Update on Featured Alumnus Scholar Website and The Brain Game

Maybe you've noticed some of the links in the previous blogs don't go to my Featured Alumnus Scholar website, but to another. That's because the second Featured Alumnus Scholar website was officially launched today, Jan., 12, 2010, featuring Dr. Jaclyn Canas, Environmental Toxicologist at The Institute of Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH) at Texas Tech University. Dr. Canas was an Undergraduate Research Scholar in the TTU/HHMI Science Education Program at CISER from 2000-2002, and is now an Associate Professor of Environmental Toxicolocy at TIEHH, where she first began her undergraduate research experience.

Dr. Canas' website is a collaboraton of efforts on the part of Dr. Canas and TTU/HHMI @ CISER Technology Scholar Program Coordinator Melody Wainscott (me); Jason Cooper, Undergraduate Technology Scholar; and Swakesh Puligilla, Technology Graduate Assistant.

Dr. Canas worked with Jason Cooper (cameraman and podcast producer) and myself to shoot film of her in her office and labs at TIEHH, amazingly all in one take. Go, Jaclyn!!! You can find her two part podcast at http://www.ciser.ttu.edu/hhmi/alumni/jaclynpodcast.aspx She also provided photographs for the website, posed for photographs (photographer Melody Wainscott), and provided constructive feedback during the editing process.

The website is a collaboration of efforts between myself and Technology Graduate Assistant Swakesh Puligilla. I had a specific design in mind for which Swakesh wrote the code; Swakesh also suggested viable alternatives when we hit a wall. Jason assisted with his expertise in working in our SharePoint web environment.

My first rule of thumb in web design and editing is "one viewing screen to rule them". Interactive with minimalist text are also important considerations for the predilection of web-readers, who tend to scan rather than read closely (Slate 2009). Science web-readers may be a different breed since they are heavy-text readers.

Check out Dr. Canas' Featured Alumnus Scholar website at http://www.ciser.ttu.edu/hhmi/alumni/featured.aspx

My personal Featured Alumnus Scholar website has moved to http://www.ciser.ttu.edu/hhmi/alumni/featured/melody.aspx Click on the link itself in the Quick Launch menu; extra pop-out pages, designated by the arrow, tell more of the story.

Development of more TTU/HHMI Featured Alumnus Scholar WebPages was included in the TTU/HHMI Phase VI grant proposal (submitted October, 09) for the component of Dissemination of our information.

The last part of the story is The Brain Game. We've had 5 rounds so far on our Facebook Group. After each round, I meet with the winning player and talk about the game. The winning scholars always have great ideas for improving the game, including sticking with open access journals, like PLoS Moving games to an Event was another major improvement with its advantages of tracking the event and all pre- and post-commentary. View game 5 in our open group here. The Brain Game was also included in the grant proposal under the component of Student Research.

We'll find out if we have been funded in June of 2010.

I will continue to update this blog about Featured Alumnus Scholar Websites when they are launched, and will include the evolution of The Brain Game. Round 5 winner has just submitted more ideas for the game that deserve giving the game an upgrade: Welcome to The Brain Game 2.0!