Snacks4theBrain!

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/

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!

Hey, ya’ll,

Welcome to episode number 75 of Snacks4theBrain! The featured snack this episode is audio from a talk I gave to Vanderbilt University faculty and staff by invitation from the “Digital VU” series from the Vanderbilt News and Media department. The title of the offering was “Engaging Podcast Content” and it featured a sideshow I put up at slideshare, so if you’re of a mind you can visit blogs.vanderbilt.edu/s4theb and follow along whilst you listen. Oh heck, let’s embed it below

The music this episode is a treat, at least for me; and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. It’s two songs delivered recently from a dear friend who recorded them in December of 1975 at a venue called the “Bread Factory.” Geoff Feiler, my good good friend, sat out front with a boombox and what you hear is what he heard, two guys with aggressive acoustic guitar styles and darned decent, well-practiced harmonies. You’ll also hear folks chatting over dinner in the small vegetarian restaurant that was the Bread Factory. It was a very hot spot in Anchorage, and I had been playing every Wednesday night for 75 dollars and tips. When Scott Miller came up to be with his betrothed, who was the owner of the restaurant, we hooked up and started rehearsing for fun. We liked what we made together, and we had a good run for a while performing for the folk music-loving denizens of 1975 Anchorage. Years later, when I was in Juneau (where Scott and Debbie had moved to open the “Fiddlehead Fern” restaurant there, Scott and I had a blast opening a church-venue show for Elizabeth Cotton, the 93 year-old creator of the folk classic “Freight Train,” which she played for us that night, finger-picking her classic holding her guitar upside-down and backwards, the way she’d taught herself decades earlier. Scott H. Miller, by the way, has a fabulous CD for sale at CDBaby!

The podcast’s songs are from Aztec Two Step and John Prine. I don’t know the first folks, but I do know John and I sincerely hope he’ll forgive my cover of his Rocky Mountain Time. I like the way I sing “saxophone.” Here it is.

I follow up the podcasting session with “Scott and Scott’s” cover of “Highway Song,” by Aztec Two-Step, Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman. This great duo took their name from an Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem and we definitely found much inspiration from their tight harmonies and beautiful thought-provoking lyrics. If you like the song, please visit aztectwostep.com and buy some of their music. Unlike “Scott and Scott,” they’re still going strong with their music. I’ll not say goodbye after, just get you on your way from this, episode number 75, of Snacks4theBrain!

Download episode 75 here!

Links:
Notice about the session on the Vanderbilt website

My blogpost that contains the slideshare slideshow

The slideshare slideshow

Scott H. Miller’s fantastic CD, “Letters to Myself”

Greetings, Snackers!

For the week of July 21 through July 24 (that would be the first four days of that week), I helped six incredibly wonderful public school teachers (a broad range of grade levels in Metro Nashville Public Schools) dip their learning toes into the rapid-running river of dialog and information that is Web 2.0.

In a reprise/refinement of the week-long workshop I crafted and delivered for teachers at my own school last year, we spent our time looking at blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks, micro-blogging, and VOIP/videoconferencing. The last half of the last day we spent in Second Life, the online virtual 3D metaverse that is becoming the “go-to” place for 24/7 online personal/professional networking. Our heads were spinning around by the end of each day, and one great upshot of it all may be a full four weeks of this kind of intense learning and exploration for teachers next summer.

While that remains to be seen, there’s matter herein that remains to be heard! Pop on over to your favorite podcast aggregator, or click here to download episode 73. Wait! You have another option! Click “Links” in the topbar and open up our very own Podcast Pickle Player and you can listen right here whilst you surf the Web for those cool shoes you’ve been shopping for.

Stay on through the very end of the episode: Blues-rocker Chris Juergensen’s band “Big Bad Sun” has a great song for you, “Sweet Melissa,” and no, it’s not a cover of the Allman Brothers’ classic!

