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E iC t aI1 t l

Ann Arbor, Michig

www.michigandaily.com

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

WOMEN IN MATH

UNIVERSITY RESE ARCH
Research
begins at
stem cell lab

LIF REEDER/

Psychology Prof. Denise Sekaquaptewa discusses a study she co-authored that examined the effects of stereotypes on women in math.
Solving gender equation

Privately funded
facility avoids
federal restrictions
By ARIKIA MILLIKAN
Daily Staff Reporter
The University's privately
funded stem cell lab in Life Sci-
ences Building is up and run-
ning.
The lab now houses a line of
human embryonic stem cells
from the University of Wisconsin
at Madison.
More are on the way.
The lab is funded entirely by
private donors in order to avoid
running afoul of a federal law
that prohibits the use of federal
funds for embryonic stem cell
research, besides in the case
of a few National Institutes of
Health-approved lines.
Sean Morrison, the director
of the University's Center for
Stem Cell Biology, said that an
Embryonic Stem Cell Research
oversight committee is in place
and will approve all future trans-
actions involving human embry-
onic stem cells.
Only when the committee
deems a research proposal to
meet ethical standards can a
transfer of stem cells proceed.
All of the stem cells that Uni-
versity researchers have sought
are from the few lines that the
federal government allows
research on with federal fund-
ing.
Tom Zdeba processes the
Material Transfer Agreements
concerned with human embry-
onic stem cells. He said that
while there were about 10 stem

cell transfers that were approved
and processed before the estab-
lishment of the oversight com-
mittee, all requests for the study
of human embryonic stem cells
would now require the commit-
tee's approval.
Currently, there are five
pending requests from Univer-
sity researchers for federally-
approved human embryonic stem
cell lines.
They are slated to be reviewed
by the oversight committee at a
meeting today.
Zdeba said that this pro-
cess might eventually provide
a mechanism for researchers in
Morrison's privately funded lab
to obtain stem cell lines other
than the few that are federally
approved.
"It's a deliberate process, but
we're getting there," he said.
Morrison said obtaining these
unapproved cell lines is critical
to his research.
Although Morrison can cur-
rently perform some research
from the approved lines, he
said the cells from the federally
approved lines do not harbor the
genetic defects that he would
need to study neurodegenerative
diseases.
Morrison said the lines he
needs could be derived from
embryos frozen in fertility clinic
storage, but it is illegal to derive
new embryonic stem cell lines in
the state of Michigan.
He vigorously denounced the
state laws that he said restrict his
research.
"These laws not only ignore
everything we know about the
sciences and the wishes of the
general public, they also ignore
the laws of the country," Morri-
son said.

Study shows
stereotypes hurt
women's math
performance
By REBECCA GRAPEVINE
For the Daily
When LSA sophomore Moli Yin
looks around the room during one
of her math classes, she sometimes
doesn't see many other female
faces.
Yin, who plans to major in math-
ematical biology, estimated that
some of her math classes are about
10 percent women. There are only 83
female math majors at the Universi-

ty - compared to 222 men, accord-
ing to math department records.
A new study co-authored by Psy-
chologyProf. Denise Sekaquaptewa
suggests that women's performance
on math tests can be influenced by
stereotypes that they might not
even know they hold. Such stereo-
types, coupled with a strong sense
of gender identity, can cause female
students to shy away from a math-
related career.
Sekaquaptewa found that this is
the case even if the students explic-
itly reject the stereotypes.
PROBLEMS
Sekaquaptewa's study tested
people to see how quickly they con-
nected two words, such as math
and male or women and literature.

