As always come join us and bring a friend to the next opportunity for medical fun and learning on Saturday January 11th at 12:30pm at the UROC building (2001 Plymouth Ave N, Minneapolis) – lunch will be provided!The UROC building is reachable by Metro Transit bus routes 19, 32 & 7.
The Second Saturday of each month, Meetings are the Gatherings and the Foundation to Build Strong Bonds. Fourth grade, through Middle school, to High school, College, Medical school, Resident and Intern Physicians all the way to Attending Physicians…all members of The Ladder. https://theladdermn.org/break-it-down-what-does-the-ladder-really-do/
Just a reminder that the last Ladder meeting of 2013 will be December 14th! So before holidays and school vacations get a hold of you, dig yourself out of that snowdrift and join us on the second Saturday of December for sports medicine with Dr. David Olson.
Dr. Olson serving as sports medicine physician to the Minnesota Vikings
Dr. Olson will be teaching about sports injuries and reading x-rays, as well as demonstrating how to cast and splint sports injuries. So bring a pair of shorts to change into (if you want to volunteer for getting a cast!) and a friend to the next opportunity for medical fun and learning on Saturday December 14th at 12:30pm at the UROC building (2001 Plymouth Ave N, Minneapolis) – lunch will be provided!The UROC building is reachable by Metro Transit bus routes 19, 32 & 7.
No, you’re not having deja vu…pinch-hitting for Medical Scholar Renée at December 14th’s meeting of the Ladder will be sports medicine physician David Olson, M.D.!
Dr. Olson will be teaching about sports injuries and reading x-rays, as well as demonstrating how to cast and splint sports injuries. You want to be there for this – you just might have the chance to have your own leg or arm put in a cast! If you were at the Ladder for Dr. Olson’s visit in April – you know it was fun, and there will be even more awesome this time!
So bring a pair of shorts to change into (if you want to get your cast on!) and a friend, to the next opportunity for medical fun and learning on Saturday December 14th at 12:30pm at the UROC building (2001 Plymouth Ave N, Minneapolis) – lunch will be provided! The UROC building is reachable by Metro Transit bus routes 19, 32 & 7. And don’t just take our word for how fun the Ladder meetings are – take it from Medical Scholars Steven and Christian:
The Ladder is a Society of Medical Scholars ages 9 to 99. Meetings are every second Saturday of the month.
A Scholar Reads, A Scholar Listens, A Scholar Teaches and, A Scholar Learns.
Service Learning, Leadership Development, and Cascading Mentorship
October’s meeting of the Ladder will focus on the lungs and heart.
As the medical scholar you are, you probably already know some things about your heart: like how it pumps blood throughout your body. You probably know some things about lungs too: like how they expand in your chest when you inhale to bring oxygen into your body, and contract when you exhale to release carbon dioxide that your body needs to get rid of.
But did you know that your heart and lungs actually work as a team to do the job of getting oxygen in and carbon dioxide out of your bodies? And that if either your heart or lungs get sick or aren’t doing their jobs, your circulatory team runs into trouble, which means trouble for your whole body. At the next meeting of the Ladder we’ll learn about the heavy duty team work performed by your heart and lungs, what happens if they aren’t working together, and how medical professionals can identify and fix things that go wrong with them.
So bring your heart, lungs and the rest of you, along with a friend, and join us for lunch (provided!), learning, and fun at the next meeting of the Ladder – Saturday, October 12th at 12:30pm at the UROC building (2001 Plymouth Ave N, Minneapolis). The UROC building is reachable by Metro Transit bus routes 19, 32 & 7.
See you there!
The Ladder is a Society of Medical Scholars ages 9 to 99, and meetings are the second Saturday of every month and open to anyone and everyone.
September’s meeting of The Ladder: Fitness and Health!
photo credit: NYDailyNews.com
Maybe you’re thinking: “hey – I come to the Ladder to learn about what kinds of things can go wrong with bodies, and about the people who fix things that go wrong with our bodies. So why are we talking about ‘fitness and health’ – what’s fitness got to do with medicine and medical stuff?”
Well, the thing is – healthcare folks like nurses and doctors aren’t just there to fix what’s broken. And even though they love to see you, they really want you to stay healthy so you don’t have to come and see them very often. One of the really big ways you can help your body stay healthy and keep the doctor away (besides just eating an apple a day!) is doing things that keep you fit!
Not only apples can help keep the doctor away!
What exactly is fitness anyway? You’ve probably heard the word, and maybe people talking about how it’s a good thing – but what is it, where do you find it, and how can you get some? We’ll learn some answers to those questions and more at this month’s meeting of the Ladder. We promise you that 1) fitness can be fun, and 2) fitness is easier to find than you might think.
So bring yourself, a friend and some comfy exercise shoes and join us for lunch (provided!), light fitness activity, learning, and fun at the next meeting of the Ladder – Saturday, September 14th at 12:30pm. Meet up as usual at the UROC building (2001 Plymouth Ave N, Minneapolis), then we’ll walk over as a group to North Point’sFit 4 Fun event just around the corner from UROC. The UROC building is reachable by Metro Transit bus routes 19, 32 & 7.
See you there!
The Ladder is a Society of Medical Scholars ages 9 to 99, and meetings are the second Saturday of every month and open to anyone and everyone.
