The music outreach program, led by Dr. Tim Crist, professor of music, is in its third year. The program has served nearly 400 people, many of whom are children who live in poverty and can’t afford music lessons any other way. Participants enjoy free music classes, including group lessons in classical guitar, ukulele, bass guitar, piano and music technology. Student instructors are paid with privately donated funds.

Dr. Richard Wang, associate professor of political science, has served on the Community Emergency Service Center board since 2015, and is president-elect. Sponsored by Magnolia Road Church, the center helps people through its various outreach programs, including the Families and Neighbors Network that distributes food to families. Wang also is a board member and past president of the Kiwanis Club, which serves youth and provides A-State scholarships.

Dr. Fernando Belmont, assistant professor of chemistry, A-State Campus Queretaro, collaborated with two students on an article about physical and chemical characteristics of a Mexican wine. The article was accepted for Impacta 2018, a digital journal of research by STEM undergraduates. The project is a study of how different concentration parameters affect the chemical behavior of wines produced in the Colón region of Querétaro.

Congratulations to Dr. Lisa Rice, assistant professor of mathematics education, and colleagues on publishing "The Calculus Concept Inventory: A Psychometric Analysis and Implications for Use," in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Mathematics Education in Science and Technology. The authors analyzed the calculus concept inventory for its validity and reliability in learning assessment, and concluded a new instrument is needed to determine students' understanding of calculus concepts.

Dr. Tina Teague, professor of agricultural research, was co-author on a presentation by one of her undergraduate students, Haylee Campbell, a wildlife biology major who has worked in Teague's lab the past two years. The presentation, "Influence of Winter Cover Crops on Arthropod Pest Abundance in Arkansas Cotton," was at the joint meeting of the Entomological Societies of America, Canada and British Columbia, in Vancouver.