Dreaming and Taking Risks Leads to Inventions!

Shiri Koren is today's blogger for guest teacher Dr. Eric Kraus.

Soar:  Innovation Education And Entrepreneurship Institute.

Dr. Eric M. Kraus

The Ear Center of Greensboro

Today on the 25^th of May, Dr. Kraus is here to lecture us on his profession, and how he got in that position. Besides being a doctor, he is also an inventor. He is an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, but lately he has only been focusing on the ear.

Entrepreneurship

You have to be a dreamer; day dreaming is pretty healthy to be shifting through thoughts.  You have to have passion; it takes a lot of time and patience. You have to take risks. Know your advantages, know your struggles. You also need to balance your time. You cannot save time. Spend your time wisely.  

His opinion on the five important S’s of life

Surgery wants to make a difference. Also, it is his occupation. Networking and finding jobs is done through friends and family.

Swarthmore is where Dr. Kraus went to college. Education is where you learn to problem-solve, analyze and evaluate. He wants to get as many degrees as possible. It will open more doors for you. Complete your education. Read a lot. It helps you become a better writer and a better communicator. All of those things help you.

Spouse: one of the biggest decisions in your life. It determines your lifestyle and your children. Family is very important.

The other three: synagogue, Steelers, and sleep. To take care of your body keeps you healthy. Sleeping is a creative time period.

His Story

Dr. Kraus grew up in Pennsylvania and went to Swarthmore College and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

He has an MD Degree. He owns his own practice.

He performs surgery every day and does researching and teaching.

Inventions and Patents (Most of his inventions are worldwide)

FindMeID Bracelet: to help identify special needs kids.

Kraus Modified Schuring Ossicle-Cup Prosthesis 92

Middle ear implant mounting bracket

Kraus K-Helix prostheses, issued Nov. 2011

Types of Patents and Trademarks

-Utility- a real patent, but the hardest one to get.  It is the most cherished in the world. It has to be a new idea, attainable, useful, and “non-obvious”.

-Design- worthless; it is easy to receive.

Patents- an exclusive right officially granted by a government to an inventor to make or sell an invention. A patent is only used for twenty years. After that, it then disappears.

FDA Food and Drug Administration: a government group (very knowledgeable)

Dr. Kraus worked on the process of creating his invention for 25 years.

He got a 510K Application, file patent. It took about 3.5 years to process (to get approval for each material needed for his invention).  If done another way, this would cost millions of dollars. He needed to get a license and get approval from a private workgroup. Then, there was a clinical research study. He had to demonstrate the procedure to make it safe for humans. Then, after some other steps, the item was approved.

• He told us that being an Inventor is a curse. You don’t know where to stop.
• Once you have knowledge, you can be powerful.
• Failure can teach you a lot.
• You cannot buy knowledge.
• “Imagination is more important than knowledge” is a quote from Albert Einstein.
• See the world outside of what you know.
• Volunteer and shadow people.
• Connect the dots differently.
• Strive for balance.
• Invest in yourself right now. And network with everyone.
• Use Spell Check!

Dr. David Altman Teaches Leadership

Aliza Owen is today's blogger.

Leadership

We are listening to David Altman speak to us about creative leadership.

We are looking at images and picking out the aspects of leadership within them. Independence, courage, helping others, and hard work are only a few of the characteristics that were plucked from the pictures. The pictures do not necessarily show well-known leaders in them, but images of everyday people and things that can be interpreted as the symbol of a leader. This first activity is showing that you can find a leader’s characteristics in everyone or everything.

Next, we are discussing what makes someone a leader. Is every Rabbi a leader for simply being a Rabbi, or do they need to have a certain way about them that makes them a leader? Not every person was born a leader, but they can become one if they live up to the characteristics that belong to a leader; or maybe they were not destined to ever be a leader. A leader cannot have too much power, either, or they may overpower another and become evil with power.

Now, we pick up cards with quotes on them that describe our perspectives on what a leader does. From going and fighting for what they want to accomplish, to finding the adventure within, all of these quotes show us that a leader does not simply sit around and wait for someone else to do something they wanted to happen; they take action and do things themselves.
            Lastly, we were given cards with characteristics and were told to put them in order of which we always, often, sometimes, seldom, and never value. We arranged our “always” columns onto one table and looked for similarities. Some of the words that came up the most were freedom, wisdom, family, justice, and love; but the words spirituality, adventure, and responsibility were used sparingly. This shows that not all of us are the same, but we also do value similar things.

