School Science News for Kids

1. Sign up ASAP for an MCAT course so that you are fully prepared to take the test early. Ideally you want to ace it no later than the April 28th administration because then your scores should be released by May 30, 2012. See 2012 MCAT Registration Deadline and Score Release Schedule.
2. Continue or begin clinical exposure.  If you are going to be a doctor, you need to have experienced the hospital environment – working under pressure, dealing with sick people, responding to family members, and interacting with tired and even more pressured colleagues.
3. Develop a relationship with faculty members and supervisors who can provide letters of recommendation.  You will want people who know you well to write your recommendations. Nurture relationships with TAs, lab supervisors, research sponsors (who work closely with you) for their intrinsic value, and you will also have strong recommendations.
4. Clarify what’s important to you in a medical school. Are you primarily interested in primary care? Or do you find research attractive? Do you prefer an urban, suburban, or rural setting? Which approach to medical education appeals to you, and why? Yes, I know that you will be happy to go where you get in, but you really can’t apply to every school in the country.  Once you have determined what would be your ideal, then consider if those schools are feasible. For example, cost is frequently a constraint, or if you aren’t competitive at every medical school, then your qualifications are a constraint. While it’s easy to apply to more rather than fewer schools through AMCAS, it could get pretty expensive. Choose based on what’s important to you. You’ll save time and money.

In his past life, Kirk Smalley was the father of two children and a sheet metal foreman in the small town of Perkins, OK. That all changed on May 13, 2010 when Ty, his 11-year-old son, took his life after being bullied daily at school for two years.

During an interview with Smalley a few months ago, he told me that he had no idea his son – a small, sweet boy who was bullied because of his size – had ever considered suicide as a way to put an end to his suffering. When the unimaginable happened, Kirk’s life changed completely.

Channeling an unimaginable grief

There are different ways to deal with the sorrow of losing a child. Smalley took his anguish and funneled it into a fervent mission to save as many children as he could from his sons fate.

When I wrote about Ty Field-Smalleys death and Kirk Smalleys work to fight bullying in October of this year, GreatSchools received more Facebook “likes” than any single article in our sites history.

Theres a reason. Smalleys tireless message, told with compassion (for victims and bullies alike), is taking hold worldwide in a way that many anti-bullying efforts dont. By his count, hes gone to 280 schools and spoken to over 400,000 kids. Why is he getting through to parents, principals, teachers, and most particularly children? “Kids have a built-in bs detector,” Smalley tells me. “They can tell when you are pulling something over on them. They can tell the message is coming from the heart. They get emotional. They cry with us. They feel like they can talk with us.”

Through his non-profit organization, Stand for the Silent, Smalley speaks at any and every school that invites him. He recently even spoke – via the web – to a class of seventh grade students in Bangalore, India. These days, he can barely keep up with the demand; hes fully booked nearly six months in advance.

Remembering the “800 babies who have killed themselves”

“I have a list of over 800 babies who have killed themselves,” Smalley says. We tell the stories of who they were. [The kids] get to see this person. They see this isnt a number, a percentage, a statistic.”

Smalley says he has folders overflowing with emails from bullying victims who said they were going to kill themselves – until they heard him speak. He has another fat folder from reformed bullies who vow to stop tormenting other kids. “We teach [kids] I am somebody. We teach them they can make a difference. They have a right to be who they are. We love them no matter who they are.”

If you want Kirk Smalley to come speak at your school, email him. Some schools have money to pay for his transportation but even if they dont, he promises hell come. “If theres a need,” he says, “God finds a way.”

Smalley left his job months ago so he could devote himself full-time to Stand for the Silent. Remarkably, he doesnt ask for a speaking fee when he visits schools.

This year, if you want to add ending bullying to your list of New Years resolutions, you can start by going to his site and clicking “Donate” (a yellow button at the bottom of the home page). All donations are tax-deductible.

California State University, Long Beach, has once again been named as one of the best deals in education, according to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.

The university was ranked No. 98 on the magazine’s list of the top 100 best values in public colleges for 2011-12, education officials announced Tuesday. Last year, Cal State Long Beach was No. 79.

