People Need Education (not taxes)

I am very skeptical on the value and the effectiveness of the new tax on sugar drinks.
Once again, the legislators tend to ignore the real problem: lack of education on diet and lifestyle.
Last week, I had the pleasure to be part of this SciFest project on lifestyle and obesity; 
where, students have found that...the boys (13-14 years old) who exercise regularly have a mean BMI of 20 whereas the boys who exercise less  have an aver age BMI of  27.

The vital need today is to educate young people (the younger the better!) on the value of a healthy diet and exercise.
Once they learn to eat and drink healthily, they wont' even touch a soft drink!

But, when you see parents buying cola drinks to their kids, the thought that comes to my mind is that these kids are now "addicted" to this taste and smell and the new tax will not have any positive impact at all.

The obesity epidemic needs to be tackled with more vivid imagination at the primary and secondary schools around the country... Not by introducing taxes... 

I would like to see the schools to be more active by providing healthier options at vending machines and at the canteen.
The school inspectors have a vital role to play on this topic! 
Like they have done few days ago at the school of my eldest son! 😌


Ioannis Zabetakis

p.s. I would like to be able to design a new vending machine with only healthy options ranging from see weeds to yogurt drinks! I know I am asking a lot...

Never refuse an opportunity to speak in schools

University of Limerick - The Lonsdale Building

One of the buildings I am teaching in UL is named after Dame Kathleen Lonsdale
Kathleen was very keen on encouraging science education and helped start the Young Scientist’s section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS). She made a note to herself: ’Never refuse an opportunity to speak in schools’.

People looking at posters and photographs of her work in Lonsdale building, they can see this phrase about speaking in schools.

 
Following her paradigm, it was a pleasure kicking off for this year school visits yesterday with a visit to Scoil na Tríonóide Naofa

where I was given the opportunity to talk to 5th and 6th year students about the School of Natural Sciences in UL.

As always, I enjoyed talking to a couple of students after the presentation.

It is hard to apply metrics in visits like this one; discussing to a young person and giving some advice...how can you measure this?

on teaching and friendship

Britain's Prince George accompanied by Britain's Prince William (L) arrives at his new school; where he has to pay 18k GBP / pa but he can't have a best friend!!!

one of the most interesting weekend reads:on Aristotle, friendship and teaching.

"To want a best friend is both natural and good. That’s been noted ever since Aristotle wrote about what makes for a flourishing life in his Nicomachean Ethics. Friendship was central. He concluded that a person may have everything else that life can offer – money, family, purpose, values – but that they would feel they lacked something essential if they hadn’t, at some point, experienced the great joy of soulmateship.

He realised that human beings are social creatures. We’re people of the polis. We do well when we live well together. Friendship is a crucial part of that, he continued, because it’s in the context of intimate friendships that we best learn what it is to attend to others, not only ourselves. This care can become a habit that spills out in ever widening circles to extend across the community.

It is, therefore, wrong to think that forbidding best friends prevents playground bullying and loneliness. If anything, it could promote the opposite. How else can individuals learn the tremendous value of reaching out, of acting kindly?"

= = =
Thinking, now, of the wider picture, let's try to remember our school years: did we/you make any good friends then? probably yes! So, how bad/backward/[insert here any negative word you like] is a school that asks you not to make "best" friends?
Likewise to Mark Vermon, I do feel pity for Prince Goerge... He may be a Prince (on paper) but this does not mean that the royal etiquette will make his life easier...probably the opposite... :(

doodle4google : please support Laura and our school

Laura O'Brien, Scoil Seanain Naofa Clonlara County Clare :

 I love music and I play the piano and the violin. It is fun to create music using different instruments and to share the magic of music with others.

 

Scoil Seanáin Naofa

Attention All!
We have a Winner!
Laura O'Brien, 1st Class at our school, has won through to the Voting Stage of Doodle4Google competition.
We are asking you to please vote for her doodle online.
This is how:

1.Go to the doodle4google page here
2.Click group 2.
3. Click to Laura O'Brien's doodle (musical instruments)
4. Click vote

Please, make sure you click first Laura's doodle and then vote!

Voting has begun and closes on 21st February.
Our school will win €10,000 Technology Grant if Laura is the overall winner!

Thank You!
Le Meas,

Ms Burns and Mr O'Connell 

 (copied here by Ioannis Zabetakis)

 = = = = = = =

Scoil Seanáin Naofa

Καλημέρα!
Η Laura O'Brien, μαθήτρια της πρώτης τάξης στο σχολείο μας έχει περάσει στα τελικά της ψηφοφορίας doodle4google.
Θα θέλαμε να σας ζητήσουμε να υποστηρίξετε την Laura και το σχολείο μας ψηφίζοντας το doodle της Laura!


1. Πηγαίνετε στη σελίδα doodle4google εδώ
2.Επιλέξτε κάνοντας κλικ στο group 2.
3. Επιλέξτε με κλικ το doodle της Laura O'Brien (μουσικά όργανα)
4. Ψηφίστε κάνοντας κλικ στο vote

Προσοχή!
Επιλέξτε πρώτα το doodle της Laura και μετά ψηφίστε!

Η ψηφοφορία έχει ξεκινήσει και τελειώνει στις 21 Φλεβάρη.

Το σχολείο μας θα κερδίσει €10,000 Technology Grant (Υποτροφία για Τεχνολογική Υποδομή) αν η Laura είναι η τελική νικήτρια!

Σας Ευχαριστούμε!

Ms Burns and Mr O'Connell  

(και για την αντιγραφή, Γιάννης Ζαμπετάκης)
 

 

talking to 12 year old children about food

This week, I was invited to talk to the 6th form students at the school that my boys attend to.
The talk was about "How to Eat Well"....

How can you make such a talk interesting and appealing?

I decided to try to create a "story", i.e. present Science as a Story!

So, I presented a story to the children: A story starting with Ancel Keys in the 50's in US and leading to the 7 countries study and finishing with Hippocrates and his famous saying about food and medicine.

In between, we all enjoyed lots of interactive questions and answers.
I was amazed by the high standard of the children. They could assess the nutritional value of most foods and they could spot most of the differences between a juice and a soft drink!
At the end of my talk, their teacher, Feargal, presented a very moving picture in words: he asked them next time they go to SM to try to spot two trolleys, one with lots of fruits and vegetables and one with processed food and soft drinks.

Then, he asked the children to have a look at the persons wheeling these troleys and ask themselves: in 20years to which one do I want to look like?

It was an amazing opportunity to speak to 12 y old students! This age is always a challenge! How to present Science in a practical way but at the same time to be ready to raise the level when a couple of boys asked me at the end about food for swimmers and for rugby players!

This day brought to my mind the phrase of Kathleen Lonsdale that features in the ground floor at Lonsdale building, here at UL,
"never miss an opportunity to speak to school children".

Special thanks are due to their teachers, Feargal and John, for giving me this chance.

Yannis Zabetakis