As a bit of a bonus, I’d like to embed a brief chat we held during the workshop with the founder of the premier professional learning network (”social” network?) focused on Web 2.0 for education, “Classroom 2.0.” Here is our talk with Steve Hargadon (thanks, Steve!):


Find more videos like this on Classroom 2.0


Links:
VUCSOWeb20forUS! wiki
Jeff Agamenoni’s “From Mr. A to Mr. Z” blog
Skype
Twitter
Magnatune.com
Classroom 2.0

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

On Monday, October 1st, the freshman class at the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt visited the Harpeth River, at a beautiful stretch of its snakelike path through Davidson County and Middle Tennessee. The yellow Metro Nashville Public School bus pulled into picnic shelter number 11 at the beautiful Edwin Warner Park, located just a few miles from the School’s lab at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Light Hall.

The students were out for a field trip with the intention of gathering data to assess the health of the stream. They were learning to use all manner of field instruments–digital levels, digital pH probes, GPS devices, and scientific magnifier lenses–and how to record and interpret the readings and observations from those instruments in meaningful ways. They also used their hands and their feet, “kick seining,” stirring up the stream to capture macroinvertebrates and capturing downstream-bound critters in a fine mesh sein, or net. The collected debris from these efforts was transferred into glass petrie dishes, where careful observation would identify the inhabitants of this watery evirons–would they be only the sort of creatures that could survive in polluted environments, or would they find more sensitive, delicate species that would indicate the river is satisfactorily healthy? Well, final interpretation of findings would have to wait until later, when all the data would be compiled back at the lab. For this episode of S4theB! you’re out here on the river with the students, listening in on the process.

The voices you hear will be those of students, their talented teachers, and the occasional crow, along with that of Pat Holiday, retired USGS ranger and geologist (and also Brittainy’s grandfather!). You’ll also be treated to two very nice bites of wonderful music, “The River,” and “Fire Dance,” from Jesse Manno. You can pick up these songs or the entire album, “Sea Spirits,” for a song at Magnatune.com! Alrighty, stalwart listeners, listen up right here or click “Links” up top to use the Podcast Pickle player at the site!!!

And BONUS!!! here’s a slideshow of pictures from the river visit:

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…

Howdy and happy summertime, ya’ll.

As you may have learned by now, S4theB! can get a little erratic in the summertime, the victim of its producer’s schedule gone Attention Deficit as the structure offered by the academic school year’s busy calendar evaporates with the last bell of the last day of the school year.

NEVER FEAR! I have been traveling a bit, down to the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), hosted by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank the powers-that-be for acronyms, since I don’t have to type those long names anymore!

My time in Atlanta was so productive it’s taken me this long to sort out what I wanted to share from the recordings and pictures I brought back, and I’ve come up with three short snippets of three of my most favorite talks:

1) Peggy Sheehy describes part of her work with her teenagers at Suffern Middle School in New York. If you don’t know about Second Life, check out its website (after listening to the podcast!). Then google it this way, [”Second Life” education], and that will help you begin to understand the potentials this Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE)–and others like it–offer to engage the otherwise possibly unengageable student. There are some videos I took of Peggy’s presentation with more stunning curriculum description available at my own Second Life blog.

2) Kathy Schrock (previously interviewed on an early S4theB!) spoke with upwards of a thousand, maybe 2 or 3 thousands (I don’t have the capacity of the full-to capacity ballroom in which she shared her presentation) of educators about just what Web 2.0 is and what it will be. Her presentation slides (many featuring her Second Life Kathy Dryburgh avatar standing in front of an inworld podium with a presentation slide behind her–verrrry interesting) and all the resources she shared are at her website.

and 3) Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Chris Dede asks a question (you’ll have to listen to hear it!) that might keep you thinking well into next week (whatever week it is that you’re listening to this!).

The single song in the podcast this week (notwithstanding my closing “Snacks4theBrain!” “unjingle”) is from the amazingly talented Bill deRoth, a stellar denizen of the Podsafe Music Network. Go listen to more: Support him buy buying a few songs, or his wonderful album, “Liquid Light.”

If you want to learn more about my time at NECC2007 (”the conference that never ends…”), visit my personal blog and my personal Second Life blog. Also, I’ll be spending quality time with a dozen of my favorite people, my colleagues at University School of Nashville, the week of July 23-27, exploring Web 2.0 tools for education in ways they’ve seldom been explored before. Keep up with that at the workshop’s bliki (a blog with an embedded wiki!).

Listen up, right here!