FGCU

Lightning comes in different varieties, the most common kinds don't reach the ground, called intra-cloud and cloud-to-cloud. Cloud to ground lightning actually only makes up about 10-20% of strikes. About 1% is ground to cloud. Then one of the outlier forms of lightning stretches for miles (sometimes dozens of miles) horizontally and can resemble a spider web, and that’s why it’s called spider lightning. We learn about ongoing research at Florida Gulf Coast University into this form of lightning with the instructor who is leading it and a student who helped her work with the data.

Doug MacGregor has been an editorial cartoonist for more than 40 years. He got his professional start at the Norwich Bulletin in eastern Connecticut in 1980. He moved to Florida in 1988 and drew cartoons for the News Press in Fort Myers until 2011. Doug created five cartoons every week, year in and year out, for nearly a quarter century. He has donated a large collection of his original drawings (mostly pertaining to the local environment) to Florida Gulf Coast University’s “Archives & Special Collections” at the school’s Wilson G. Bradshaw Library and students have completed the process of digitizing them and the team at the Archives helps students use Doug’s work in their studies.

A week after an FGCU alert cautioned that bears were seen in the North Village student housing area of the university, a student at the South Village captured a wandering Yogi on video.The morning of June 24 the university issued a warning — "Eagle Alert: Bears seen near North Lake Village area, searching for trash. Please exercise caution. Use trash compactor-no trash bags in breezeways or open dumpsters."

When most people think about job interview preparation, they might imagine practicing in front of a mirror. But at Osceola County Corrections, inmates are preparing for the workforce with the help of some very special interview partners: puppets.And there's an FGCU connection at play.

Dr. Jerry Jackson is known to WGCU listeners as the creator and host of With the Wild Things, heard weekday mornings at 7:19 and weekday afternoons at 5:18. He’s a professor emeritus of Ecological Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University, and a professor emeritus at Mississippi State University. Nick Penniman is a retired newspaper publisher, and he is chair emeritus of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and a Florida Master Naturalist. He and Dr. Jackson gave a talk together at Florida Gulf Coast University in April as part of the school’s Provost’s Seminar Series titled Getting to Know the World Around You: an Illustrated Conversation” so we had them come by the studio to chat.

the Florida House and Senate celebrated their version of the state’s budget. The proposal is a reduction from last year’s and is missing some elements that were proposed by Governor Ron DeSantis.

New program has robots delivering food to FGCU students.

FGCU Professor of Art Andy Owen died on June 21 following a three-month battle with cancer. For 17 years, Owen taught multiple levels of drawing and printmaking. He also played an instrumental role in the formation of FGCU’s permanent art collection.

On April 10 WGCU hosted an event at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Water School that featured NOVA Executive Producer Chris Schmidt. That day we screened parts of the NOVA episode Weathering the Future for an audience of about 200 people. Between the segments we chatted with him, as well as two FGCU professors about issues raised in the film and the challenges we face in Southwest Florida when it comes to adapting to our changing climate. Chris talked about the challenges NOVA faces in communicating science to a broad audience, and Dr. Win Everham and Dr. Molly Nation helped tie it all together.

A Tuesday morning warned — "Eagle Alert: Bears seen near North Lake Village area, searching for trash. Please exercise caution. Use trash compactor-no trash bags in breezeways or open dumpsters."