'Working to solve complex real-world problems is the best way to advance knowledge and learning." This sentiment, voiced by education reformer John Dewey, deserves stronger consideration from our university than it is presently receiving. Our community, West Philadelphia, has no shortage of problems.

Sometimes it's been injuries. Sometimes it's been turnovers. Sometimes it's been the kicking game. Saturday's game at Brown was a culmination of all of those pains that have plagued the Penn football team for the last three years. This latest re-enactment of the Quakers' nightmare came in a 31-17 loss at Brown (3-4, 2-2 Ivy) on Saturday.

University researchers have determined that particular brain waves help distinguish real memories from false ones, according to a press release. Their study is the first to show that brain waves predict the veracity of human memories. The findings from the experiments may also help advance research into epilepsy.

Five more years. The University Board of Trustees announced at its meeting on Oct. 19 that Penn President Amy Gutmann's contract has been extended for five years, securing her position as Penn's leader until 2014. The extension for Gutmann, who assumed the presidency in June 2004, comes 20 months before her contract was set to expire.

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Oct. 27 - A showdown against the Ivy league's top dogs isn't a good time to have an off day. With the season on the line, the then-one-loss Quakers had their moments but in the end were swept away 3-0 by a dominant No. 6 Brown squad. Penn now sits at 2-2 in the league (5-7-2 overall), while Brown moves to 4-0 (11-1-1) and is now coasting toward an Ivy title.

The Penn volleyball team is keeping the pressure on Princeton. The second-place Quakers finished a perfect five-game road trip over the weekend, as they swept past Columbia 3-0 and Cornell 3-0. In improving to 14-7 and 7-2 in League play, the Quakers gave coach Kerry Carr win number 200 of her career.

After a brutal 56-7 loss, sprint football coach Bill Wagner called out Navy for what he construed to be unsportsmanlike play. "They're a good team, but I think they're a cheap-shot team, I think their cut-blocking is certainly of question and, in my opinion, a deficit to the game," Wagner said.

Fire alarms, a human pyramid and an almost-stolen composite picture forced Zeta Beta Tau's Halloween party to shut down early Sunday morning. Members of OZ, an underground fraternity, "caused chaos at the [ZBT] party" by forming a human pyramid while a smoke alarm was going off, said College junior and ZBT president Sam Farber.

As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and as a capstone to Greek Week, the Panhellenic Council sponsored the seventh annual Rena Rowan Ribbon Run yesterday. The run was a 5K route around campus that kicked off on a crisp afternoon at the Compass at 37th and Locust streets.

At the Heptagonal Championships in New York City, Penn women's cross country finished fourth while the men's squad took third place. But there was no doubt who was on top. In dominating fashion, both the men's and women's individual winners came from Princeton, as the Tigers swept Heps for the second straight season.

The Ivy League field hockey title will now be decided with a Penn vs. Princeton showdown on Friday after the Quakers' took down Brown, 4-1, on Saturday. Penn is a position to become co-champions if it beats 5-1 Princeton in the final game of each teams' season.

Costumed students returning home from a string of Halloween parties early Sunday morning were greeted by the sound of a flurry of gunshots, the result of a fight at 38th and Chestnut streets that left one man dead and two others injured.

Halfway through a Friday, the most definitive sounds along Locust Walk are those of shuffling feet and immutable construction. But for dozens of Penn's Muslim students, faculty and staff, there is a different sound ringing in their ears: the Islamic Call to Prayer.

With the shooting at the Koko Bongo over the weekend, nobody needs to be reminded that we live on an urban campus that is far from immune to crime. Fortunately, Penn has a number of security measures in place to protect its students: 898-WALK, 898-RIDE and the fourth-largest private police force in the country.

Van Pelt Library: A resource for studying, researching -and theft? The Division of Public Safety revealed last week that it is currently conducting an investigation into a rising tide of unattended theft, with a focus on crimes occurring in Van Pelt, the main library on campus.

Even after 109 minutes of disappointing play, no one on the Penn women's soccer team could have expected the 110th and final minute to turn into such a nightmare. The Quakers' perfect Ivy season and six-match winning streak came to an end with the sweep of Kerrilynn Carney's foot yesterday afternoon in Providence, R.

Daniel Schwartz is a College sophomore from Decatur, Ga. His e-mail address is schwartz@dailypennsylvanian.com.