The Michigan Doily - Monday, September 29, 1986 -PaaF Learning Tool offers help for messy notes Play dirty Reid Zeising, of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, returns a kickoff against Phi Delta Theta in played during the men's half-time. Daly Photo by SCOTT LITUCHY Saturday morning's mudbowi game. The women By LOUIS STANCATO All semester you frantically scribble notes in class only to find two days before an exam that your notes look like some foreign language that you can't understand. You may find help in a computer. Learning Tool is a computer program usable on Macintosh Computers designed by Associate Professor of Education Robert Kozma, and John Van Roekal, the former director of the University's computer aided engineering network. ACCORDING TO Kozma, who is the project director of the National Center for Research to Improve Post Secondary Teaching and Learning, Learning Tool is not to teach students, but to help them learn. "It is designed to help learners enter information, structure, and reorganize it. . .A lot of student input went into development," Kozma said. Learning Tool is an "electronic notebook" which can be used in classes from chemistry to philosophy. STUDENT ARE not using Learning Tool yet, because it just hit the market, selling for $50. Students in Wilbert McKeachie's Psychology 100 class, however, were given a Learning Tool disk to use. McKeachie said he doesn't know if the software will help students learn, but agrees with the principles of the program. Learning Tool helps students organize their thoughts. A student studying Astronomy, for example, could type in "sun", then organize principles about the sun, such as size, temperature, and distance. Each bit of information is stored on a "notecard" and can be recalled for further study or stored. Users can work at their own pace. "You don't have to organize things as you put them in," Van Roekal says. VAN ROEKAL serves as president of Arborworks Inc., the company > he developed with Kozma to produce Learning Tool. Arborworks is an almost fully self-subsidized company, with both founders pouring much of their own money into the fledgling company. A partial grant was obtained from the University, which led to the six months of negotiations involving royalties concerning the program. Currently the University receives some royalties from the sale of Learning Tool, but Arborworks retains all rights on the product. The partners hope to sell the software to students and to universities. Some universities have expressed interest in the program, including Dr, xe, University in Philadelphia, znd Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. A defense against cancer can be cooked up in your kitchen. Call us. AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY NEW PHI SIGS A New Beginning * OPEN RUSH * * Tuesday, Sept. 30 Michigan U nion Rm. 1209 7 pm " Wednesday, Oct. 1 PHI SIG HO1S1 ~ 1043 Baldwin 7pm Fraternity For more information call 769-8421 0M9ORII Michigan WASHINGTON (AP) - They agonized. They deliberated. They weighed pros and cons. In the end, they reached different conclusions. Michigan congressmen say the House vote last week to aprove a historic tax-overhaul package was among the toughest ballots they've ever cast. WITH MANY of them still wavering in the final days and hours before the vote, the delegation ultimately split 13-5 in favor of the bill, all five dissenters being Democrats. "I've been in politics 22 years and I think this is probably the most difficult decision yet," said Rep. Dale Kildes (D-Flint), who legislators ended up voting in favor of the legislation. "But there's no 'maybe' button down there." Freshman Rep. Bill Schuette, (R-Sanford), said it was just hours before the vote Thursday afternoon that made up his mind to support the legislation. "IT WAS not black or white at all," he said. Rep. John Dingell, the powerful Trenton Democrat who's often out front on major issues, sat quietly in the House chamber, and listened to the final hours of debate before resolving to vote against the tax measure. "I'll tell you, it's a hard, hard decision," said a Dingell aide who didn't want to be identified. split over "When you come from Michigan, where a lot of people perceive the substance of the bill as having a somewhat questionable impact, it makes it a very difficult decision." THE LEGISLATIONwould cut individual and corporate tax rates and eliminate or reduce several deductions and exclusions. On average, individual taxes would be cut about 6.1 percent and more than 6 million working poor would be dropped from the tax rolls. Nonetheless, several million couples and individuals would face tax increases. The reduction in individual taxes is being financed by increasing the tax bill overall burden on busines by $120 billion over the next five years. Michigan supporters of the legislation pointed to the reduced individual