Snacks4theBrain!

Well, folks, I’m traveling up to Washington, D.C. next week for the National Educational Computing Conference, which as of this post will be my final hurrah as Teacher-in-residence for the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach. Upon returning to Nashville July 5, my work with the CSO will be as an ad hoc Technology Consultant. While this may prove to be a fabulous opportunity, its design does not, very unfortunately, allow for funding of future Snacks4theBrain! podcasts.

If you or your organization would be interested in sponsoring the continuance of Snacks4theBrain!, or if you know of anyone who might, please contact me at scottmerrick.net or email me at “scott @ scottmerrick.net” (no spaces) to discuss the possibilities!

Otherwise, tune in for Snacks4theBrain! episode number 85, NECC and Beyond! It should be a doozie!

As twitter occasionally informs me, “There’s nothing more to see here, move along now…”

I’ve finally gone off the deep end, you say. What has sword swallowing got to do with science? Well, turns out, lots!

I attended and (sort of) presented about Health Care resources in Second Life on May 30 at HealthCamp Nashville, held on the campus of David Lipscomb University here in Nashville. If you are interested in the resources I compiled for that presentation you may access them at WallWisher, a Web 2.0 platform for easily collaborating on a topic. I’m not here to talk about my presentation, though, rather to share one of those interesting ways that life can surprise you with fascinating new learning if you’re open to that sort of thing.

The subject at hand is sword swallowing.

HealthCamp Nashville was set up around social/professional networking tools. In fact, I’d become aware of it through Twitter, my tech/teaching/innovation mainstay. The presentations were set up so that each presenter only had 20 minutes, with 5 more to share q and a, then 5 minutes to set up for the next presenter.

I was checking out my presentation room, the “Yellow Room.” Now, the conference had registered 150 or so attendees but only 40 or 50 showed up. Still, I wanted to do the best I could, so I decided to watch a couple presentations in the same room. I “live-blogged” it with CoverItLive and you can read about Larry Lin’s excellent presentation on Healthcare opportunities in China by visiting my personal blog at scottmerrick.net. Toward the end of Larry’s session, a tall, fit looking fellow with long blonde hair entered the room with a bag of swords. He listened attentively and when it was his turn he eased up to the front of the room.

Now, Lin’s presentation had only been experienced by about a half-dozen in the audience. Most of those filtered out in the interim and I was left with only Tim, the session timekeeper (you know, the guy with the two large cards that say “5″ and “1″ that he uses to help keep the sessions on schedule). To the new presenter’s relief, others filtered in and pretty soon we had four or five in the audience. Others came in as the twitter stream hashed #hcn09 seeped out the news that something extraordinary was going on in the Yellow Room.

I wished that I had recorded Dan’s presentation, all built around his 2006 scholarly paper published by the British Medical Journal, “Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects.” The paper garnered Meyer a coveted (or not:) Ig Nobel award in 2007. These awards are given annually for discoveries “that cannot, or should not, be reproduced,” and are currently announced annually a Harvard University venue to great fanfare. I actually featured Ig Nobel awards ‘way back in podcast number 47 of S4theB!. Just to give you some idea of the company Meyer keeps with this award, here’s the list of 2007 award winners (from Wikipedia):

Aviation: Patricia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano and Diego A. Golombek, for discovering that hamsters recover from jetlag more quickly when given Viagra.
Biology: Johanna E.M.H. van Bronswijk, for taking a census of all the mites and other life forms that live in people’s beds.
Chemistry: Mayu Yamamoto for extracting vanilla flavour from cow dung.
Economics: Kuo Cheng Hsieh, for patenting a device to catch bank robbers by ensnaring them in a net.
Linguistics: Juan Manuel Toro, Josep B. Trobalon and Nuria Sebastian-Galles, for determining that rats sometimes can’t distinguish between recordings of Japanese and Dutch played backward.
Literature: Glenda Browne, for her study into indexing entries that start with the word “the”.
Medicine: Dan Meyer and Brian Witcombe, for investigating the side-effects of swallowing swords.
Nutrition: Brian Wansink, for investigating people’s appetite for mindless eating by secretly feeding them a self-refilling bowl of soup.
Peace: The United States Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, for suggesting the research and development of a “gay bomb,” which would cause enemy troops to become sexually attracted to each other.
Physics: L. Mahadevan and Enrique Cerda Villablanca for their theoretical study of how sheets become wrinkled.

