Doug Ensley, professor of mathematics, created a project with Barbara Kaskosz (University of Rhode Island math department) that teaches math and science instructors how to harness Flash software capabilities so they can develop their own interactive, web-based teaching materials. The pair received a two-year National Science Foundation grant to include presentations at national mathematics meetings and week-long summer workshops. URI hosted the first summer workshop and next year Shippensburg will host. The www.flashandmath.com website is also part of their project. Actionscript 3 Tutorials, called “exciting, fast, and fully object-oriented” by the Mathematical Association of America, is part of MAA’s Digital Library.

Having “always been interested in studying health inputs, such as diet, exercise, health care, etc. and their effects on an individual’s health status,” Freddy Siahaan, assistant professor of economics, studied the effects of alcohol and illicit drug abuse on risky sexual behavior among teenagers and young adults. Earlier this year, he presented “Underage Drinking and Illicit Drug Use, Educational Attainment, and Earnings,” at the Eastern Economic Association Annual Conference. He found alcohol and illicit drug use at an early age lowers educational attainment and earnings and “also suggests people may have certain personal characteristics that are common to both substance abuse and lower earnings and educational attainment.”

The medieval legal contract called affrèrement provided the foundation for non-nuclear households of many types and had common characteristics with marriage contracts—And suggests homosexual civil unions may have existed six centuries ago in France. According to Allan Tulchin, assistant professor of history, the model for these arrangements was when brothers inherited the family home on an equal basis and would continue to live together, but many others used this contract. Tulchin writes, “All of their goods usually became joint property of both parties and each commonly became the other’s legal heir. They also frequently testified they entered into the contract because of their affection for one another. …affrèrements had to be sworn before a notary and required witnesses.” His article, “Same-sex Couples Creating Households in Old Regime France: The Uses of Affrèrement” appears in the September issue of the Journal of Modern History.