News :: Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach

The Center for Science Outreach is pleased that its popular podcast, Snacks4theBrain! has been included in the newly released Discover Archive, an extraordinary project from Vanderbilt's Jean and Alexander Heard Library. The rapidly growing research resource offers many ways to access S4theB! but one way is to perform a simple search for "snacks" and "brain", which results in this page.

The next episode, number 78, of Snacks, will feature amazing end of semester presentations by the School for Science and Math's sophomore class, as well as some fun independent music and the return of Tech Tip Tidbit! Stay tuned!!!

We invite you to join us for a presentation by Richard Louv, author of the national best seller Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. The CSO is excited to co-sponsor this event along with the National Wildlife Federation, Nashville Metro Parks, and others.

Admission is FREE and the talk will be held on Monday, November 10, 6pm at Hume-Fogg High School.

The recipient of the 2008 Audubon Medal, Richard Louv identified a phenomenon we all knew existed but couldn't quite articulate: nature-deficit disorder. Since its initial publication, his book has created a national conversation about the disconnection between children and nature, and his message has galvanized an international movement. Now, three years later, we have reached a tipping point, with the book inspiring Leave No Child Inside initiatives throughout the country.

Hailed as "an absolute must-read" by the Boston Globe and "too tantalizing to ignore" by Audubon magazine, Last Child in the Woods is the inspiring work that proves children need nature as much as nature needs children.

We look forward to all of our CSO colleagues, program participants, families and friends attending this special event.

View the invitation from Metro Parks.

The CSO partner Center for Teaching offers a "teaching certificate" program designed to help graduate, professional students, and postdocs develop and refine their teaching skills. We invite you to attend their information session on October 3, 2007 as well as a variety of relevant workshops and discussions held throughout the semester.

Keep an eye on our website for teaching opportunities in the Scientist-in-the-Classroom Partnership (SCP) Program and School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt .

Thanks to the Volunteer Legacy Coalition, Tennessee's climate change partner with Environmental Defense, Dr. Bill Chameides will host two webcasts for Tennessee educators. As an atmospheric chemist, Dr. Chameides' research focuses on global biogeochemical cycles, global change, and air pollution. He is Chief Scientist at Environmental Defense. Join Dr. Chameides and your fellow educators on February 22 and again on March 1. These interactive webcasts will begin at 4:15 EST/3:15 CST and last for 90 minutes. The first one on February 22 will cover the latest climate science. On March 1, the topic will be solutions to global climate change. Throughout each session, participants will be able to e-mail questions to Dr. Chameides and he will address them during that session. In order to view and participate in the Climate Change Webcasts, your computer system must be capable of viewing video. Some school systems use a firewall that blocks all video. Find out about your system’s policy ahead of time. If your system has all video blocked and you cannot get it unblocked for these webcasts, you will need to go to another location with broadband internet access to log on to the webcast. Prior to February 22, go to http://www.state.tn.us/education/projectcents/ and read the Fact Sheet about Mediasite Viewer. You will need to have the latest version of your media player and allow pop-ups for the webcast. Then, on February 22 and March 1, just before 3:15 CST/4:15 EST return to the Project CENTS website and click on the link for the webcast.

After two videoconferences with schools in Kentucky, the Center for Rural Development's CenterNET2 Network highlighted the CSO in their newsletter that is shared with 139 videoconferencing sites and many others in Kentucky. View the newsletter and take a look at the CenterNET2 website.