Thursday, April 20, 2006
Snacks 33 -- Randy Reiserer!
Episode 33 of S4theB! finds your stalwart science seeker interviewing Dr. Randall Reiserer, evolutionary biologist and biological behavioralist. Dr. Reiserer (pronounced "riser") is investigating the behavior of mice in a search for a cure for Alzheimer's Disease, and he is also a presenter of
interactive videoconferences for the Virtual Scientist program at the Center for Science Outreach. We talk about what it was like for Randy to put this presention together and how
he felt the interaction went, and we'll delve into some of his content--"What is Evolution," anyway, really?!!
Our conversation evolved into a discussion of the incredible new discovery of Tiktaalik, the new "incredibly cool fossil" recently discovered in Arctic Canada. Read more about it in the links below!
Finally, the big question--listen up
here to discover what question I might ask of an evolutionary biologist, considering, of course that I'm an educator of young children and a science proponent.
Music for today's podcast provided by the Podsafe Music Network, a trance piece from a South African group called
Ruddha. The song is entitled "R-evolution Club Dub."
One last note, in the interview I mention that the name
Tiktaalik "must be a Upik word." Well, I was nearly right. The word is actually
Inuktitut. Good near-miss, Scotty-me-lad!
Links:
Dr. Randy Reiserer's home page
Nature Magazine's Tiktaalik article
Tiktaalik roseae website
Vanderbilt Researchers and Scientists
sign up for your own IVC presentation!
# posted by Scott Merrick @ 4/20/2006 11:20:00 AM
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Monday, April 17, 2006
Snacks 32--The "Revisit" Show!
Hey, ya'll,
Just finished producing this week's S4theB! and I had
such a fun time doing it. Both my scheduled interviews failed to materialize (did you know I only do this one day a week? Monday?), which is an indicator of just how busy these research folks are. Look for Randy Reiserer (promised long ago) on Evolutionary Biology next week and Albert Reynolds on cutting-edge cancer research the following week. Meanwhile, I slapped my forehead when I had the notion (SLAP): Why don't I go back and randomly pick some episodes, then more or less randomly snipsnip some samples of the marvelous conversations I've had with premier discoverers and explorers to share with our recent subscribers. Maybe the long-term folk would like the walk down memory lane as well.
I sure did!
I'm hoping you love the Revisit Show as much as I did putting it together. Download it
here or click on the "Feed" link to the left and browse 'em all to your heart's delight.
Music today is a fun electronica piece from the
Podsafe Music Network called "Bongo Booty," from "
the Vincent Van Go Go" group. Thanks, ya'll!
Here are links to the full shows I snipsnipped for this one. There are more relevant links and resources at each show:
S4theB! Louise Rollins-Smith,
13 and
14
S4theB! 17, William Schaffner
S4theB! 11, Vickie Metzgar
S4theB! 16--Keivan Stassun!
Cheers, ya'll!!!
# posted by Scott Merrick @ 4/17/2006 04:21:00 PM
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Monday, April 10, 2006
Snacks 31--David Warlick!
Wow. This S4theB! is one worth waiting for, and though I heartily apologize for the lack of an actual podcast last week I have to admit that the chance to meet Ian Jukes and benefit from his presentations greatly inspired me. Further, I hope that the little movie I did post went some distance towards satisfying your hunger for Snacks!.
Let's get right to the heart of the matter, ya'll, and the heart of the matter, dead-center, at the core, is self-described "serial educator"
David Warlick.
Long a fan of his work and his blog, I emailed David a couple weeks ago and asked if he'd be willing to chat with a fellow educator and podcaster and he graciously agreed. As a top-level keynote speaker and thinker, David is on the road a LOT. He was going to be enjoying a brief respite from his travels at home in North Carolina on April 10 and we made a date to meet over
Skype, the free Voice Over IP program so many people are now using for free long-distance calling. I paired that program with a 3rd party program called "
HotRecorder" to record our conversation. What resulted is Snacks4theBrain! episode 31, which you may download
here, or get it and all 30 earlier episodes via the "Feed" link in the left-hand sidebar.
Mid-conversation, we had a nice personal chat about making music and publishing it for sale, referencing both David's books and mine at
lulu.com,
cdbaby.com, the
Alaska Podshow, and the
Podsafe Music Network. I was
so happy that I was able to teach David Warlick
anything: That should go on my resume, methinks!!! But I've not included that conversation for this podcast because our podcast here is all about David's work. He shares his thoughts on self-publishing, on blogging versus podcasting, on science education, and on
MySpace.com and social networking in general. I conclude by sharing David Warlick's excellent and succinct Skype profile statement.
Enjoy! Music today is two separate songs from the Podsafe Music Network,
Guy David's Dance of Electricity (Slow Down mix) and
OJO's "Bright Future," which I consider a fitting title for this, episode 31 of Snacks4theBrain! Thanks, ya'll, for listenin'!
Links:
Connect-Learning
MacWorldExpo bio
Podcasting Palooza
Education Podcast Network
Landmark Project
# posted by Scott Merrick @ 4/10/2006 10:20:00 AM
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Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Hold Tight!
Hold tight to what you hold dearly, fellow Snackers! We'll be back next week with something I can't announce but know you'll enjoy! My Monday, usually dedicated to interviewing and producing episodes of S4theB!, was spent this week at the Tennessee Association of Independent Schools' Technology Institute, this year held at Harpeth Hall School here in Nashville. I sat in on several sessions led by educational technology maven Ian Jukes. What the hey, I'll reproduce my classroom blog post right heah!:
A stimulating day at
Harpeth Hall. It's the 2006
Tennessee Association of Independent Schools' Technology Institute,
New Visions for Teaching and Learning. I attended along with a number of other USN educators, including Mackey Luffman, Kathy Weiczerza, Penny Phillips, MaryAnn Lentz, Jake Wilson, David MacLean and Karen Knox. Our stalwart director, Vince Durnan, was also in attendance for some of the conference.
After a thought-provoking keynote address by educational curriculum maven
Ian Jukes, I walked across the beautiful campus to a new lecture hall in order to sit in on another hour of Ian's dynamic infoshare, this one entitled
"Understanding Digital Kids: Teaching and Learning in the New Digital Landscape." I slapped together
a quick .wmv video (taken with a webcam, so it's a bit grainy, but "GE"--Good Enough. Firefox users right-click and "Open Link Target in IE") that briefly describes my impressions of Ian, who graciously granted permission for audio/video usage with the comment I love to hear, "Use whatever you want to use," and he frequently commented--during his long day of back-to-back presentations--"Creativity is just plagarism from several sources." Hmmmmmm. Sounds alot like folk music!
Caution: Jukes warned us at the outset that he would be aiming to unsettle us. The video exemplifies his energetic plea for change.
Jukes's website features dozens of comprehensive downloads (see "Handouts") and links that support his call for a radical new approach to teaching and learning. While his comments and entreaties during the keynote and the two workshop sessions I attended generally fell under the heading "projects-based learning," he went a few steps further than other presenters I've witnessed, by sharing several websites that offer vast resources for the PBL educator, including the
George Lucas Foundation and
Analyze-Apply.com. His
blog is also quite impressive, regularly featuring his top 10 Internet articles for like-minded educators. Does this guy ever sleep!? Comment here if you wish!
# posted by Scott Merrick @ 4/05/2006 04:13:00 AM
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