You get the idea. I was prepared to scoff.

As I watched and listened, something remarkable happened: I was enthralled! Meyer had certainly done his research, and the paper was well-written and fit the mold of every academic paper I’ve read over the years. This man is a good communicator. The president of Sword Swallower’s Internationsl, he’s also, indisputably, a master of sword swallowing, as the video in this post demonstrates.

I talked with Dan after his presentation, told him that I wished I’d recorded his presentation, and incredibly, he handed me the mini-DVD tape that had recorded his 20 minute presentation. I’ll cut the audio as he prepares to do his demonstration, and you can finish with the video at blogs.vanderbilt.edu/s4theb/ !!! Here’s a link to Dan’s excellent website.

And here’s a link to the YouTube video I shot at the presentation!

Music for this show comes from Podsafe Music Network instrumentalist and composer Jean Miquel, working out of Montreal, Quebec and sharing with us his “The Sword of Fire” composition, right in line with Dan Meyer’s predilection for suspenseful music. Dan’s presentation follows!

Snacks4theBrain! episode 84 is right here, or truck on over to iTunes and subscribe!

More links!
Dan’s Twitter account @Halfdan
Dan is available to speak at science/medical events at http://tr.im/scimed
Dan’s “Have Sword Will Travel” podcasts on Itunes
Sword Swallowers Association International
Sword Swallowing x-rays www.swordswallow.com/xrays.php
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Meyer_(performer)
Ig Nobel awards: http://www.improbable.com/ig/

This past Wednesday, May 13, I trotted on over from my work at University School of Nashville to watch a presentation from one of the 6 groups of 3 School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt sophomores. This was the culminating session from self-directed, teacher-guided, out-in-the-field research projects, and as you’ll hear when Isaiah details what was at stake as a result of the assessment of their presentations, they were all very much into making things clear and accessible.

I watched a fun 20 minute presentation from one group, and I was relieved to see that the students were being videotaped. Perhaps we can share some more of these projects in future Snacks! I asked Dr. Chris Vanags if I could interview a group, and he graciously sent Ashleigh, Cindy, and Isiah my way. We moved over into the snack room and chatted for about 10 minutes. These are ten minutes I want to share with you. I think you’ll agree that these 16 year-olds are well on their way to lifelong learning in science, and I would say from talking with them that their self-confidence and grasp of the important concepts is exceptional. It speaks to the quality of the program a the School, which brings 25 Metro Nashville Public School high school students at each grade level to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center for hands-on research and learning one day a week, the entire academic year. I want to reiterate what I’ve mentioned here before: the rest of their public schooling does not go away, get excused, or do itself. These kids work and work hard, and they will deserve the diploma notation they receive when they graduate from their respective high schools upon completion of their senior year.

Before we get started, let’s hear some summer themed music, this time beautifully produced indie alternative rock from a project called SUPERCREEP, the brainchild of New Jersey rocker Jody Delli Santi, fresh from the podcast music network at music.podshow.com. Go visit their MySpace site and buy some SUPERCREEP! After the interview, please allow me to introduce the Dutch band Zamarro, who’ve been together 13 years without a change in band members and how come this is the first time I’ve heard of them. Maybe it’s that they’re from Switzerland? I swear, if I didn’t podcast my music education would definitely suffer! They’ll rock us outta here with a pounding hello summertime rendition of their “Off We Go.” That one’s for my son Colin…

Whilst I’m at it, I bet you haven’t seen the April 24 Vanderbilt Health News item about the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt. No? Well here!

