Worth Their Weight in Gold

One of this year's newly announced MacArthur Foundation winners is economist Emmanuel Saez, who helped calculate the worth of outstanding kindergarten teachers.

A link to Mr. Saez's homepage: http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/

A New York Times article on this year's awardees: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/arts/28macarthur.html?src=twr

Incredible Weather

The weather has been INCREDIBLE this past week!  The first two pictures were taken from the Mountainside Neigborhood, the rest from my deck.

Looking at Thunder Mountain from the south.

Looking north toward the Chilkats

NYTimes Article: Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter?

"...researchers sorted the children, based on their treadmill runs, into highest-, lowest- and median-fit categories. Only the most- and least-fit groups continued in the study (to provide the greatest contrast). Both groups completed a series of cognitive challenges involving watching directional arrows on a computer screen and pushing certain keys in order to test how well the children filter out unnecessary information and attend to relevant cues. Finally, the children’s brains were scanned, using magnetic resonance imaging technology to measure the volume of specific areas.

Previous studies found that fitter kids generally scored better on such tests. And in this case, too, those children performed better on the tests. But the M.R.I.’s provided a clearer picture of how it might work. They showed that fit children had significantly larger basal ganglia, a key part of the brain that aids in maintaining attention and 'executive control,'....

in a separate, newly completed study by many of the same researchers at the University of Illinois, a second group of 9- and 10-year-old children were also categorized by fitness levels and had their brains scanned, but they completed different tests, this time focusing on complex memory. Such thinking is associated with activity in the hippocampus, a structure in the brain’s medial temporal lobes. Sure enough, the M.R.I. scans revealed that the fittest children had heftier hippocampi."

link to full article: Phys Ed: Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter?

Street Performers, Boston

(just because a blog with no photos is boring!)

Upcoming Hearings

Friday, September 17

Joint Legislative Higher Education Scholarship Funding Task Force
8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., Anchorage LIO, Room 220
Agenda: Merit-based scholarship component

Monday & Tuesday, October 4-5
Advisory Task Force on Higher Education & Career Readiness
Nome (agenda, exact location & time to be announced)

Friday, October 8
Joint Legislative Higher Education Scholarship Funding Task Force
8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., Anchorage LIO, Room 220
Agenda: Needs-based scholarship component

Monday & Tuesday, November 8-9
Advisory Task Force on Higher Education & Career Readiness
Sitka (agenda, exact location & time to be announced)

Monday & Tuesday, January 10-11
Advisory Task Force on Higher Education & Career Readiness
Anchorage (agenda, exact location & time to be announced)

Friday & Saturday, March 4-5
Advisory Task Force on Higher Education & Career Readiness
Juneau (agenda, exact location & time to be announced)