Snacks4theBrain!

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!

The 69th episode of S4theB! features a brief interview with Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach Program Manager Jennifer Ufnar, a talented, energetic environmental microbiologist who oversees grant-writing projects at the CSO and helps manage all kinds of things for this tight-knit, dedicated staff. Dr. Ufnar is chatting today about the Summer Science Institute offered this coming July at the Vanderbilt CSO. From the CSO website at scienceoutreach.org:

The Research Tools for Secondary Science Educators workshop invites secondary science teachers into Vanderbilt science laboratories for four one-week sessions. These interconnected workshops, funded by Tennessee’s Improving Teacher Quality program, will focus on science and technology content and tools for the classroom. Each of the first three weeks will focus on a different scientific discipline, one each on physics, chemistry, biology, with the fourth week covering technology tools. Each of the first three workshops are open to 25 teachers, while the technology workshop will be open to only 15 teachers.

In episode 69, Dr. Ufnar charmingly outlines some interesting details about the four weeks. They are intriguingly interwoven with leading edge content and each one promises invaluable learning, as well as a teacher stipend, for gosh sakes! Heck, I usually have to pay to take workshops! These experiences pay the attendees!

One of those workshops is mine, and you can get a glimmer of how that’ll go by my description in the podcast, and also by visiting my own little wiki-based site at ScottWeb2.0. It’ll be fun, and it’s limited to only 15 teachers, so drop on into the CSO website, download an application and get signed up! If you are thinking about hosting my week long workshop at your own school or district, contact me at scottgardnermerrick@gmail.com. There’s still time, but hurry!

Music this show is from two of my very good friends, alt-rocker Ross Falzone and Americana-folk newcomer Rocky Alvey. Some fab hammered dulcimer work from Snacks favorite Jamie Janover underscores some of the show’s narrative, courtesy of Magnatune.com. Support creativity outside the traditional box: Go visit these sites and buy independent creations!

Upload Snacks4theBrain! episode 69 here, or simply click the “Links” link up top and listen in your browser via the Podcast Pickle Player!

See you at the Research Tools Summer Institute!

Cheerio!

Dr. Ufnar’s picture courtesy of the University of Mississippi’s faculty profile page at
http://www.usm.edu/biology/faculty/Faculty_Profile_Jennifer_A_Ufnar.htm

Hey, ya’ll,

This episode features a chat I was lucky enough to facilitate this past month, July 2007, between participants of a workshop I offered for teachers at my school (University School of Nashville) and educational change advocate David Warlick. David blogs an immensely popular site called 2cents worth and hosts an educational podcast called connect-learning. The workshop participants used a blog and a wiki to archive their learning about the use of Web 2.0 technologies in the service of our children’s learning. These are packed with information so I highly encourage you to check them out and use anything you find for your own classroom. Also feel free to comment below if you should have any questions or require further info!

David has some impressively interesting things to share. I particularly like his first quality of Web 2.0 education: “Information should be participatory and inclusive.” Think about that for a minute, and if you’re anything near my own age, think about how your own schooling may or may not stand up to that principle. And what about his second quality, the one that offers a place for teachers in this brave new world, that “Education is leader-directed,” or his third, that it’s “people-connecting.” Listen to what David Warlick has to say about all of those qualities and then draw your own opionions. Again, feel free to comment at the end of this post.

I’ve brought a little music to this show in the form of a melody I worked out on a McNally Strumstick, a little three stringed instrument that was given to my son recently. It’s called “Allaboutme” and it underscores the podcast’s introduction. I also share a little mandolin ditty of mine called “Emma and Miranda are in China,” and I end the show with a song from a new compilation CD from Magnatune.com. The album’s called The Art of Persuasion, and it’s overbrimming with romantically seductive ear candy that is only available at magnatune.com. WE ARE NOT EVIL…

The sound quality of the interaction is not the best, but it’s what I call GE (Good Enough–thanks Steve Bergen at the Harlem Storefront School in New York), recorded as it was from the speakers on my Dell Inspiron laptop running Skype video and captured on my little FlipVideo device–see that at theflip.com.

Download S4theB! episode 59 right heahhhhh, or click “Links” above and listen to it on the Podcast Pickle Player!

Until next time, Seee yaaaaaaaaa…

Hey there, ya’ll, and welcome to episode number 57 of Snacks4theBrain! This is a very special episode for me, as its number coincides with the precise number of years I have been on the planet, and I accomplished that number just a few weeks ago, on May 25th. That aside, I am extraordinarily pleased to share with you the 20 minutes or so I spent with the Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Matrix Biology, Dr. Billy Hudson.

Dr. Hudson is a very busy man. That’s why I was so embarrassed when Amanda called me from my “non-office” (I don’t have a desk there, much less an office–I usually use the tiny conference room for any work I do physically at the CSO office) to tell me he was there for the interview. Me? I was sitting in his office at B-3102 Vanderbilt Medical Center North wondering why he wasn’t there. Remind me to tell you about finding his office in the first place sometime!

Anyway, I power-walked through the labyrinthine corridors to the CSO offices in Light Hall only to find that another meeting had been scheduled in the conference room. Punting (a skill at which I’m fairly adept), I suggested coffee in the VUMC Cafeteria. I’ve interviewed folks at Panera, Fido, and in other places but never there, so I’m hoping the audio is as good as the interview felt.