Hola,

Episode 82 of S4theB! shares some information whose source centers around the recurring celebrity of our Episode number 17 subject. At that time (OMG, December 5, 2005! Have we been at this that long?), Dr. William Schaffner was also in the news, driven there by media looking for answers to the then outbreak of bird flu. What? Don’t remember Bird Flu! Okay, that does it! We have to have a DO (that means, of course, “Do Over”). I’m re-sharing the interview from episode 17 for two reasons, 1)because chances are you didn’t get to that podcast back in December, 2005. And 2)because Dr. S. says some things in it that really truly apply to the situations right here, right now.

I’m also posting some links here, which can lead you to many of the recent online articles and video appearances that tap Dr. Schaffner’s expertise in the topic that so thoroughly saturates our airwaves, cables, and iPods these days: Swine Flu.

A quick survey of some article titles may help tickle your curiosity:

Links:
Regular flu shots this fall, maybe swine jab too
AP Release by Lauran Neergaard, May 2, 2009

Stay safe from swine flu with 3 simple steps
USA Today Health & Behavior section, April 30

Current flu outbreak has some similarity to deadly 1918 strain
Stamford Times article by Susanne Rust, May 4

VMC leadership urges calm in the swine flu storm
Vanderbilt Medical Center’s REPORTER

Flu-fighting masks may help, but don’t bet on it
msnbc.com online article April 30

In the process of sorting through the results for the above links, I had a brainstorm: Why not create a custom feed on my personalized Google News page for William Schaffner? I did that, and so can you, if you’re of a mind. You can see mine, complete with each of its 628 search returns (as of the moment of this recording) by clicking here.

Then I went all viddy wit’ it, switching my google search to Video mode. How many resulting links? 49. Here’s a screen grab from the search, and here’s a link to a nifty Veoh.com amalgam of video clips featuring Dr. Schaffner sharing his good doctorly advice.

Finally, I took to the large video services, finding lots of returns on searches for “swine flu Schaffner” in digital print at

And, really finally finally, I searched just for swine flu at msnbc.com, ending up with an interesting list that contained a fascinating brief video coverage of Dr. Carl Brumback, a 95 year-old retiree who “was in charge of Palm Beach County’s response” to the 1976 swine flu outbreak. Dr. Brumback also comments about the 1918 outbreak, which he has lived long enough to recall! This video is here for your viewing enjoyment!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

People in Business at tennessean.com noted on May 3 that William Schaffner received the James D. Bruce Award for Distinguished Contributions in Preventive Medicine from the American College of Physicians. Schaffner is chair of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s department of preventive medicine.

Music for this podcast is straight from the Podsafe Music Network and features “Pearls Before Swine” from Oregonian rockers Drunken Prayer and “Swine and Dogs” from the folkies Quebb (pronounced “Kwebb”) out of Southern California. Clever, eh? And lest we forget the contributions Dave Kiefer of Cagey House Music made to the ambient background track for S4theB! 17, here’s a link to his website!

Download episode number 82 of Snacks4theBrain! right here, or visit the downloads page to browse for it and see just what else you may have missed over the past four years!

Until next time!

Welcome, Snackers!

S4theB! episode 81 shares a remarkable article about using Science to teach Science. It’s such an important and clearly expressed advocacy of research-based pedagogy that I need to share it!

When a colleague at school shared it with me several weeks ago, I swore I’d do so with my listeners. Since then, I’ve recorded the 30 minute recording, edited it down, and laced it together with the podcast show elements to make it work, but I’ve been stymied by a choice for music. Today, I am happy to say it’s a show, and it’s yours! You can read it at the Change Magazine website, of course. But, would you rather listen on your walk, your commute, or while cleaning up the kitchen at home? Snacks4theBrain! Episode 81 is here for you! If you so want to read, or even if you want to pursue some other articles from this excellent resource for teaching and learning, here’s a link directly to the article. The editors of Change, a media outlet of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, graciously granted me permission to podcast, and podcast I will!

Why Not Try a Scientific Approach to Science Education?
Too many students don’t learn enough from traditional methods of teaching science, but using the practices of science itself—gathering objective data, building on demonstrated effectiveness, and fully utilizing modern technology—can significantly increase learning, by Carl Wieman.

