Stories this week at WFU

Professor Offers Expert Comment on Debates

Wake Forest debate coach Allan Louden can evaluate how the second face-off between Clinton and Dole might influence the election. Louden, a communication professor, is an expert on political debate and can tell what it takes to “win” a debate.

Polling and Voter Behavior

Election polls do more than tell the public who is ahead in a presidential election, according to John Dinan, a visiting assistant politics professor. Polls influence the public’s enthusiasm about a campaign, campaign donations and voter turn-out on election day. A candidate who is lagging in the polls may be perceived as a loser, discouraging supporters from showing up to vote. Poll standings of presidential candidates can affect congressional races, too, Dinan added.

Electric Pickle Sparks Interest in Sciences

It entertained Jay Leno on the “Tonight Show”; now more than 2,000 Piedmont-area sixth graders will see Steve “Jake” Jacobs’s “Electric Pickle” experiment and other hands-on demonstrations at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 17 in Wait Chapel at Wake Forest University. Jacobs, host of the “Jake’s Attic” program on Fox television and consultant for “Mr. Wizard’s World” on the Nickelodeon channel, says that anyone can think like a scientist. “Science is not a bunch of information,” Jacobs says. “It’s a way of thinking; a way of looking at things. The essence of what I bring is that if Jake can do science, anybody can.”