Submissions are due Friday, April 25, for the third annual World Championship Belt Buckle Competitionhosted by the Montana State University School of Art.
 
Bryan Petersen, professor in the MSU School of Art and organizer of the online competition of wearable, one-of-a-kind wearable examples of handcrafted art in a belt buckle format, said that Daniel Icaza of Costa Rica, champion of last year’s contest, will visit the MSU School of Art Metalsmithing Department to co-jury the competition and speak with art students. Peterson will also co-judge the competition,
 
Petersen said the World Championship Belt Buckle Competition has grown in popularity and created a venue for buckle makers and artists working in contemporary art in the buckle format from throughout the world.
 
The competition has managed to sustain itself financially and create a visiting artist fund for the MSU Metalsmithing Department, Peterson said. For instance, the contest has allowed MSU’s student-run guild to hire Icaza to teach a technical workshop on a Japanese metalsmithing technique, called Mokume-Gane, in which layers of copper and brass are forge welded into a laminated billet and then patterned with either concentric circles or a linear patterns.  Icaza used the technique in his 2013 winning buckle entry, “Space Cowboy.”
 
The winner of this year’s contest will receive a belt buckle made by John Winston of Bunnell, Fla., who was runner-up in the 2013 competition. Winston has made pirate-themed belt buckles collected by such people as Johnny Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer and Steven Segal, and will be contributing a buckle in his renowned pirate style to the competition.
 
“Winston explains the significance of the buckle to pirates describing how they were some of the first to create and wear buckles, taking a cinch strap from a horse and fashioning a large brass buckle,” Petersen said.
 
For more information about the contest, go to www.worldchampionbuckle.com or www.facebook.com/worldchampbuckle.
 
 

Registration is now open for Montana State University’s Peaks and Potentials program, a weeklong enrichment camp offered June 15-20 on the MSU campus.

Peaks and Potentials is designed to give high-ability/high-potential students entering grades 5-7 next fall the opportunity to explore special topics of interest and work with experts in various subject areas. A signature from an appropriate school official is necessary for the student's acceptance.

Sessions for this summer's camp include a variety of topics in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) as well as the arts and humanities, including jewelry making, honeybee investigation, world music, nutrition, water science, renewable energy and more. Evening activities include swimming, volleyball, soccer and others.

Students have the option of staying on campus or commuting to and from camp each day. Enrollment is limited, and the camp generally fills to capacity. Registrations are available online at: http://eu.montana.edu/peaks/, or in the MSU Office of Continuing Education, 200 Culbertson Hall.

Instructors are MSU faculty, graduate students and experienced professionals from the area. University students and professionals act as directors and counselors throughout the week. All classes emphasize personal instruction and small group interaction as well as a “hands-on” approach. Academic, recreational and social activities offer students a chance to interact with their peers and sample campus life.

The camp is sponsored by MSU Extended University. For more information, contact MSU Extended University at ContinuingEd@montana.edu or (406) 994-6683.

Montana State University offers several online summer credit courses for open enrollment. Courses are offered in many disciplines, including writing, astronomy, photography and other fields.

Courses include “History of Yellowstone,” HSTA468; “College Writing,” WRIT101; “Evolution and Public Opinion,” LS491; “Introduction to Astronomy – Mysteries of the Sky,” ASTR110; and “Exploring Digital Photography,” PHOT154.
Most courses begin May 12.

The courses are open to anyone interested in the topics. These particular courses also apply toward MSU's online bachelor's degree completion program. This flexible program helps students with an associate’s degree or 60 or more college credits complete a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies from Montana State University Online.

To register or read the full course descriptions, visit MSU’s Extended University at http://eu.montana.edu/credit/. For information about the bachelor's degree completion program, contact Sarah Hendrikx at (406) 994-7441 or sarah.hendrikx@montana.edu or visit http://eu.montana.edu/online/degrees/completion/.

Montana State University Extension in Gallatin County will host a plant clinic in their office in Belgrade on Wednesdays during the growing season. The weekly clinic will run April 16 – Oct. 1, from 1-4 p.m. at 201 W. Madison Ave., Suite 300, Belgrade.

Level 3 Master Gardeners will staff the plant clinic with assistance from Emily Lockard, Gallatin County agriculture agent, and Dara Palmer, assistant coordinator for Master Gardener.

Questions will be answered through phone calls and walk-ins from the public. The public is encouraged to bring plant samples for identification or disease diagnosis. Yard and garden insect samples can also be brought for identification. Plant and insect samples can be dropped off at the Extension office during their normal business hours, but yard and gardening questions will be answered during the Wednesday clinic hours. The public can call (406) 388-3213 to have questions answered and to request yard and gardening information.

If you would like to learn more about Gallatin County MSU Extension visit www.gallatinextension.com.

The Artists’ Gallery in Bozeman’s Emerson Cultural Center will be featuring the art of Carmen Stanislao and Marci Surratt during the month of May.
 
Stanislao will show her bronze sculptures, watercolors, acrylics, oil paintings and a few of her specially commissioned pieces. Her bronzes capture much of Montana’s wildlife in its natural surroundings from big game animals to trout in a stream. Working with the combination of texture, pliability and patina give her the versatility she seeks to show in the variety of her designs.
 
Surratt displays her fondness for farm life through her rich oil paintings. She works out of her “Yellow Barn Studio” west of Bozeman where she is continually inspired by the sunsets, wildlife and the daily life happening in the barnyard. She finds the play of shadows and sunlight as intensely challenging as painting moving animals and has learned to work fast to capture the mood of the story, the true colors and direction of the light.
 
The May show runs from April 28th through May 26th with an Artwalk on the evening of Friday, May 9th.  Come to the Artists’ Gallery between 5-8 pm during the Artwalk to meet these Featured Artists and share a glass of wine while checking out the variety of art at the gallery.