This article is adapted from his lecture at the Carnegie Foundation’s Centennial celebration at the Library of Congress and, as I mentioned, is shared with permission.

Oh, the music? It’s Baroque guitar from guitar master James Edwards’ Le Tresor dOrphee by Antoine Francisque at Magnatune.com!

Download Snacks4theBrain! Episode81 HERE!

Cheers!

At the request of my wonderful Center for Science Outreach Director Dr. Virginia Shepherd and with the blessing of School for Science and Math Director Dr. Glenn McCombs, a dozen or so staff and faculty from both institutions gathered for an hour in the School’s classroom on the Vanderbilt University campus to witness my best shot at explaining why I think Second Life (and by extension Virtual Worlds) have a great deal to offer for teaching and learning.

I started off by welcoming the assembled and introducing a guest, Digital Collections Archivist at the Vanderbilt University Library, and archivist for its DiscoverArchive.

Then I proceeded a bit unconventionally (no, not moi!) by viewing most of the ten minute ISTE in Second Life video that describes how that 85,000 member International Society for Technology in Education built a virtual community (of over 4,000 members, at current count) inside the 3D platform of Second Life, after which I launched into my Powerpoint presentation. True to Murphy’s Law, I failed to hit record on my little Olympus voice recorder until we were discussing the Peggy Sheehy slide, so I will append this dialog to the beginning of my very first “Slidecast” at Slideshare.net. This’ll be a long ‘un, so take from it what you will, and my hope is that it remains as a resource for innovative educators for a good while to come.

NEW! Here’s the Slidecast RIGHT HERE!

I’ll also be glad to travel with this show or one like it, upon delivery of a suitcase full of hundred dollar bills (just kidding).

Okay, if you want the full experience, visit the link to the ISTE video in the Episode 80 blog post at blogs.vanderbilt.edu/s4theb and watch it, then pop on into the slidecast. Settle back with a bowl of popcorn and let the ‘cast cast it’s spell.

THE LOST NARRATION

I believe that there are two kinds of people: 1) the kind who say there are two kinds of people, and 2) the others. I hope I am in set number 2. That said, I have in recent years noticed a clear dichotomy in the world between people who readily latch onto the value and potentials of online Virtual Worlds and those who pretty much refuse to entertain the possiblilty. There is also, thankfully, a broad spectrum in between those two camps. Hopefully, sharing this with you will help you sort things out for yourself and your school or business.

There is more text in this presentation than I would like there to be, but I include it because it’s important. Feel free to multitask as you will by reading as I’m blabbering.

TechTipTidbit comes to you via the COMPUTER TIP OF THE WEEK from Dr T — RTemlak4dds@aol.com, in turn by permission from the CompletelyFreeSoftware online newsletter.

Finally, the lovely music that plays you out of the episode is from master guitarist David Modica, courtesy of Magnatune.com (”We are not evil!”) and just one of the absorbing tracks on his beautiful CD, available at Magnatune, “Acoustic Earth, Electric Sky.” Thanks, David!

Download S4theB! episode 80 here!

Hello ya’ll, and yes, we’re looking at episode number 79 of S4theB! I’m lacing this podcast with some really nice acoustic and electric guitar music from Oregonian David Modica, purchased at one of my favorite sources for music, Magnatune.com. You can name your own price for music there, did you know that? Think of it as Priceline for tunes!

The listen today, in addition to the fabulous guitar grooves, is the second half of sophomore presentations from the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach’s “Vanderbilt School for Science and Math,” a thriving boost to the Metro Nashville Public Schools’ learning resources that brings 25 high school students to the Vanderbilt University campus one day a week, each, for hands-on, research-grounded, lab-based schooling. You can learn more about the School for Science and Math at its website, theschool.vanderbilt.edu. By the way, in episode 80, I promise we’ll have a Tech Tip tidbit! Due to some longer content lately, I’ve neglected to add those into the mix, an omission I plan to remedy next show, when Snacks4theBrain! turns OCTEGENARIAN!