The less time it takes someone to
link the two words, the stronger
the researchers deem the subject's
implicit stereotypes.
The study measured 63 female
college calculus students' levels of
implicit and explicit gender ste-
reotyping, gender identification -
which is the rate at which students
agree with statements like "being
a woman is an important part of
my self identity" - course perfor-
mance and career goals. High lev-
els of both gender identification
and implicit stereotyping predicted
lower grades on the final exam.
The study accounted for stu-
dents' different abilities bycompar-
ing math SAT scores and a midterm
course exam taken before the
See MATH, page 3

ARE YOU GENDER
BIASED?
To test whether you are guilty
of implicit gender stereotyping, visit
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
demo/
University Psychology Prof.
Denise Sekaquaptewa and fellow
researcher Amy Kiefer have posted
a sample of the Implicit Association
Test they used in their study to mea-
sure how quickly participants paired
words like "men" or "women" to "cal-
culate' or "literature." Similar tests
are used to examine unconscious
racial stereotyping.

Hoops captain arrested

After traffic stop,
senior brought in on
outstanding warrant
By DANIEL BROMWICH
Daily Sports Editor
Lester Abram, senior team cap-
tain of the Michigan men's bas-
ketball team, was arrested on an
outstanding warrant early yester-
day morning after he was pulled
over for speeding in Ingham Coun-
ty, police said.
Abram had an outstanding

bench warrant from the Ann
Arbor Police Department for fail-
ingto reportin court on a previous
charge, police
said. An officer
fromtheIngham
County Sheriff's
Department
arrested Abram
and transported
him to Fowler-
ville, where the ABRAM
AAPD took him into custody.
AnAthletic Department spokes-
man declined to comment, saying
only that the department is look-
ing into the matter.
Abram, a native of Pontiac,

Mich., was allegedly speeding in a
burgundy Dodge Intrepid heading
east on Interstate 96 between Wil-
liamston and Webberville when
police pulled him over at 12:58 a.m.
Police were unsure of to whom
the car was registered and didn't
release how fast Abram was going.
The speed limit on I-96 where
Abram was pulled over is 70 miles
per hour.
Police said the officer ticketed
Abram for speeding, not having
insurance and driving with a sus-
pended license.
Michigan law calls for at least
a $200 fine for driving with a sus-
. See ABRAM, page 7

TECH NO LOGY
Rehab gets
robotic help

Andres and Michelle Cooper with their 2-year-old quadruplets in their home on North Campus

COIF REEDER/Daily

AN ECONOMY OF SCALE

An hydraulic aid for
the victims of
nerve damage
By NICK STREICHER
For the Daily
Using a new device developed
by University researchers, people
with spinal cord injuries who

might otherwise be bound
to a wheelchair for life
could regain the ability
to walk.
Dan Ferris, an asso- movement in
ciate professor of kinesiology their legs.
and biomedical engineering, and Ferris described how damage
Keith Gordon, a graduate of the to the spinal cord decreases ner-
University's kinesiology Ph.D pro- vous system activity and can pre-
gram and a post-doctoral fellow vent people from moving their leg
at the Rehabilitation Institute of muscles.
Chicago, have developed a robotic The prostheticskeletonincludes
exoskeleton to help patients regain See EXOSKELETON, page 7

Econ 101 GSI juggles
teaching, class and
quadruplets
By EMILY ANGELL
Daily StaffReporter
In a small house in the Univer-
sity's Northwood V development,
four small girls sat in four small
chairs, temporarily distracted by
the large purple dinosaur on the
television set.

As soon as the first few bars of
the Barney theme song played, they
started singing along. Chairs were
soon pushed out of the way as the 2-
year-old quadruplets - Magdalena,
Ignacia, Sofia and Javiera Cooper
- grabbed each other's hands and
danced in a circle.
Their parents, Andres and
Michelle, clapped their hands to
the beat and looked on with pride.
Andres Cooper is a second-year
economics doctoral student. He is
a graduate student instructor for
Economics 101.

And he's the father of quadru-
plets, actually two sets of twins.
Magdalena, the first born, is the
most independent. Her twin Sofia
is the smallest and most mischie-
vous. Javiera is the leader who does
everything first. Her twin Ignacia
is the youngest, a born dancer.
Their father, who must balance
life asa student, teacher and father,
admits that some weeks, he has to
spend a large portion of time away
from home, leaving most of the
responsibilities for his wife.
See QUADRUPLETS, page 3


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