A Montana State University senior who investigated the revitalization of tribal languages in Montana will present his research April 29 on Capitol Hill.

Michael Fast Buffalo Horse of Browning, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, was one of 60 students across the country selected by the Council for Undergraduate Research to participate in the annual “Posters on the Hill” celebration. One of more than 800 who applied, he will display a poster about his research and explain his findings to U.S. senators, representatives and others who stop by to visit.

“Languages are dying at an alarming rate, and the languages spoken by the Native American tribes in the United States are especially vulnerable. Of the 300-plus languages that were spoken on this continent before European contact, only half remain,” Fast Buffalo Horse wrote in a project summary. “The tribal languages of Montana’s Indigenous nations were harshly suppressed historically through restrictive governmental policies, cultural prejudices and forced assimilation.”

To conduct his research, Fast Buffalo Horse examined the historical reasons that the languages became endangered and why preserving them is such a daunting task. He also interviewed tribal educators and visited Montana reservations so he could present the human side of tribal language revitalization and maintenance. His mentor on the project was Jioanna Carjuzaa, associate professor of education, long-time researcher of indigenous languages and recent recipient of one of the nation’s top awards for commitment to and excellence in multicultural education – the G. Pritchy Smith Multicultural Educator of the Year Award.

“These languages are vital to the continued existence of these peoples, their cultures and the unique perspectives that they can offer to the rest of the world,” Fast Buffalo Horse said. “… It is our hope that our research can offer a more complete look at Montana’s tribal history in the face of a rapidly changing future.”

Carjuzaa nominated Fast Buffalo Horse for the opportunity to present his research in Washington, D.C., and will accompany him to the nation’s capital.

“I thought he had a good chance of being selected, so I recommended him,” she said.
Fast Buffalo Horse, who is majoring in secondary education, is one of MSU’s McNair Scholars. As such, he participates in the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and designed to prepare first generation, low-income and underrepresented undergraduate students for success in graduate school. Fast Buffalo Horse is also a pow wow dancer who specializes in the traditional Blackfeet Chicken Dance. He recently danced in the 39th annual American Indian Council Pow Wow at MSU.
After graduating from MSU this fall, Fast Buffalo Horse said he plans to pursue a doctorate in history or education with the ultimate goal of becoming a faculty member in higher education.

While in Washington, D.C, Fast Buffalo Horse and Carjuzaa will participate in a meeting at the White House and a private tour of the National Museum of American Indians. The White House meeting was arranged with Bill Mendoza, an MSU alumnus who was mentored by Carjuzaa. Mendoza is the executive director of the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education.

The Western Society of Crop Science will hold its next annual meeting July 8-9 at Montana State University in Bozeman.

The two-day WSCS meeting will be held at MSU’s Brick Breeden Fieldhouse and will feature presentations from professionals, as well as students working in crop science.

The theme of the meeting will be “Grand Challenges - Great Solutions” and attendees are encouraged to present a paper or poster around the theme. Abstract submission is open through May 1.

WSCS will also present the A.K. Dobrenz Student Paper Awards, earning a cash award for the three best student oral presentations. The 2014 student winners receive $200, $150 and $100 for first-, second- and third-place papers, respectively. The first-place winner also receives a $500 travel stipend to attend the Crop Science Society of America annual conference. Graduate students may also present a poster, however there will be no poster competition.

Visit the WSCS website, https://www.crops.org/membership/branches/wscs, for additional details as they become available for the program, registration, important deadlines and accommodations.

Teachers and informal educators can learn to incorporate archaeology into their classrooms and programs through hands-on summer courses with Project Archaeology, which is based at Montana State University.

Participants engage in archaeological activities such as investigating field sites and analyzing artifacts while exploring curriculum materials that cover topics such as math and language literacy, problem solving processes and inquiry. The program has several STEM components (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and also fulfills many core requirements in Indian Education for All and the Common Core Standards.

“Project Archaeology: Investigating a Plains Tipi” takes place in Bozeman from June 16-19 and repeats July 21-24.

“Project Archaeology: Educator Field School” takes place in the gold rush town of Virginia City from Aug. 4-8 and includes two days of archaeological excavation in nearby Nevada City.

Both courses offer graduate credits from MSU. Participants in the Virginia City course may also choose to enroll in the non-credit option and receive 30 Montana Office of Public Instruction renewal units instead of academic credit. All participants receive a full set of curriculum materials. Educators from throughout the United States are encouraged to participate. The field school and curriculum materials are also appropriate for informal educators, such as those based at museums, science schools, as well as after-school programs.

For more information or to register, visit http://eu.montana.edu/credit/ or call (406) 994-6683. The courses are listed under “Education, Curriculum and Instruction.” Teachers can view a video of the Virginia City course at http://vimeo.com/34613697/.

Registration is now open for Montana State University’s School of Music piano summer camp for students entering grades 6 to 12. The camp, “Popular Music for Piano,” runs Aug. 11 to 15, and students may register for either the morning or afternoon session.
 
Piano students will learn current pop and rock hits, write and record their own song, and study popular music theory and techniques under the direction of Billie Howard, camp director.
 
Enrollment is limited to the first 10 students to register per session. The morning session runs from 9 a.m.-noon. The afternoon session is from 1-4 p.m. Early registration, before July 28, costs $250. Those who register after July 28 will pay $275.
 
Howard has a master’s degree in piano performance and pedagogy from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s in piano and violin performance from MSU. Howard performs across Chicago in both classical and rock styles, regularly appearing with the Chicago Composer’s Orchestra, Aperiodic, and the 20-piece all-female Girl Group Chicago.
 
For more information, contact Howard at billie.howard@cuchicago.edu or go online.