November 20th, 2008
In this edition of TechCast at UMass we talk about Tinkerplots: an innovative software program that turns data analysis into fun for schoolchildren.
Mark Twain once said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” In a world overwhelmed with data, understanding how to analyze statistics, and discriminate between meaningful data and bias, is as critical as knowing how to read or count. Just as we learn reading and reckoning as schoolchildren, today’s elementary and middle school kids are learning how to analyze data. And an innovative software program called TinkerPlots is making data analysis exciting and fun to learn!
Professor Cliff Konold and kids at the Boston Science Museum analyzing data they collected on TinkerPlots
Professor Cliff Konold developed TinkerPlots with a grant from the National Science Foundation. A psychologist by training, he’s an expert in how children and adults reason about and learn probability, statistics, and data analysis. When he teamed up with software designer Craig Miller, TinkerPlots was born. The program is a kind of construction set that sets students off on an “inquiry-driven” journey into statistics and probability. Students can think up questions to ask, organize the data they develop, design their own plots, and answer a variety of questions about group differences and trends.
We will begin by talking to Professor Cliff Konold of the Scientific Reasoning Research Institute (SRRI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. TinkerPlots was developed in the field, working with schoolchildren from towns near UMass-Amherst. We’ll also briefly hear from Justin Cotton, Jr., one of the math teachers whose students participated in the project. He teaches mathematics at the Dr. William R. Peck Middle School in Holyoke, MA. When Tinkerplots was being developed, Cotton’s students helped Cliff Konold do the field testing of the software.
The office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property at UMass Amherst has licensed the TinkerPlots software to Key Curriculum Press. TinkerPlots is not only being used in U.S. schools but around the world. French and English language versions are being used by schools in the Province of Ontario, Canada. The company has entered into a system-wide agreement with the Education Ministry of Ontario and, in partnership with a Russian publisher, has entered into an agreement with the Education Ministry of Russia for a Russian-language version of TinkerPlots for use in the education system throughout Russia. Additional language translations and sale of TinkerPlots for other foreign education markets are expected. TinkerPlots is available commercially. To obtain a copy of Tinkerplots for home or school use, go here.
Additional Links
And to learn about TinkerPlots: visit here and here.
TinkerPlots video
TinkerZeum Planning Project
Parents’ Choice Award: article 1; article 2; article 3
Techcast at UMass #7: Making Data Analysis Fun for Elementary and Middle School Students [23:52m]:
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September 7th, 2008
Dr. Elizabeth Stuart and Dr. Wilmore Webley
In this edition of TechCast at UMass we discuss a startling connection between a common microbe and major diseases like childhood asthma. We talk with Dr. Elizabeth Stuart and Dr. Wilmore Webley of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Department of Microbiology about their work in redefining the role that bacteria can play in chronic illness and the possibility of more effective methods of prevention and treatment.
(left) Giemsa stain; (right) Immunofluorescence stain
The bacteria chlamydia is the leading cause of sexually transmitted disease in the United States today. It is so common that more than half of us have been exposed to it by the age of 20. But that doesn’t mean we’re all getting infected by having sex.
a 96 hour culture of mouse macrophages infected with a genital strain of Chlamydia
Microbiologists Stuart and Webley discuss how they have been examining the way the bug spreads, both inside and outside the body. They have found it in the lungs, where it causes inflammation and asthma – and can travel from person to person through the air. They have also found it in the blood, where it causes hardening of the arteries—and can also pass to a child as it is being born. They also think chlamydia may be a co-factor in cancer.
Listen to the podcast to hear more about their findings and to hear about how Drs. Stuart and Webley are developing new protocols for diagnosing and treating chlamydia infections.
Related Links:
Dr. Elizabeth Stuart
Dr. Wilmore Webley and this link too
UMass Amherst Microbiology Department
Chlamydia
Chlamydia pneumoniae
Techcast at UMass #5: Microbiologists Uncover New Disease Connection and Potential Treatment [21:11m]:
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July 7th, 2008
This edition of TechCast at UMass explores a new invention that promises to help people suffering from a wide range of psychiatric problems to become calmer, more focused and more grounded.