The ranking each year recognizes four-year public institutions that combine excellent education with affordability.

Cal State Long Beach was one of 11 universities in California to make the list and one of four CSU campuses. The other three are San Diego State University at 77, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at 83 and Cal Poly Pomona at 91.

Coming in at No. 1 this year was the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, followed by the University of Florida, Gainesville, and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

The top institutions were selected from a pool of more than 500 colleges and universities. They were ranked according to academic quality, admission and retention rates, student-faculty ratios and graduation rates.

Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander said the university is pleased to once again make the list, but is struggling to keep student tuition low under an onslaught of state budget cuts.

“Access to higher education begins first and foremost with the ability to afford a college degree, and at Cal State Long Beach we continue to

Last year, Alan Ellis class at Lake Como Elementary won second place in a statewide school garden competition. The special education class had raised more than 100 pounds of vegetables, most of which were donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. 

This week, they got their reward an outdoor school makeover, or Green Up. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, a sponsor of last years contest, sent 60 employees to make over the exterior of the South Bumby Avenue school during the companys international convention in Orlando.

The Miracle-Gro employees built a massive, raised vegetable garden for Ellis class, created a butterfly garden and made over the landscaping in front of the school.

Home Dec 15, 2011 Issues: Other Education and Youth Issues

On Thursday, Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the Committee, took part in a Financial Services Committee hearing entitled, “The Homeless Children and Youth Act of 2011: Proposals to Promote Economic Independence for Homeless Children and Youth.” Watch his statement and read his prepared remarks below:

Thank you, Chairwoman Biggert for holding this hearing on such a critical issue facing our nation today. 

I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue in the Committee on Education and the Workforce.  You have been a consistent champion for homeless children and families and it has been a pleasure to partner with you on such important topics.

I also want to thank all the young people who are here to tell their stories today. 

I want to make sure you know that we hear you. 

Your presence tells me how bright you are and how promising your futures are.  Congratulations on your education success to date.

I can’t tell you how important that Congress hears directly on the realities y that you and your families face because of a lack of adequate housing.

I have served on the education committee for my entire time in public office and I know what a dramatic impact housing and mobility have on a student’s education.

Public schools have a unique perspective on social and economic issue like homelessness.

Unlike other community service organizations, schools see the full range of children without housing – not just the children and youth who make it into a shelter. They see kids moving from place to place – from couch to basement to car to motel to another couch.

None of these places can or should be considered a home.

Schools have witnessed a 38 percent increase in child and youth homelessness over the past three years. Those numbers aren’t going down.

And because public schools don’t see infants and toddlers, who comprise a large group of children in homeless situations, the total number is even larger.

We know that homelessness puts kids at risk of much higher risk educational failure; students without stable housing have more attendance problems, and they don’t do as well in school.

Student homelessness is also an often overlooked contributor to the nation’s dropout crisis.

A recent study from the Government Accountability Office found that students with more than two school changes from 8th to 12th grade were twice as likely to drop out of high school as stable students.

Without an education, these students will not be able to obtain jobs that pay decent wages, and are likely to experience homelessness as adults.

Federal education law, through the McKinney-Vento Act, requires schools to support homeless students in a number of ways, including keeping homeless students in the same school when it is in their best interest and providing transportation, or immediately enrolling them in a new school.

However, education is only part of the answer.

In order for homeless students to succeed in school, they must receive housing and other supportive services that will stabilize their situations and enable them to concentrate on their education.

Unfortunately, school districts face barriers when they try to refer kids to Department of Housing and Urban Development homeless programs because of a difference in the definition of ‘homeless’.

This prevents kids from getting services they need and limits community collaboration.

And perhaps equally disturbing, this mismatch in definitions also keeps the true scale of child and youth homelessness hidden from view.

H.R. 32 is similar to legislation enacted by the Education & Workforce Committee – the Child Nutrition Act and the Higher Education Act.

Both of those laws help homeless kids get services through other programs by taking advantage of point people in public schools.