Let’s get right into this. I need to hear more David Modica. I’ll lead into the presentations with Modica’s “By Your Side,” then afterwards I’ll serve up his haunting version of “Scarbourough Fair.” If you don’t leave with a smile on your face, I’ll refund your money.

Just kidding…

Download S4theB! episode 79 right here, or click Links in the toolbar at top and open up a Podcast Pickle player for quick listenin’!

The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt is an innovative model of how higher education can reach out to our embattled and endangered public school systems and make a difference, not just suggesting change but creating it. We’ve talked about the program in previous shows, but a little review is in order:

The School offers high school students a four-year, interdisciplinary, research-centered learning experience at one of the nation’s most prestigious universities, where internationally recognized faculty are leading the way in diverse fields of scientific study.

This unique program is limited to 25 students per grade, and only those attending an MNPS school are eligible. To ensure every qualified student who is chosen can participate, there is no charge for the program.

Through the tireless efforts of Drs. Virginia Shepherd and Glenn McCombs and their aggressively efficient staff and faculty, the School has made it past the mid-point in its second year, day after day offering quality research-centered work to its students. Recently, the 25 sophomore class members gave group presentations on research questions they are especially drawn to after their first semester of sophomore work. What you’ll hear after the jump is the dialog that ensued during and in between those presentations. Just put on your fly-on-the-wall superhero costume and enjoy.

Before we do, let’s hear from my good friend, Nashvillian Ross Falzone, whose music comes to us from his fabulous CD “Life Here on Earth.” I love the disclaimer on Ross’s CD cover: “Subject matter may not be suitable for children and some adults.” But that’s not, generally, because of profanity or lewdness: Ross’s lyrics range from topics like homelessness to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, and his sensitive, lyrical songs are just as impressive as the ones that are borne of frustration with organized religion and government. “I’ve Got Your Love on My Side” is a song of joy and hope. I’ll close the show with his “I’ve Got It All Figured Out (which elaborates, “except when I have my doubts”), which I predict will become his anthem, if it’s not already. I’ll tag on at the end a bonus–his “Waiting for My Savior to Call” with Linda Cornell’s fantastic vocals belying Ross’s self-proclaimed status as “god-fearing atheist.” Grab Ross Falzone’s excellent, thought-provoking music at http://rossfalzone.com!

Download S4theB! Episode 78 here, or click on Links above and listen in our Podcast Pickle Player!

Hey, there, listeners, welcome to this episode of S4theB! I have some audio from the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt, and it’s the question and answer portion of last week’s wonderful visit by Nobel Laureate Dr. Stanley Cohen.

Working with Rita Levi-Montalcini (co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1986) at Washington University in St. Louis in the 1950s, Cohen isolated nerve growth factor and then went on to discover epidermal growth factor. He continued his research on cellular growth factors after moving to Vanderbilt University in 1959. His research on cellular growth factors has proven fundamental to understanding the development of cancer and designing anti-cancer drugs. (from Wikipedia)

The School for Science and Math is of course the fantastic program offered out of the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach which brings 25 students from each grade level of high school from Metro Nashville Public Schools to the Vanderbilt Campus one day a week during the academic school year. I would love to include the entire hour, but that would be more main course than snack, and true to the spirit of Snacks4theBrain! we’ll stick to the tasty morsel Dr. Cohen shared at the end of his visit. You’ll hear the voices of the Professor Emeritus in Biochemistry and those of the students and teachers.

The story that Dr. Cohen shares about investigating the similarity between the enzymes in earthworms and in human livers, how he “watered the lawn all afternooon and come nighttime put a miner’s lamp on his head and crawled around on the ground and collected thousands of worms to study” is enough reward in itself! I also love the attribution of his recognition as 1/3 hard work, 1/3 luck, and 1/3 knowing what to do…because we’re not smart enough to know what we don’t know.” The interchanges are enlightening all around and I am sure that you will thoroughly enjoy the listen.

Bear in mind, if you will, that when you hear Dr. Cohen begin to talk, he’s already spent a half hour describing in intricate detail the foundations of his life’s work. The questions ensue.