Maddy's post: Aaron Strasser and Lucky's

Maddy is today's blogger, as the eighth grade continues to learn about successful Greensboro entrepreneurs.

Lucky’s Pet Resort and Day Spa

Aaron Strasser owns Lucky’s Pet Resort and Day Spa with his brother. For high School, he went to Greensboro Day School in 1995. He graduated from Tufts University in 1999. Lucky’s Pet Resort is a high-end pet hotel and spa. Pets can stay as long as a month. He says customer care is important because he wants to make sure the pets are all cared for at Lucky’s Pet Resort and Day Spa. He talked about a business plan, which is a way of planning a successful business.

            We talked about how to advertise for a new business. He says that he did a huge grand opening for his business. It got a lot of media. We talked about the two differences of advertisement, which are earned media and paid media. Earned media is publicity that is not paid for. Paid media is publicity that is paid for. A lot of businesses try to use plenty of earned media.

He showed us some of his commercials and explained how he made a good advertisement. He says that when a business runs a commercial, the content does not matter as much as the company logo being noticeable. He told us the challenges of running a business are human resources, customer care, and administrative. He told us what ideas made his business successful. They are customer loyalty, animal safety, and role in the community. He taught us a lot of fascinating and important information on how to run a successful business like his.

SOAR 2012 - Koby Ellick Blogs!

SOAR (8th Entrepreneurship and Leadership) began yesterday with a presentation by Dr. Mark Hyman, a Greensboro family dentist.  Dr. Hyman's three children are BSDS alumni. He is a member of the Board of Governors and coached basketball at B'nai Shalom for over nine years.  Koby Ellick is today's eighth grade blogger. Attached are his notes!

Dental with Dr. Hyman

• What it takes to have a profession- there is a whole background
• He went to Grimsley
• When you become a dentist you can become a dentist in many places-army, gov.,
• He says it is very important to reserve a domain name on the internet and to have ads and what not.
• There is a beauty of being your own boss – you make your own hours and you make your own wages
• The quality of your life is dependent on your nutrition.
• Using modern technology like the snap on smile, or the precision attachment dentures helps the elderly live a longer and happier lifestyle.
• Instead of using metal or gold in fillings today, they use a plastic liquid that is just inserted and they quickly solidified.
• A career in the healthcare field is a ton of fun, but also owning your own practice requires you to be a businessman at the same time
• It has been said in business that you can sell to anyone, but a repeated seller makes the profit.
• Your patients don’t care how much you know till they know how much you care --Dr. Hyman
• Three magic words: Success leaves clues.
• Carly- Talk to people, physicians, lawyers, go to courses, listen to audio books about everyday situations to help understand a business
• You have to talk to the best and positive people
• There is a book on Dale Carnegie called how to win friends and influence people and a bunch of other positive books.
• Discretionary parts of the healthcare are going to thrive.
• Role models are huge
• No life without passion

Noah Kaplan Blogs..."Learning about Law"

In the first minutes of the lesson Steve Friedland, our special guest, told us to imagine that we were all lawyers. He gave us some situations of crimes. He told us that he used to be a prosecutor. He then told us about a man that video taped his speedometer, put it on YouTube, was then caught and the tape was used against him as evidence. he then told us what a crime was. He said that in some cases killing somebody is not a crime. He then told us that a tort is. He told us that we would be in a " trial." He then gave us an example and we started the trial. In the beginning of the trail we learned words such as "battery" and "assault."

We were taught about the people that take part of the trial, such as the witness, the prosecutors, and the defendant. You then need to swear in that you will tell the truth. The prosecutor then asks a lot of questions, and shows evidence to the witness. The defense council also asks questions to re-exam, and try to help the witness to try to the defendant. The judge then makes sure that everything is in order. The prosecutor also gets a chance to cross examine the situation. The defendant was then called to the stand. He got quite tripped up and made a lot of mistakes. The victim did not agree with the defendant whatsoever. The eighth grade learned a lot about the court room. It was a very interesting experience for all of them, and a very fun scenario, to act out.

Noah Kaplan, BSDS '11

Caffeine and Alcohol - Not for Our Leaders!

Dr. Tannenbaum began today's session with a pre-test to determine what the eighth graders knew about caffeine.



