New video-based teaching tool helps students learn animal-based lab work

For students and scientists beginning animal-based lab work, seeing a research procedure performed by experts is by far the most effective method of learning. Now the Cambridge-based company, JoVE, releases the new online video-based tool, Model Organisms II, to revolutionize the teaching of fundamental experiments in the three most common laboratory organisms -- the mouse, chick and zebrafish.

"Each of these species makes unique demands upon researchers, both in terms of the steps required for their maintenance and reproduction, as well as the tools and techniques available to study them," said Aaron Kolski-Andreaco, PhD., JoVE's Chief Product Officer, "The Model Organisms II collection provides a great overview of these nuances, in addition to providing visual demonstrations of techniques essential to working with each model."

Contrary to the traditional, text-based educational materials, Model Organisms II presents a powerful combination of scientific animation with video demonstrations by scientists from leading research institutions around the world. This novel tool is the latest installment in JoVE Science Education database dedicated to teaching laboratory fundamentals through simple, easy-to-understand visual presentations. For universities and colleges, the JoVE Science Education videos are a valuable new resource for efficient teaching and research.

"I wanted to find justification for buying it, so I sent around a message to faculty in biology," said Michael Newman, a Head Librarian and Bibliographer at Stanford University, "Those things usually don't get much response, but this time I got some pretty enthusiastic replies."

Stanford subscribed to the JoVE Science Education database in December 2013, shortly after JoVE released this database. Over 100 institutions -- including those ranging from the Ivy League to community colleges -- also purchased a subscription within only three months following the product launch.

"I've used it as a class tool where students can watch a technique on the screen and then do it immediately afterwards, and for what they're going to do the next time the class meets, so they'll come in a little less blind," said assistant professor, Dr. Jason Kuehner of Emmanuel College in Boston, MA, "For something like western blotting this is really good. That's a fairly laborious technique with multiple steps, and for students it's very easy to get confused as to what each step in the protocol means."

You can view the Science Education content at www.jove.com/se.

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The above story is based on materials provided by Journal of Visualized Experiments (JOVE). Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Two students wounded in Philadelphia high school shooting

By Daniel Kelley

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Two students were shot and wounded on Friday afternoon at a charter high school in northern Philadelphia, police said, in the latest school shooting to fuel a national debate over gun control laws.

A teenaged girl and a boy were shot in their arms at the Delaware Valley Charter High School at about 3:30 p.m. when a young male pulled a handgun in a gymnasium with about seven students in it, officials and media reports said.

Police said the young man who fired the gun was part of the group, CNN reported. The shooting may have been an accident, police said.

Investigators have not said who fired the shots. A boy was taken into custody, but later cleared, said Philadelphia Police Lieutenant John Stanford.

"Initially, he was thought to be the shooter, but investigators were able to determine the kid was not a shooter," Stanford said. "He was there but I don't believe he was involved."

Another boy turned himself in and was being interviewed by police late Friday night, Stanford said. A third boy was also supposed to turn himself in, but had not yet done so.

Local television station 6ABC reported the girl and boy who were shot were both 15 and in stable condition.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said the shooting was caught on video.

Earlier, police used Twitter to urge the suspected shooter to surrender.

"SHOOTER - Turn yourself in. Get it over with now," they said.

School shootings such as the one at Sandy Hook elementary school in December 2012 that left 26 people dead have intensified a national debate over whether gun control regulations need to be stricter to curb gun violence.

In another shooting incident on Friday, a 16-year-old student was shot in the arm, apparently by a student with whom he had a dispute, as he walked away from Albany High School, about 165 miles south of Atlanta, WALB-TV reported.

In October, a 12-year-old boy killed a teacher and wounded two students at his school in Sparks, Nevada, before killing himself. Another 12-year-old boy in New Mexico is accused of seriously wounding two students with a shotgun on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Daniel Kelley; Additional reporting by Marina Lopes, Lisa Maria Garza, and Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Gunna Dickson, Sharon Bernstein, Lisa Shumaker and Sonya Hepinstall)

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