Over my French Roast coffee and Dr. H’s decaff, we chatted for a bit about his research, his career beginnings, and his outreach project, “Aspirnauts,” through which he is working with 4-11th graders in his “very, very” rural hometown in Arkansas.

After our chat concluded, I asked him what kind of music he likes; and it turns out he doesn’t get much time to listen to music, but his wife being a classical musician, that’s some of his favorite style. He grew up listening to country music, so I split the difference, the show opens with a nice classical piece from Magnatune.com and closes with a country song–well, a folk song I think Dr. Hudson will like, a bit of shameless self-promotion for my CD, available for sale at CDBaby and at iTunes (search Scott Merrick).

Cheers ’til next time! Oh, I will be in Atlanta in two weeks for the annual ISTE National Educational Computing Conference. Can you guess the content for Snacks58? Hehehehehee. Listen up here, or click Links and use the PodcastPicklePlayer!

Hey, ya’ll. Snacks 56 features audio captured from a marvelous interactive videoconference delivered by Vanderbilt AIDS Outreach volunteers Brenna Simons and Kyra Richter-Oswald. Students in New Jersey and Massachusetts were prepped with a pre-test quiz beforehand, then the presenters opened up discussion on the content of the test by performing a dramatic simulation of how infection spreads, often invisibly, through the sharing of fluids. Listen up to the little sample of audio, then feel free to visit the Center for Science Outreach’s website for more information on the Virtual Scientists program.

There’s podsafe music from the Podsafe Music Network, a tune from Austrian electronica artist Dreamweaver, and one from Magnatune, tasty pop from Artemis‘ album, Orbits, a song called “Fountain of Life.”

And there’s a tech tip from Dr. T. at Completelyfreesoftware.com via Worldstart.com. It’s all about how CDs are burned!

Enjoy your snack by downloading right here or visiting the Links page for the Podcast Pickle Player. Hear ya later!

Howdy, ya’ll,

Longtime “nohear.” Yeah, I know, we’ve been hard at work on the new School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt and with end-of-the-year things at my “day job” as Lower School Technology Coordinator at University School of Nashville. Not to mention Spring Break! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

That said, I hope you’ll enjoy S4theB! episode 55, a quick but very listenable concoction whose main ingredient is my reading of an article by Dr. Alan I. Leshner, Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Executive Publisher of Science. Back in January of this year Dr. L. published a moving plea for our institutions of higher education to make outreach to K12 schools (you know those public school systems everyone is always saying are failing our youth?) with science outreach as a mandatory element in the review process for both tenure and promotion. Wow.

I emailed Dr. Leshner for permission to use the article in this podcast and his administrative assistant got back to me with a query about just how I would do so. I replied, well, I’d read it aloud, hopefully sharing it with a portion of the educated citizenry who might not have seen it in Science. She consulted with him and voila, here ’tis.

Dr. Leshner’s piece is framed by some new and very well performed and produced independent music from a husband and wife acoustic duo who reside in Fabriano, Italy. My first Italian independent music! I sincerely hope you’ll like that, and that you’ll visit for a shopping extravaganza to support their efforts to bring talented artists’ music to the public. While you’re there, check out the skimmy on Magnatune. It’s quite a story…

There’s also a TechTipTidbit (courtesy of Worldstart.com via Dr. T. at completelyfreesoftware.com) all about RAM and Virtual Memory in your PC. Don’t know what I’m talkin’ about? You might after giving S4theB! 55 a listen! Listen up, right hear (sic)!

Hey,ya’ll, This S4theB! is dedicated to the determined group of Graduate Students known as Vanderbilt AIDS Outreach, or “AIDSO.” Led by the capable Brenna Simons, these students work to help make Middle School and High School students aware of the dangers of AIDS and of their options in situations where contracting the disease might be a consequence of their actions. I talked with Brenna at the Panera Bread Company and it was crowded inside so we parked ourselves at a little wrought-iron table and chatted away over green tea (Brenna) and coffee (me–their espresso maker was out of order ). Benna’s group is putting the finishing touches on a 30 minute video highlighting the personal experiences of folks infected with HIV and others affected by relationships with AIDS sufferers. Once it’s ready it’ll be available online both here and at the AIDSO website. This group is doing some amazing work, as you’ll hear amidst the traffic sounds and occasional “order is ready” announcements. Think of S4theB! 53 as a soundseeing tour of sorts!!! In the show, we talk briefly about the interactive videoconferencing programs that AIDSO is planning via the CSO VSIVC program. Those dates are 04/16/07 1:00 pm and 04/23/07 1:00 pm. Teachers, if you want to sign up visit the CSO website and do so!!!

Music for this show is from Magnatune.com, and features the fantastic fretwork of acoustic guitarist Jeff Wahl. Nice listening, and if you like what you hear you’ll love the rest of his album, available for purchase at the Magnatune website. You’ll also get an informative TechTipTidbit this show, all about how to erase your harddrive, courtesy of Dr. T. at completelyfreesoftware.com via worldstart.com’s computer tips, used with permissions. About to recycle or donate or sell a computer?

Better listen up to this one!!! Download S4theB!53 right here or click the Podcast Pickle Player on the links page for (near) instant listening!

Cheers, all