PAJAMARINO JAILBIRDS

As campus homecoming traditions go, the Pajamarino tends toward the tamer side—Aggies greet alumni at the Davis train station, toss back some milk and cookies and march through town in their pajamas.

But in November 1919—back when UC Davis was still the University Farm, nearly all the students were male and student-athletes were not even Aggies yet, they were the Farm players—a Pajamarino ended with nearly 150 students spending the night in the Sacramento jail.

They were arrested for failing to pay their 54 cents-a-person train fare from Davis to Sacramento, where they had planned to march through the streets to promote an upcoming football game against the University of Nevada.

Perhaps their white pajamas lacked pockets. Students would later say they were just having fun. But the conductor clearly was not amused. At a station outside Sacramento, he uncoupled the train cars, rode the engine to the city and went to police to accuse the students of rioting and interfering with the mail. All charges were dropped the next day after students promised a judge that they would pay up—though a Los Angeles Times headline still called them train “raiders.”

The football team didn’t do so well either. The Farm lost 13–0 to Nevada.

ENGINEERING A PRIZE

Each year, the College of Engineering gives out a Distinguished Alumnus Medal, but there was something different about the 2006 medal given to Robert Davis ’78, dean of engineering at the University of Colorado. It was made in-house by college shops and a nanotechnology center.

Engineering Design and Development Services shaped and engraved the anodized aluminum medal with a computerized milling machine and cut it with an electro-discharge machine. The Northern California Nanotechnology Center used a micro-fabrication process to engrave Davis’ name on the medal’s back plate—a silicon wafer overlaid with blue silicon nitride and pure gold.

RAISE YOUR CLICKERS

Photo: Jeff van de Pol

In the old days, students raised their hands in class. But in introductory physics courses, UC Davis students now use clickers to answer questions and interact with their instructor. Lecturers and professors say the clickers improve participation in large classes.

Students can use the clickers, formally known as “personal response systems,” to answer multiple-choice questions presented on the screen. A computer tallies and graphs their choices and presents the correct answer—telling students and instructors how much they’re getting and what needs more work.

While the remote-control look-alikes don’t change channels, they’re clearly making classes more fun. Attendance for the physics lectures was up.

SAFETY NET

In the name of science, Wildlife Health Center Director Walter Boyce and other UC Davis scientists bought every lingerie and sweater bag they could find between Sacramento and Vacaville. They needed the mesh bags to hold live dragonflies to see how well they survived aerial spraying of pesticides.

The pesticide sprayed over Davis and Woodland in August was supposed to kill mosquitoes, slowing the spread of West Nile virus, without harming other insects. The dragonflies indeed survived and, released from their bags, flew away.

THIS BUG'S FOR YOU

Photo: Karin Higgins/UC Davis

This bug’s for you. Kalia Silbaught, 6, of Davis, samples a commercially prepared worm snack during a weeklong summer camp for kids hosted by the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Children also handled Madagascar hissing cockroaches and other insects, studied insect senses, crafted insect soap and created maggot art—dipping live maggots in nontoxic, water-based paint and watching them weave colorful trails on paper. “It’s important that children and their parents learn about insects,” said Bohart Museum director and entomologist Lynn Kimsey. “Ignorance and fear of insects lead to too much money spent on unnecessary insect control in the United States, exposing people to excessive amounts of pesticides. It prevents people from making informed judgments about risks caused by insects and spiders.” A Teichert Foundation grant funded two children’s camps and two teacher workshops over the summer.