Similarly, H.R 32 gets rid of interagency barriers by allowing school district liaisons and other federal child and youth programs to verify children and youth for HUD homeless services.

It breaks down silos and eliminates the documentation and other requirements that are difficult or impossible for homeless families and youth to meet.

H.R. 32 also looks beyond public schools, recognizing that Head Start and Early Intervention Programs under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are serving many homeless children. These programs should also be authorized to verify a child as eligible for HUD homeless services.

Runaway and Homeless Youth Act programs also need this ability in order to ensure that unaccompanied homeless youth have access to the housing and services they need.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act; Head Start; IDEA; Higher Education all include policies that recognize the instability and vulnerability of homeless children and youth.

These federal laws contain provisions for immediate enrollment or expedited services, reducing mobility, and the elimination of documentation and other barriers.

HUD homeless programs should follow suit so that federal policies are aligned for children and youth in every homeless situation.

I hope the message these brave young people hear today is that we are here to help you, not make your situation more difficult.

We can address their challenges, or we can ignore them.  And pretending their experience isn’t real won’t help anyone. 

This isn’t a question of whether we know what to do, this is a question of having the will to address these very real problems.

Thank you for allowing me to participate in today’s hearing.

DALLAS – Dec. 1, 2011 – UT Southwestern Medical Center geneticist and immunologist Dr. Bruce A. Beutler and other 2011 Nobel Prize winners from the U.S. today met with President Barack Obama at the White House, launching a series of events leading to the prize ceremony in Stockholm later this month.

Dr. Bruce A. Beutler

“It was an honor to meet President Obama, especially in the company of my fellow Nobel laureates. It was a prize in itself to know that our country, represented by the president, holds our work in such high esteem,” said Dr. Beutler, who recently returned to UT Southwestern, where he made his seminal discoveries, to become the director of the new Center for the Genetics of Host Defense.

The Nobel laureates’ day of recognition in Washington included a seminar at the Embassy of Sweden and a black-tie dinner in their honor at the home of Jonas Hafström, the Swedish ambassador. Dr. Beutler and the other honorees will receive their awards in ceremonies on Dec. 10 in Stockholm.

Dr. Beutler and Dr. Jules A. Hoffmann of Strasbourg University’s Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire in France shared half the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of receptor proteins that recognize disease-causing agents and activate innate immunity, the first step in the body´s immune response. The other half of the prize went to the late Dr. Ralph M. Steinman of Rockefeller University in New York for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity.

Dr. Beutler was a faculty member and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at UT Southwestern from 1986 to 2000. From 1993 to 1998, he searched for a receptor capable of binding the bacterial product called lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which can cause life-threatening septic shock, a condition that involves overstimulation of the immune system.

Dr. Beutler’s original studies at UT Southwestern led to the identification of Toll-like receptors as sensors that act like sentinels to alert the host immune system when infection is present.

In 1998, he and his colleagues discovered that mice resistant to LPS had a mutation in a gene that was quite similar to the Toll gene in the fruit fly, the organism Dr. Hoffmann studied.

This Toll-like receptor (TLR) turned out to be the elusive LPS receptor. When it binds LPS, signals are activated that cause inflammation in mammals. Excessive LPS overstimulates the immune system and causes septic shock. These findings showed that mammals and fruit flies use similar molecules to activate innate immunity when encountering pathogenic microorganisms. The discoveries of Drs. Beutler and Hoffmann triggered an explosion of research investigating innate immunity.

Drs. Beutler and Dr. Hoffmann also shared the Shaw Prize in a Sept. 28 award ceremonies in Hong Kong with Dr. Ruslan M Medzhitov of Yale University.

UT Southwestern faculty members now have won five Nobel Prizes since 1985. Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Joseph Goldstein (1985), Dr. Johann Deisenhofer (1988) and Dr. Alfred Gilman (1994) preceded Dr. Beutler in being honored by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet.

Prior to his return to UT Southwestern, Dr. Beutler – elected to both the National Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine in 2008 – was chairman of the Department of Genetics at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.