Prof. Sundar Krishnamurty
When we feel stressed or anxious, a good hug can often make us feel better. But did you know it’s not just the emotional connection that lifts our spirits? Researchers who study sensory awareness have long known that physical pressure soothes the nervous system, as long as it feels safe and secure. Parents have known it since time immemorial, swaddling their infants to keep them comforted. Weighted blankets or vests to apply pressure, is an assistive technology being used primarily to help autistic patients become less agitated.
Tina Champagne
A unique collaboration between the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and sensory awareness expert Tina Champagne, is working to bring the benefits of sensory pressure to a much wider range of people: psychiatric patients, people with ADHD, and even people with sleep disorders. Doctoral student and prize-winning inventor, Brian Mullen, under the guidance of his mentor, Professor Sundar Krishnamurty of the MIE department, has been devising a new tool that is comfortable, can be worn discretely by anyone anywhere, and delivers just the amount of pressure the wearer wants. It’s called the “Portable Hug Vest” and Brian is working with CVIP in developing his company, Therapeutic Systems, to market the vest.
Brian Mullen (left); Chris Leidel
We’ll talk first with Professor Krishnamurty and Brian Mullen and discuss how the idea for the “Hug Vest” came into being, the project’s evolution, and their collaboration with Tina Champagne. Later on, we’ll visit Tina at the Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Massachusetts where she is an occupational therapist. We’ll talk about her work and special training in sensory awareness, her partnership with UMass-Amherst, and her hopes for the Hug Vest.
Links/Additional Info
Sundar Krishnamurty
Therapeutic Systems
UMass Amherst Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
http://www.ot-innovations.com
UMass Amherst Technology Innovation Challenge
National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)
UMass Amherst Dept. of Communication Disorders
UMass Amherst School of Nursing
UMass Amherst School of Management
Cooley Dickinson Hospital
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/index.pl?id=5590
http://www.umass.edu/loop/talkingpoints/articles/75370.php
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/541002/
http://toolsforwellness.blogspot.com/2008/06/weighted-vests-helping-kids-with-autism.html
Techcast at UMass #5: The Portable Hug Vest Promises Help to People with Psychiatric Disorders [27:01m]:
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June 2nd, 2008
First row, left to right: Chemists Beatrice Botch, Peter Lillya, Roberta Day, Stephen Hixson. Back row, left to right: CESD staff Cindy Stein, Stephen Battisti, David Hart. Not shown: William Vining (Chemistry).
In this edition of TechCast at UMass we explore OWL, an innovative, interactive, multimedia Online Web-based Learning system that helps students do their homework – and maybe even like it!
It’s a dilemma facing all teachers: how to motivate students to do homework. Getting them to enjoy it is even more of a challenge. For teachers of chemistry, especially those teaching intro courses at the undergraduate level, it might seem like mission impossible. But thousands of teachers are using the OWL homework system. OWL was created by a team of chemistry professors and computer scientists at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Developed out of a unique collaboration between UMass Amherst’s Department of Chemistry and its Center for Educational Software Development (CESD), OWL encourages students to master their coursework by means of an interactive, self-paced electronic homework system. Some 20,000 students at UMass use OWL each year—many in chemistry, but also in disciplines as varied as physics and art history. OWL is reaching students far beyond the University of Massachusetts. With assistance from the office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property (CVIP), OWL’s creators have teamed up with educational publisher Cengage Learning, who has licensed the OWL software from the University of Massachusetts Amherst for commercial use. Now some 100,000 chemistry students around the country are using it.
In this episode, we talk with Dave Hart, CESD’s Director and Peter Lillya, Professor of Organic Chemistry at UMass-Amherst about the creation of the OWL system and how they brought their two disciplines together to help students learn chemistry. Later in the podcast we talk with Cengage Learning’s Chemistry Acquisitions Editor, Lisa Lockwood, about how Cengage is using the OWL system in schools across the nation.
Links
OWL: http://www.cesd.umass.edu/CESD/OWL/
Demo to OWL system: http://owl.cengage.com/owl-c/demo/owldemo.cgi
UMass Amherst Center for Educational Software Development (CESD): http://www.cesd.umass.edu/CESD/
UMass Amherst Department of Chemistry: http://www.chem.umass.edu/Department/
UMass Amherst Department of Computer Science: http://www.cs.umass.edu/
TechCast at UMass #4: Online Web-based Learning Helps Students Learn Chemistry [20:02m]:
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April 15th, 2008
In our latest episode of TechCast at UMass we talk with CVIP Director, Dr. Nicholas DeCristofaro , about the office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property (CVIP). We also discuss how CVIP is working with plant biologist, Dr. Om Parkash, on an exciting project to bring new plant breeds to market and why this project exemplifies the kind of collaboration CVIP wishes to create with scientists and researchers on its campus.
