Scientists Searching for Ways to Solve Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Mystery

Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This microscopic slice of former Cincinnati Bengals player

Chris Henry's bain, containing a few thousand brain cells,

shows the telltale signs of CTE damage.

The front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette yesterday had something you don't normally see on the top-third of the front page of one of America's greatest newspapers yesterday: a microscopic image.  The image was of former Cincinnati Bengals player Chris Henry's brain, contained a few thousand brain cells and showed the telltale signs of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

In 2002, Bennet Omalu was the first pathologist to detect CTE in a former football player. Former Steelers center Mike Webster, who died of a heart attack at the age of 50, also had CTE and a young Omalu found it. Though Omalu didn't know much about American football as a Nigerian native, he knew it was a rough contact sport. After getting wind of Webster's erratic right before his death, he thought his autopsy report might show visible evidence of brain damage. 

What Omalu found was the complete opposite. He explained in an interview earlier this year that when he opened up Webster's skull that his brain looked normal and that he thought he must be wrong. Omalu didn't give up. With permission from the Webster family, Omalu had a lab prepare the brain for microscopic examination and took a look at the slides.

Then it hit him. What he saw were smudges and tangles of tau deposits in the brain, similar to those that would be seen in Alzheimer's disease, but without the accompanying plaques of beta amyloid protein also seen in Alzheimer's. He gave the disorder the name Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) which means a long-developing brain injury. 

To learn more about CTE, the new tests scientists are developing, how to treat it and much more, read Mark Roth's full report.

The Afterschool STEM Impact Award could earn you $10,000!

The Afterschool Alliance is teaming up with the Noyce Foundation to recognize exemplary afterschool STEM programs serving young people in grades 4-8. They need your help showcasing how afterschool STEM programs are helping young students get excited and engaged in STEM. 

Applicants will be judged by the impact of their program on participating youth. Winners and other notable applicants will be recognized in nationally-released issue briefs, invited to present at national conferences and will be highlighted as model programs.

The Afterschool Alliance and the Noyce foundation are especially excited to discover programs that are having significant impact on youth, but may not have been recognized with awards before.

One award will be given in each of the two categories:

1. Afterschool programs that are a strong partnership between an afterschool provider and a STEM-rich institution(s), which include science centers or museums, nature centers, universities, government labs, STEM-related businesses, or other similar institutions. Programs may focus on any STEM topic.
2. Afterschool programs that have a strong computing and/or engineering component. Computing programs should focus on helping young people acquire skills and knowledge required to create technology, not just to use it. Engineering programs should be rooted in the engineering design process, and students should be developing and building a solution to a problem.

Applications are due May 15, so spread the word and apply today! For questions about the application process, please contact Melissa Ballard at mjballard@afterschoolalliance.org.

Science Apps for Elementary Classrooms

Getting students to grasp science concepts isn't always easy - especially for younger students with a limited background of more complicated ideas. Sure, you can go out to a pond or visit a museum for some hands-on experiences, but since that isn't always an option, there are now apps available that bring the hands-on experience to you and your students in the classroom!

Edudemic selected five apps that help teach a variety of science concepts to younger learners.

1. Video Science: Video Science is an app that is essentially a library of hands-on science lessons via video. The app is currently free and offers over 80 videos on topics ranging from chemical changes to aspects of engineering.
2. NASA: The free NASA app allows users to explore the aspects of the agency and includes missions, images and videos.
3. Geo Dash Wild Animal Adventure: Geo Dash Wild Animal Adventure is a free app distributed by National Geographic. The app is designed to be a game about animals. To move up in levels, you must learn interesting facts about animals.
4. A Life Cycle App: This app follows a variety of things through their life cycles to help young students understand the various stages from how life starts to adulthood. It's $1.99, but will complement your elementary curricula well.
5. Dinosaurs: The American Museum of Natural History Collections: This app offers a mosaic of over 1,000 photos from the museums archive that have been woven together to tell the story of the t-rex! Even better, this interactive app is free.

To read more about these apps, check out the full Edudemic article.

will.i.am at the 2013 FIRST Robotics Championship

Late Friday, will.i.am was welcomed at the FIRST Robotics Championship to the roar of 30,000 attendees in St. Louis. For FIRST participants, will.i.am isn't a famous pop star, he's their biggest supporter.

will.i.am's support for STEM has led his to do everything from broadcast his songs into space with NASA to donate his time and money to The Science Museum in London. Despite all these other efforts, FIRST has clearly always inspired him most. As he was presented with the inaugural "Make It Loud" Award last week, he credited the FIRST students as his largest inspiration for going back to college to study computer science. In his address to the crowd, and later in the day at a press conference, will.i.am continued to encourage today's youth to pursue STEM careers.

For will.i.am, "Make It Loud" is important to getting the message out that STEM and events like FIRST Robotics are what's really cool. He drew on his personal experience when he explained that famous people now weren't always "cool" when they were kids, but because they dedicated themselves to their craft, they were able to create success for themselves. This message should be applied to student expressing themselves through making and inventing things.

Read Tommy Cornelis' full post on will.i.am on STEMblog and view even more pictures of will.i.am at the event.

Take a look at will.i.am accepting the "Make It Loud" Award at the FIRST Robotics Championships.

Video Games & STEM at the White House

Many don't believe it until they see it: a science fair at the White House. Yes, that's right. It's the science fairs of all science fairs and even the President partakes in the action. Now in it's third year, the White House Science Fair is an event that celebrates student achievements in science, technology, engineering and math competitions. 