tax rates, removal of working poor from the tax rolls and transfer of taxation to profitable corporations to justify their votes. THE DISSENTERSraised concerns about how many people would see their taxes go up, complained about new breaks for special interest groups, argued it would hinder ecomonic growth and said it would make it harder to control the burgeoning federal deficit. Researchers cite government bias in reports WASHINGTON (AP)- The federal budget office has unwisely interfered with the government research proposals and thwarted the study of serious health questions, including one involving workers in Michigan, a panel of scientists reported yesterday. Rep. John Dingell, (D-Mich.), issued a report which concluded that the federal Office of Management and Budget has shown "demonstrable bias" in its review of research proposals under a 1980 law designed to reduce government paperwork. THE REPORT, which examined OMB review of research proposals at the Centers for Disease Control, was done by scientists at the Harvard Schooi' of Public Health and the Mount Sinai School fo Medicine at the City University of New York. "The health policy implicaations are serious," the scientists reported. "OMB is clearly interfering with the substance of CDC research. OMB has delayed, impeded, and thwarted governmental research efforts designed to answer public demands for information on serious public health questions." It found the agency was seven times more likely to reject studies with an enviornmental or- occupational health focus than to reject those on issues like infectious deseases or other conventional diseases. THE SCIENTISTS studied six major research proposals from the Centers for Disease Control and found each was "either significantly delayed, seriously altered inscientific design, or disapproved entirely" by the budget office. All six previously had been approved by panels of experts, yet "a redirection of research by an agency without public health competence has occured in each of these six cases," the scientists said. Dingell accused the budget office of interfering with the substance of government research "under the guise of paperwork control." In the Michigan cases studied, "OMB's paperwork review resulted in a six-month delay in undertaking important cancer screening in a large population at risk and may have weakened the proposed study design," the scientists found. IN 1979, Michigan health officials closed the Anderson Development Co. in Adrian and attempted a community cleanup due to contamination by the carcinogenic chemical MBOCA. State health officials requested CDC's asssistance in evaluating cancer incidence among manufacuring workers formerly employed at the plant. The proposed study of 533 workers was scrutinized and approved by peer reviewers, and submitted in February 1985 to OMB, which rejected the plan. Ist Anniversary Celebration! -\ --- - I 4, 11 I Ed4 I (Od 7 HICKEN $8.95 LUN( I)R )k IN~N BEEF 895 . BEGINNING 5 MIT SHRIMP 9 .951-i RESTAU RANT & BAR 32 South Main Street * Ann Arbor.Michigan 48174 * Oe ss5s FWIL)our Sunday I hurd ay10:00 pm (jolei t ft nth Er Campus Cinema Plenty (Fred Schepisi, 1984), MTF, 7:45 p.m., Mich. A British woman finds life increasingly dull after her good old days as a government courier during WW II are behind her. With Meryl Streep and "genius man" Sting. Speakers G. Gutierrez - "Reflections on Liberation Theology," Studies in Religion, 8-10 p.m., MLB 3. M. Jackson - "Journey through Education," CEW Women's Student Network, noon-1:30 p.m., CEW, 350 S. Thayer. J. Johnson & S. Legget - Readings of their works, Guild House Writers Series, 8 p.m., 802 Monroe. Elizabeth Groeller - ravnni'na V wr I? W ral .Tnh Bldg., N. Campus. S. Isied - Inorganic Chemistry Seminar, 4 p.m., 1200 Chem Bldg. Meetings Tae Kwon Do Club - practice, beginners welcome, 7 p.m., CCRB Martial Arts room. Women's Okinawan Karate & Self-DefensedClub -class, 7:15 p.m., IM Bldg., Martial Arts room. Soph Show Mass Meeting -'The Fantasticks," 7:30 p.m., Kuenzel Room, Union. Furthermore School of Education Conference-- "Tension and Dynamism: The Education of a Teacher, 8 p.m., Rackham Amphitheater (Reception to follow, League). 7T AT A c. .._....._ - IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR EXCELLENCE, WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOU. Lever Brothers Company continues to expand its research and development efforts in household and personal products. To support our expansion, our representatives will be on your campus on Friday, October 10th, interviewing the following candidates 'for opportunities at our state-of-We-art R & D Center, located in Edgewater, New Jersey. Ph.D . Polymer Scientists . Chemists Lever Brothers offers a generous compensation package and excellent professional growth potential. !ure-ted candidates shnoid contact unu r Placement i');a r - ar e ure m ll1llil i I