Alachua County Science Teacher of the Year

Kudos to Steve Everett on being awarded the SiVance Alachua County Science Teacher of the Year!

When not with us during the summer, Steve teaches AP/IB Environmental Science at Eastside High School in Gainesville.

Congratulations, Steve!

(Steve is second from right.)

UF Emerging Pathogens Institute teams up with Alachua County Schools

A very cool thing our UF Emerging Pathogens Institute is helping out with is the free vaccination of preK-8 school children in Alachua County. Through grant monies, public and private school students are being offered FluMist, the vaccine against seasonal flu. It has been suggested that Flu-Mist may offer some level of protection against the novel H1N1 as well. Kids will still need to visit their doctor or the health clinic for the H1N1 vaccination, but the FluMist program is a wonderful public health intervention.

Our ICORE teachers heard Dr. Morris speak a bit about the vaccination program while at the ICORE summer institute. If flu can be minimized in children, it can be dramatically reduced in the community.

The FluMist campaign dates back a few years to UF's beloved Dr. Parker Small. He was the instigator of this project and has made it a major priority even in his retired years. He has even advocated for a similar program in Cape Cod where he now spends part of his time.

We have wonderful people at the University of Florida; combining research and community awareness can go a long way.

Stay healthy!

Best practices website

Over the many years of CPET programs, from TRUE to ICORE, we have amassed an enormous collection of teaching ideas submitted by our participants. Taking them from paper copies to electronic version was an undertaking in and of itself.

This past semester, all of the submissions were categorized according to the New Generation State Science Standards and arranged by body of knowledge and big ideas/standard. Please check them out and if you see some that should be included in multiple categories, let us know. If you would like to add to the collection, send in your goodies to cpet@cpet.ufl.edu. We will be more than happy to post them. http://www.cpet.ufl.edu/BestPractices/default.html

Mini Medical School

It is that time of year again...Mini Medical School! Registration is open for this year's Mini Medical School: Exploring Immunity. Join us for an informative day at the University of Florida and take a peak at what it is like to be a student in the College of Medicine on Tuesday, November 3, 8:30am-3:30pm. Registration information is available at http://www.cpet.ufl.edu/MMS/2009/MMS2009.html

They Might Be Giants new album…and videos!

TMBG ( http://www.theymightbegiants.com/ ) has a new album and DVD coming out entitled "Here Comes Science." There are a couple videos available for viewing.

It is great to see popular artists entering the education realm in a productive manner. And kudos to TMBG, they actually seek reviews from scientists to check for scientific accuracy! Enjoy!!

Electric Car and I Am a Paleontologist are below.

Erika...still plugging away!

Our sea turtle is still plugging away. Her page isn't up yet, but I have been in contact with the vet to check on her. Keep up the positive thoughts!

August 22, 2009
Erika is about the same as upon her
arrival. She has a large tear in her lung. We have aspirated large volumes of
air off her coelom but she fill back up relatively quickly. We are now
aspirating about every 2 weeks to see if there has been any healing. The air in
the body cavity may allow the tear to heal so we are aspirating less frequently.
She has not been interested in food since her arrival. She is very difficult to
tube feed and was regurgitating most of the gruel back up. We now have technique
to tube feed her and she is holding the gruel down. We basically have to get her
totally vertical and stretch her neck out as far as possible. I am hopeful that
with time Erika will heal, otherwise we will have to resort to other more
invasive strategies to deal with the lung tear. Thanks for your interest in
Erika and the GSTC. Any support you can provide towards her care will be greatly
appreciated. Terry Norton, DVM (Director and Veterinarian)

Welcome Fall!

With an ever so slight nip in the air this morning, UF welcomed the fall semester. Many of our Florida schools also opened their doors to the start of the 2009/10 school year.

We have great things happening at CPET as well. Keep an eye on our website and this blog for new program announcements and current events.

Drop us a note with updates on what is going on in your classroom and learning community, and let us know how we can help you in your educational endeavors!

Erika -- our sea turtle

What a network we have! Since the post yesterday, some additional information has come in via email from our caring teachers. Please read on for more information about Erika.

This message was passed along to Heidi:
"She has a tear in her lung which is causing air to escape in the coelomic cavity. So far we have done numerous aspirations and she seems to be refilling almost immediately so it must be a fairly large tear. Yesterday (July 24) for the first time, after removing about 12,000 ml of air, she seemed to be less bouyant in the water. She is not eating so we are tube feeding her and giving her fluids intracoelomically. She is still in fairly good body condition and her blood work is still in the normal range. Thank you for helping Erika and your continued support. Terry Norton, DVM"

Lisa passed along this great news:
"I have seen her. She looks good. The center is about 30 mins. from my home. She probably will be released with a tracker. Watch the website as she will come up for adoption soon. The more people who adopt her the better her chances of getting the tracking system. Since she was transported so far from her nesting site, she will return there. I have spoken to the center about our classes being able to track her on the web. I think it would be a great learning experience to watch her progress back to where she came from."

Update on the sea turtle

During the last day of our Summer Science Institute, Aquatic Systems, the teachers were exploring the coastal water system of Cedar Key. They had the opportunity to venture out aboard one of UF's research vessels. Off the shore of Seahorse Key, they spotted a sea turtle who was unable to submerge. After the proper calls were made, the teachers and a UF biologist brought the sea turtle to UF. She was then transported to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center after her brief stop at UF.

This was the message from Dr. Foley from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission:
“The turtle arrived safely at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center at 7:30 and still seemed to be doing well.
This turtle should soon appear on the current patient list on the GSTC website –
http://www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org/our-patients/sea-turtle-patients/current-patients/”

She has been named Erica, weighing in at 202lbs. They believe she has an infection and are treating her with antibiotics and lots of good care. Her page isn’t up yet, but we’ll keep an eye out!