In attendance this year was Gustavo Zacarias of San Antonio. Zacarias is one of the winners of the National STEM Video Game Challenge, an annual competition presented by the Joan Ganz Center at Sesame Workshop and E-line Media. Zacarias' game, The Dark Labryinth, earned him top honors in the 2012 STEM Challenge Middle School Kodu category. The game challenges players to make their way through a maze while solving multiplication problems and avoiding obstacles along the way. He got the chance to present his winning game to attendees from the government, industry and education sectors, as well as other invited guests in attendance at the fair.

"I never thought I would be exhibiting my game at the White House," Zacarias told STEMblog. "I worked very hard during the making of the game and was very happy about winning a national competition, so I'm very excited and thankful for the opportunity to be part of this great event."  Zacarias says he wants to be a professional game designer when he grows up.

The National STEM Video Game Challenge was inspired by Obama's Educate to Innovate campaign and aims to motivate interest in STEM learning by tapping into students' natural passion for playing and making video games. 

For more information and to learn more about the Joan Ganz Center at Sesame Workshop and E-Line Media, visit the STEMblog post.

And be sure to check out Zacarias' video game!

Yesterday was Earth Day!

Yesterday was Earth Day's 43rd anniversary! The very first Earth Day was on April 22, 1970. We're taking the entire week to honor the beautiful planet we live on and so is The Gooru Corner! The STEMConnector project blog will enable you to learn about the challenges our planet faces today, as well as basic steps that you can take to shrink your environmental footprint. The Gooru Corner will be bringing you these updates on Wednesday and Friday, so be sure to stay tuned!

What did you do to celebrate Earth Day yesterday?! Project Scientist made bird feeders and put them in a local park in their community. National Geographic came out with 20 incredible shots of Earth from space to celebrate the day. Check the pictures out here. And the Huffington Post even put out a spoof on what celebrities are doing to observe the day. Take a look at what they put together if you're in need of a good chuckle.

Let us know what you did to celebrate Earth Day yesterday and you'll be entered to win a free lab manual!

STEM Career Spotlight: Astrophysicist

Marc Kuchner is a "planet hunter" at NASA's Godard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Also dubbed an astrophysicist, Kuchner uses the law of physics to better understand celestial objects such as stars and planets. As an astrophysicist, he is highlighted as The Science Teacher's career of the month!

Kuchner told Luba Vangelova that "being an astrophysicist is like standing behind a colossal carnival ride observing the gears and giant motors." He also likes to help all types of scientists explain their work and its value to society. He relayed to Vangelova, "The recent economic downturn hit many scientists hard. I sometimes travel to give marketing workshops to help all types of scientists stay employed."

From a young age, Kuchner wanted to be a scientist and musician, though he wasn't sure what kind of scientist. After meeting some astronomers in college, he knew that that was what he wanted to do. Kuchner's advice for students is simple: "Don't pick a study topic that someone else recommends; pick something that you think is cool, because you will devote many years to it." He adds, "Science has many niches; there's a science career for everyone who's motivated to have one."

Check out the April/May 2013 issue of The Science Teacher to learn more!

Animal Survival Activity: "Hide-A-Moth"

Are you interested in teaching your students about natural selection and camouflage as an adaptive survival strategy? What better way to get them to understand the adaptive process than bringing it indoors into the classroom and have them do it, hands-on?! Sure, showing them a video will properly illustrate what it looks like visually, but nothing beats a hands-on experience, right?! 

TopScience.org has put together the perfect activity to show your students what camouflage as an adaptive survival strategy looks like. Even better, all you need is white paper, a pencil, a bright window to trace against, paint, crayons or colored pencils, scissors and tape. You'll also need colored toothpicks if you choose to do the extension of the activity.

To find even more free and downloadable hands-on activities with simple things to do with your students, visit www.topscience.org.

Science in Fashion? It's Happening!

Mirano's beetle wing bodice
(Spring/Summer 2013)

Mathieu Mirano is being dubbed the science geek of the fashion world. After sending out petri dish invitations to his show at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York a few months ago, Mirano's fall 2013 collection included actual meteorites, fox and beaver fur, stingray skin separates and a veiny looking sweater and skirt. 

Mirano told Susannah F. Locke of PopSci, "science is a huge part of my inspiration." That's not too surprising, though. It seems that science runs in Mirano's family. Mirano's father got his masters in astrophysics and his uncle got his in botany. One of Mirano's previous collections featured real beetle wings as embellishments! 

Mirano's scientific-inspired genius on the runway just goes to show that science can be put into any kind of work. STEM careers are evolving as fast as the definition of the term is. Exhibit A: science fashion. We thank Mirano for igniting a spark that hasn't been explored yet and we hope others continue to explore it. Locke said it perfectly when she stated: "Please, everyone, make lots of prohibitively expensive, science-inspired clothes! And maybe, someday, science fashion will trickle down to the rest of us." 

To read Locke's entire article on Mirano, click here. To check out Mirano's 2013 fall collection, view the PopSci gallery.

Even Hollywood is Talking STEM!

STEM is even catching on in Hollywood these days. The buzzword has stars talking about what they can do to get involved - which is exactly what "Big Bang Theory" star Mayim Bialik has done.

The former child star earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience (yes, neuroscience!) from the University of California-Los Angeles back in 2007, and now plays neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on the popular CBS sitcom "Big Bang Theory."

To see what Bialik had to say to the critics of "Big Bang Theory" that believe the show perpetuates some stereotypes of men and women in science and to see what advice she had for high school girls who are worried about being labeled "nerds" because they're interested in STEM subjects, check out High School Note's full interview with her.