Britain's first medicinal cannabis clinic opens in Greater Manchester

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/09/britains-first-medicinal-cannabis-clinic-opens


Above is the link to an article I stumbled across over the weekend.


The essence of the article surrounds the opening of a new private clinic in Greater Manchester, which has become the UK’s first specialist medicinal cannabis centre.


Patients at The Beeches, in Cheadle, will pay £200 for appointments with doctors and between £600 and £700 a month for a prescription.


So what do you think?

Can your DNA help you to make healthier food choices?

Can your DNA help you to make healthier food choices? Click here.


The NHS is trialling an app which claims to analyse people's DNA to help them eat more healthily.


Researchers at Imperial College London will study the effects of DNA-personalised food choices on pre-type 2 diabetes patients.


Some experts warn that the science the apps are based on is at "too early" a stage for individual risks to be predicted.


The Crowne-Spencer family have been trying out the app during their weekly shop.


This is worth a look for sure. What do you think? Would you use it yourself?


Mark

Listening Assessment 1 link (summative) - Simple hacks for life with Parkinson's

This is the link to the first Summative Listening Assessment which 

I showed you in today’s class. 

The submission date for this assessment is

Friday 22nd March 2019, either by e mail or handwritten format. 

Mileha Soneji is a trained strategic product designer, originally hailing from the city of Pune in India. She currently works in the Netherlands as a strategist. Her work entails combining the fuzzy front-end of the design process with emerging technologies to answer the question of what needs to be designed in the future.

In this instance, please don't comment on Mileha Soneji's presentation below,

as it is an assessment.

Unavailable until Thursday 7th March

Hi all,

Just a wee reminder that I’ll be on strike tomorrow.

I won’t be able to answer any e mails until 7th March regarding your essays, as I’m withdrawing all labour for the day.

See you all on Thursday for the first Listening assessment.

All the best,

Mark

Brain clue to 'broken heart' syndrome

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47440622

Above is a link to an interesting BBC article where experts suggest your heart can be damaged after a sad event and it may be your brain's doing.

This is a fascinating piece of research which is sure to make us stop and think.

Let me know where you stand on the content of this article.

There are some interesting links to related stories such as 'can you die from a broken heart?' and 'when moments of joy can damage the heart'.

All the best,

Mark

Study Shows Students Learn Better When They Take Handwritten Notes

https://www.bhg.com/news/study-shows-students-learn-better-when-they-take-handwritten-notes/?fbclid=IwAR0U3RNGah5wDQfFcOmPw8dYPKCrhhF_HjfLeqa87rPW483Iit4hyxP6KYs


Above is a link to an article where 'Scientists make a case for good ol’ pen and paper'.


I found this article to be quite an interesting read, on a number of levels.


For me, yes, this is research. But we know that there is always the counter-argument. And we know that the brain performs differently for all of us.


The research suggests that using laptops in classes may be harming 'learning'. That is possibly quite so. But if I could use Jordan as a good working example to contest this line of thinking. He demonstrated just last Thursday in class, just how well he could use his laptop to put together an excellent summary of the Meghan Ramsay formative talk. I'm not sure that I could have done that on one hearing but it worked very well for him. But this helps to clarify the notion that we are all able to learn, think, visualise, hear and listen to things in different ways. And this, in my opinion, has to be a good thing.


This supposition was true for the assessed presentations you all put together. I oversaw a variety of different learning methodologies to get from A to B, and the results were nothing short of excellent. 23 well researched, structured, reasoned deliveries, demonstrating clear lines of thinking. You all tackled the assessment differently though, in terms of fact finding, preparing visuals, note taking, question asking and much more.


I myself am a verbal and visual learner, but that style doesn't suit everybody and is arguably a good thing to be different from each other in terms of learning practice.


Let me know what you think and here is an interesting supplementary link to learning styles which you might be interested in for future reading:


https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/doctoralcollege/training/eresources/teaching/theories/honey-mumford




If you click on the photo below you will see it a little better. Which style suits you, and has this changed since August?


Feedback below as always please.


Mark

Radical Parkinson's treatment tested in patients

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47370498


Above is a link to a news story through the week, surrounding a revolutionary treatment which delivers the drug directly to the brain.


Patients in the trial were either given the drug, which is administered via a "port" in the side of the head, or a dummy treatment (placebo). There are inevitably going to be counter arguments about the success of such trials of course.


I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this. This is a subject I know a great deal about sadly, as my Dad suffered from this from his early 40s. In fact, he may well have been the first person in Scotland to undergo the most innovative brain surgery techniques of the day in the 1970s.


I have series linked the two part documentary which is signposted at the end of the article and plan to watch that in the next week or so when I can find some time.


Let me know what you think about this article in the comments section below.


Have a great weekend.


Mark