The Ladder is a Society of Medical Scholars ages 9 to 99, and meetings are the second Saturday of every month and open to anyone and everyone. You’ll have a lot of fun, get a free lunch, and probably even learn something in the process. The next meeting is September 14th at the UROC building (2001 Plymouth Ave N) in North Minneapolis!
Your eyes (or eye, if you’re like this guy) are one of the main ways you interact with the world; in fact it’s pretty likely you’re using them to read this right now.
If you think about it – it’s really kind of amazing what these soft round marbles in our heads do to let us see so much of the world. Which makes you wonder – how do they do it? How do they capture what’s going on around you and send that info off to your brain? And what makes eyes different colors like brown or blue or green or hazel? Why do we see things in color while some animals see without color? Why do some people need to wear glasses, while some people don’t? What do healthy eyes look and act like, what kinds of things can go wrong with them, and what sorts of tests can be done to figure out (and fix!) problems with eyes?
There are a million different amazing, weird and awesome things to learn about the eyes, and at the next meeting of The Ladder, you’ll have a chance to learn about a few of them, as well as how and what kind of medical professionals are involved in taking care of our eyes.
So bring your eyes (and the rest of you) and join us for lunch (provided!), learning and (as always!) fun at the next meeting of the Ladder Saturday August 10th at 12:30pm at the UROC building (2001 Plymouth Ave N, Minneapolis). The UROC building is reachable by Metro Transit bus routes 19, 32 & 7.
See you there!
The Ladder is a Society of Medical Scholars ages 9 to 99, and meetings are the second Saturday of every month and open to anyone and everyone.
Nobody could resist the cuteness of our youngest ever Ladder scholars during the July’s meeting…nobody!
Our last meeting was about babies, the care of their mother as they march along thru their pregnancy (also called prenatal care). Prenatal care is important to continuously check on the baby and make sure that they are growing in a healthy way with a good weight, a good heart and no infection. When they are in their mother’s belly, babies usually take about 9 months to develop before they can come out safely. When they are about 10 to 12 weeks old in mom’s belly, you can use this machine called a “fetal Doppler” to hear their heart beating!
Here we have an awesome mother who is expecting a baby, and she volunteered to have us listen to her baby. We put gel on the mother’s baby before listening with the Doppler. Gel helps to reduce extra noise that can happen when the doppler moves on the skin.
The heart of adults usually beat between 60 and 100 times per minutes, but because babies are growing so much, their heart beats faster, around 160 times per minutes! From about.com here is a heartbeat of 160 beats per minutes at 10 weeks (link to source).
Sometimes, babies get excited too early about coming out of their mom’s belly. When a baby is born after being in mom’s belly for less than 37 weeks, they are called premature. They can be quite tiny and require a lot of extra care and handling, and will also have smaller diapers, smaller medical instruments compared to babies who are born at or after 37 weeks.
Here is also a small blood pressure cuff for a tiny baby.
You can compare the diaper size (left) for a premature or small babies with the hand of a scholar here.
Adults can stand still, but baby and kids can be quite difficult to examine at the doctor’s office because they get squirmy. It is best to examine a baby on their parent’s lap, distract them with noise or toys and satisfy their curiosity by keeping them entertained!
One fun fact: Never gave honey to baby before the age of one year old! It can give them a disease called infant botulism where they become constipated, very weak, lethargic and unable to feed. Infant botulism is caused by a funny-named bacteria called Clostridium botulinum.
Lastly, babies are very intellectually curious, put everything in their mouth, does not matter what it is! So it is important to keep small objects away from them, things that they can accidentally swallow. If the object goes down to their lungs, it can cut off their air and leads to a lot of problems very fast. That includes foods such as grapes, hotdogs, nuts, popcorns.
A lot of medical personnel take care of mothers and their babies: nurses, nurses, nurses! Family medicine doctors, pediatricians, obstetrics/gynecologist, pediatric surgeons.
Trivia question: At what age do babies start walking?
Here is one of our youngest Ladder scholar rushing to the stage to answer a question about skin diseases!
The Ladder is a Society of Medical Scholars ages 9 to 99, and meetings are the second Saturday of every month and open to anyone and everyone. You’ll have a lot of fun, get a free lunch, and probably even learn something in the process. The next meeting is August 10th at the UROC building (2001 Plymouth Ave N) in North Minneapolis!
Did you know there are health care workers whose jobs are to provide special kinds of health and medical care for moms-to-be and their babies-to-be? This kind of health and medical care is called “prenatal” care: “natal” is just a fancy word used in the healthcare world to talk about pregnancy and birth, so “pre-natal” covers everything that happens before a baby is born!
There many types of health care professionals who provide prenatal care – including obstetricians, nurses, family physicians, midwives, and nurse-midwives – and there are lots of procedures and assistance to keep pregnant women and their babies safe and healthy.
At the next meeting of the Ladder, we’ll talk about the different kinds of prenatal healthcare and the doctors, nurses and others who provide it! So bring along one of YOUR baby pictures to share and join us for lunch (provided!) and learning at the next meeting of the Ladder Saturday July 13th at 12:30pm at the UROC building (2001 Plymouth Ave N, Minneapolis). The UROC building is reachable by Metro Transit bus routes 19, 32 & 7.
The Ladder is a Society of Medical Scholars ages 9 to 99, and meetings are the second Saturday of every month and open to anyone and everyone.
Every second Saturday of the month, 12:30-2:30pm at the UROC Building
COVID19 has Cancelled In person meetings this year until further noticeFebruary 8, 2021
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