Dr. Parkash, a professor of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst tells us about a project to protect people, animals and soil against arsenic contamination. He explains how he’s using genetic engineering to develop new seed strains that will make soils and food crops safer from environmental pollution through a process known as phytoremediation.
By using molecular biology, genetic engineering, physiology and biochemistry to understand how plants tolerate toxic heavy metals like arsenic and cadmium he’s developing a new plant-based technology for cleaning up these toxins in the environment. By blocking certain genes, he can make the plants absorb more toxic heavy metals, like arsenic. But he’s also enhancing genes in food crops that will make them do the opposite: they’ll resist taking up toxins so that the food people eat is safer.
We discuss the relationship between these two projects and how, with CVIP’s help, Dr. Parkash hopes new seed strains using his work can be brought to market.
Related Links:
TechCast at UMass #3: Phytoremediation of Toxic Pollutants in Soil and the Role of CVIP [17:42m]:
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April 14th, 2008
Transcript of interview with Dr. Parkash, a professor of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, for the Techcast at UMass #3.
Interview Transcript with Dr. Parkash for Techcast 3:
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February 27th, 2008
What happens when you cross the talents of premier life scientists and engineers at a major university with the clinical expertise of doctors who practice at a top-rated hospital? Well, if you’re talking about Western Massachusetts, you’d get the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute (PVLSI). Founded in 2002 by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, the PVLSI was created to bring together the two sides of medical innovation: theory–as in basic research, and practice–as in clinical applications.
Under PVLSI’s roof, teams of biologists and engineers from UMass Amherst and physicians from Baystate are working together to find and test novel treatments for cancer, neurological and autoimmune disorders, heart disease and other illnesses. They’re also partnering with biomedical companies that are creating products to deliver these new treatments. One promising avenue of research is into something called programmed cell death, or “apoptosis”. In 2006, the PVLSI became home to a new Center of Excellence in Apoptosis Research or CEAR.
In this edition of TechCast at UMass we talk with Dr. Larry Schwartz, Professor of Biology at UMass Amherst, CEAR Director, and Science Director of PVLSI about apoptosis and the work of CEAR. We also talk to the Institute’s Executive Director, Dr. Paul Friedmann who exemplifies the clinical side of the PVLSI partnership. He was chairman of surgery at Bay State Medical Center in Springfield for 27 years and has been involved with PVLSI since the concept stage.
Related Links:
Recent News Releases:
TechCast at UMass #2: Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute [21:20m]:
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January 14th, 2008
We kick off our first episode of TechCast at UMass by discussing an exciting new venture that could revolutionize the fuel we use to power our cars. We talk with Professor Susan Leschine, SunEthanol CEO Jef Sharpe and venture capitalist Tripp Peake about the Q-microbe and its promise in making clean, affordable, renewable fuel.
When microbiologist Susan Leschine set out to study the role of microbes in the carbon cycle, little did she know that she’d find herself on the frontier of green energy production. The Q-microbe—named after the Quabbin Reservoir in Western Massachusetts where Dr. Leschine discovered it, has properties that may make ethanol production cheaper —and more environmentally friendly than current methods.
The Q-microbe could help free us from dependence on foreign oil. But it could also play an important role in reducing global warming. Using the microbe in ethanol production is in the works through a partnership between the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where Professor Leschine teaches and does her research, and a private company, SunEthanol, also based in Amherst, Massachusetts. Coordinated by CVIP and aided by venture capital from three firms (Battery Ventures, Long River Ventures, and VeraSun Energy), the project hopes to be able to go from the experimental stage to practical application by 2008.
You can also read the original UMass Amherst news release about the Q-microbe.
Find out more about CVIP by exploring the website at http://www.umass.edu/research/cvip/. You can also e-mail cvip [Email address: cvip #AT# research.umass.edu - replace #AT# with @ ] or call (413) 545-3606.
TechCast at UMass #1: The Q-microbe [33:13m]:
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