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)