Before we get going, I’ll pump up the volume on what you’ve been hearing underneath this little rant, “Grand Prize,” music from the Podsafe Music Network at music.podshow.com from amb26, a very popular ambient artist named Anthony Barnes from the UK, . After Dr. Cohen’s spot I’ll play you out with another prize themed song from music.podshow.com, Ottawa Canada’s Doug Hemstead’s “The Prize.” And don’t leave yet after that, because in my search for songs about prizes–this is after all a Nobel Prize podcast :), I found a lovely mellow song from another Canadian, Hilary Grist. You’ll like it.

Download Snacks4theBrain! episode 77 right here, or click “Links” up top to open a Podcast Pickle player for your listening convenience!

Cheers! And happy holidays, all!!!

Welcome to Episode 76, reporting out the November meeting of the Vanderbilt Web Spiders. There’s so much going on at Vanderbilt that I wonder if we’ll ever run out of topics for S4theB? Could that ever happen? I doubt it, Monty!

Case in point: Every month or so a group of 25-50 people who are interested in the Internet get together somewhere on Vanderbilt’s campus to share thoughts with one another. In the words of fearless leader Melanie Moran, Associate Director of the Vanderbilt News Agency, “Vanderbilt Web Spiders is a group of people interested in Web development from across Vanderbilt University that meets once a month to share ideas, identify needs, and ask and answer questions of each other about the latest and greatest in Web use and development.” Ms. Moran maintains a website at vanderbilt.edu/spiders which elaborates, “The Web has revolutionized the way Vanderbilt communicates with the world, and the number of people developing Web sites at Vanderbilt has exponentially increased. The Web Developer Group was started to provide a forum for networking, sharing, and learning. Anyone who is a member of the Vanderbilt community — student, faculty, or staff — can join the group. There are no dues.

Web Spiders meet for one hour each month, with topics ranging from browser compatibility to content management systems. We also have an email listserv where members can get meeting notices and post questions or tips for other web developers on campus.

Web Spiders archives an audio podcast for those who can’t make the meeting and I got permission from Ms. Moran to excerpt from that for this episode of s4theb. If you want to listen to the entire meeting you can get on over to http://blogs.vanderbilt.edu/spiders and do so, but I thought it’d be of service to post a bit from each of the three mini-presentations I got to participate in, including one from me about Education in Second Life. That day I shared a little video of the new Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach presence in Second Life, located on Lighthouse Learning Island, and the video can be accessed at blogs.vanderbilt.edu/s4theb, in today’s shownotes.

Let’s get into some music first, then I’ll share from PodSpiders! Since at least a portion of my shareout this episode certainly heralds a “new age,” let’s just stay with the “New Age” theme. I use a portion of Adam Fielding’s wonderful song “Traveling Light” from from his cd, Distant Activity, available for purchase and download at Magnatune.com, and then play you all out with another of his songs, this one a vocal entitled “Nostalgia.” I love his innovative rhythms and cadences, and I will reference him again, I’m sure.

I think that for brevity we’ll only share out two brief portions of presentations at the Web Spiders meetup. The first is from the Director of the Vanderbilt News Archive, John Lynch The Vanderbilt News Archive is an online-searchable database and collection of video recordings collected since 1968, find out more about it at tvnews.vanderbilt.edu. Mr. Lynch talked for around 20 minutes and I want to share a portion of his engaging chat from somewhere around its middle. Mr. Lynch shared a particularly amusing set of news spots from NBC News about one Buster Lee Blevins, then got all techie with us with some explanations about some of the things we saw in them.

I also share a portion of my piece, Education in Second Life, and lead you out with another tasty treat from Adam Fielding, master of new age ambience. Go listen, purchase, and download Adam’s indie music at magnatune.com.

Download S4theB! 76 here!

Finally, here’s the slideshare from my Web Spider’s shareout. You can visit slideshare for a larger display, and all the links are hot as hot can be!

Are you a teacher? Visit the ISTE Educators’ Portal online to get started in Second Life! See ya next time!!!