A few education-oriented items from around the area, and beyond:

Three chats down, at least five more to go.

At 11 a.m. Thursday, visit LJWorld.com to take part in and follow along with our latest chat with a candidate for Lawrence school board: Keith Diaz Moore, an associate professor and associate dean of graduate studies at Kansas University’s School of Architecture, Planning & Design. He’s one of nine people campaigning for four available seats on the Lawrence school board.

The chats offer people to have their questions answered by the candidates themselves, in their own words.

I serve as chat moderator, posting the questions for candidates to answer — taken from queries submitted both in advance and during each chat.

Have a question you’d like to ask? Send it in. Just follow the links that are posted alongside this story.

The general election is April 5.

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Here’s some other election-oriented news:

• A forum for school board candidates is scheduled for 7 to 8:30 tonight — that’s Wednesday, March 16 — in the gym at Cordley School, 1837 Vt. The forum is billed as addressing elementary schools in Lawrence.

• As mentioned here previously, the Voter Education Coalition has a forum of its own set for board candidates at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.

• As reported earlier on LJWorld.com, the coalition also will be conducting a candidate fair for both school board and Lawrence City Commission candidates, from 10 a.m. to noon April 2 inside the visitor center at the Union Pacific Depot, 402 N. Second St. in North Lawrence.

• Advance voting begins today, March 16, and runs through noon April 4 for people voting in person. The last day to register to vote in time for the board and City Commission election is March 21. The general election is April 5.

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Graduates of area high schools are among 48 recipients of Undergraduate Research Awards for spring 2011 at Kansas University.

The awards are described as supporting “original, independent research by undergraduates” enrolled on KU’s Lawrence campus, and are administered by the University Honors Program with financing from the Office of the Provost, Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Faculty on the University Honors Research Committee selected projects based on:

• overall quality of the proposal.

• the student’s academic record and ability to complete the proposed research project.

• a project’s potential contribution to knowledge and educational value of the research to the student.

Winners from the area:

• Joseph Stogsdill, a Lawrence junior in history and environmental studies. The graduate of Lawrence High School is the son of Mark and Sheila Stogsdill. His project: “Oral Testimonies of The Ch’orti’ Maya,” a historical study of the role of ecological and cosmological change in the subsistence economy of the Copán Ruinas farmers in western Honduras.

• Katherine Virginia Aucott, a Lawrence senior in psychology. The graduate of Free State High School is the daughter of Walt and Carol Aucott. Her project: “Effects of the Salience of White Privilege and Black Disadvantage on Self-Concept in White Americans,” a project to understand better perceptions of white privilege in the United States.

• Adela Chaswill Timmons, a Lawrence senior in psychology. The graduate of Free State High School is the daughter of Charles and Paula Timmons. Her project: “Do Sampling Techniques Affect Parameter Estimates of Nonlinear Data? A Methodological Issue in the Design of Longitudinal Research,” a study to determine the number and timing of measurements necessary to detect a certain function in the data.

• Aaron Michael Karlin, a Baldwin City junior in chemical engineering. The graduate of Baldwin High School is the son of Gary Karlin. His project: “Imaging of Gradient Hydrogels Using 6-Channel Microslides,” a project of value in tissue engineering that will use imaging methods and cellular informatics in three-dimensional tissue systems to track specific genes.

• Justin Douglas Smith, a Tonganoxie senior in chemistry. The graduate of Tonganoxie High School is the son of Frank and Jeanne Smith. His project: “Factors affecting the synthesis of new hydrogels,” a project to develop a novel hydrogel that potentially could provide a less toxic alternative to polyacrylamide, one of the most widely used gels in many areas of technology such as biochemical separations, as well as to develop potential new applications for this novel gel in drug delivery devices.