It used to be that a “green classroom” referred to the color of paint on the wall. But today’s green classroom are greener than that! New “green” classroom help schools save money and provide clean environments where students learn better.

Many classroom are going green by adding solar panels (太阳能电池板) to their roofs. The solar panels collected energy from the sun and use it to power lights and computers. The panels help make green classrooms grid-neutral, which means the panels create at least as much electricity as the classrooms use. In addition, new lighting and air systems can be programmed to lower energy costs and water use.

Many new “green” classrooms are built using recycled materials. Some even use pieces of material from blue jeans to insulate (使隔热) walls and ceilings. The old-jean insulation cuts heat and air conditioning bills.

Green schools feature (特征有) many other new ideas. Some classrooms are painted using special odor-free paints that help improve indoor air. Some use no glues that add chemical smells to the air. Others use triple-pane (三层玻璃) window and skylights to help keep classrooms warm in cold weather and let in lots of natural daylight.

Experts say the benefits of building greener classrooms go beyond cost savings. Studies show that a healthful environment with good air quality can cut colds and flu by more than 50 percent. That means fewer sick days for students and teachers. Studies have shown that natural light and other green features improve student learning and test scores too.

Dogs tend to ignore suggestions from people who are lying. This is what Ludwig Huber’s team at the University of Vienna in Austria found in its recent experiment.

In the experiment, Huber and his colleagues first trained 260 dogs of various pure breeds to find hidden food in one of two covered bowls. The dogs learned to follow the suggestion of a person they had never met—the “communicator”—who would touch the food-filled bowl, glance at the dog, and say, “Look, this is very good!” Dogs appeared to trust this new person when they were reliably following the signal, says Huber.

Once that trust was established, the team had the dogs witness another person move the food from the first to the second bowl. The communicators were either in the room, and also witnessed the switch, or were briefly absent and so apparently unaware that the food had been switched. In either case, the communicators would later recommend the first bowl—which was now empty.

In previous versions of this experiment with children under age 5, Japanese macaques or chimpanzees, the participants reacted in particular ways. If a communicator had been absent during the food switch, it would appear that they couldn’t know where the treat really was. As such, the children, chimps or macaques would typically ignore a communicator who gave honest—but misleading—advice on where the food was, says Huber.

However, if the communicator had been in the room and witnessed the switch, but still recommended the first (now empty) bowl, young children and non-human primates (灵长目动物) were actually much more likely to follow the communicator’s knowingly misleading suggestion to approach the empty container. This may be because the children and non-human primates trusted the communicator over the evidence of their own eyes, says Huber.

The dogs in the new experiment, however, weren’t so trusting of lying communicators—much to the researchers’ surprise. Half of the dogs would follow the communicator’s misleading advice if the communicator hadn’t witnessed the food switch. But about two-thirds of dogs ignored a communicator who had witnessed the food switch and still recommended the now-empty bowl. These dogs simply went to the bowl filled with food instead. “They did not rely on the communicator anymore,” says Huber.

“This study reminds us that dogs are watching us closely, are picking up on our social signals, and are learning from us constantly even outside of formal training contexts,” says Monique Udell at Oregon State University.

Besides, the fact that half the dogs trusted the communicator who seemed to have made an honest mistake could reveal a lot about how dogs process social information, says Udell. “There is both genetic and behavioral evidence that dogs are hypersocial, meaning that many dogs have a difficult time ignoring social cues even when another solution might be more advantageous,” she says. “This is a really striking example of just how often this may occur.”

Basketball Statistician Help Wanted

The Athletic Department is looking for students to help assist staff during the Fall 2016, Winter 2016-17 and Spring 2017 semesters. Students in this position will be keeping live statistics during basketball games. Students must meet all of the following requirements:

•Good computer skills

•Available evenings and weekends

•Knowing basketball rules and statistics

Students interested in working for the Athletic Department should contact the Athletic Coordinator at their respective(各自的) campuses.

•TP/SS Athletic Coordinator, Michael Simone, 240-567-1308

•Rockville Athletic Coordinator, Jorge Zuniga, 240-567-7589

•Springfield Athletic Coordinator, Gary Miller, 240-567-2273

•Germantown Athletic Coordinator, Gauri Chavan, 240-567-6915