designed especially for those who want to understand these key topics and the issues surrounding them, and are thinking about becoming active players in the industry.

“We have made renewable energy and climate commitment top priorities at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and we are proud to make this initial offering of energy courses a very important part of the work we’re doing in this arena,” President Don Zillman said. “These are among the most important issues of our day and it’s going to take the involvement of many knowledgeable and dedicated people to meet the challenges we face. We anticipate that these courses will help to add more informed and committed individuals to the conversation.”