How many people drank a soda this week? Four students answered "yes." We learned that Coca Cola was invented by a pharmacist and originally contained a little cocaine - thus the name. It turns out that this area of the country consumes more sodas than other.



Two potential beneficial health effects of caffeine: Energizing, more alert, less drowsy, increases adrenaline (impact on athletics and performance?)

Two potential dangerous side effects: Stimulants go up and down, makes you more alert and nerves work faster; it also elevates mood. Increases heart rate and basal metabolic rate. This can give you palpitations, arrhythmia, urination. It makes you urinate more frequently and increase your stomach acid.

Most to least caffeine: Some caffeinated drinks have more than others. Some drinks, such as Monster, Spike Shooter, Red Bull and Redline, have an extremely high amount of caffeine.



Guarana, a plant from Brazil, has 2.5x the amount of caffeine as coffee. This appears in energy drinks, sometimes with other stimulants.

Side effect of mixing alcohol and caffeine:



Caffeine is used by 90% of the world population. The recommended maximum for 5th-6th graders is 50 mg. a day. Sources include coffee, tea, sodas, chocolate, medicines.



Caffeine dependency is a problem. It causes anxiety, nervousness, insomnia and other side effects. Decaffeinated coffee is achieved through various methods, including water, ethyl acetate, CO2 and Methyl Chloride.



Caffeinated alcohol drinks, such as Four Loco, has high caffeine and alcohol + to 6 beers plus 5 colas. Blood alcohol reaches two times the national intoxication standard and alcohol poisoning, nausea, vomiting and cardiac arrhythmia may result.



Environment and genetic predisposition contribute to addiction.



Dr. Tannenbaum reviewed his pre-test at the end to make sure students understood the points he made in his presentation. The kids looked at the cans to see what was sold. At the end of the session, students pondered situations they might encounter in high school and how to deal with them for themselves and their friends. Thanks to Dr. T. for a very informative session!

Jewish Leadership

Marilyn Chandler, Executive Director of the Greensboro Jewish Federation, was today's SOAR speaker. "What does it mean to be a leader?" was her opening question to eighth grade students, followed by definitions of Jewish leadership to be discussed in "chevruta" - with a partner. First, students shared their definitions of leadership:

Sergey: To guide people by making rational decisions on what to do

Celia: To be strong and passionate

Jordan: To have innovative ideas that are beneficial to people

Sydney: To be brave and courageous (to take risks and not be afraid)

Marilyn summarized: "Someone who guides people to make decisions that are sometimes risky, requiring bravery and courage and possibly fighting against the mainstream - someone who can influence others."

The class generated a list of Jewish leaders: Moses, Golda Meir, Lou Reid, Fran Drescher, my mom, Herzl, my parents, teachers, head of school, Ben Gurion, and rabbis. Personal connections and guidance as well as bravery were the main reasons students made their choices.

The Hebrew root nun-hey-gimmel is the "shoresh" for "minhag" - custom, or practice - and "manheeg," which means leader. Leadership, said Marilyn, is the way we behave - what we do in a particular role.

Next, students worked on characteristics that describe a Jewish leader:

Celia: Someone who is active in the Jewish community, someone who attends services, helps to make decisions, serves on different boards, volunteers for different things

Liz: Someone who is pro-Israel, who does fundraisers and goes to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee - a lobby group)

Jordan: Add Jewish values and philosophy to our general definition of leadership.

Marilyn talked about being Jewishly literate and knowledgeable, in order to operate as a leader in a Jewish context. Finding a mentor to learn about active Jewish leadership is a good idea, she said. Liz suggested that studying Torah would be a good idea. "Constant learning is critical for Jewish leadership," concurred Marilyn. She asked the students to consider the relationship of money to Jewish leadership. As an example, she cited the duffel bags that Greensboro Jewish community sends every year to the Moldova Jewish community.

Next, students studied the difference between lay leaders and professional leaders. Lay leaders are volunteers and professionals are paid. Both make an impact on the community. Do they add value in different ways to an organization? Liz offered that lay leaders added value by being part of the decision making on boards. Sydney said volunteers add value by their choice to volunteer, showing care for the organization. Both the lay and professional leaders have passion for their work, said Marilyn.

Marilyn differentiated between lay and professional leaders. Lay/volunteers are usually board members, committee members and professionals are "staff." Boards are responsible for making policy; the professional informs the board and implements policy decisions. Board members are also ambassadors to the community after a decision is made. Several examples were discussed in order to help students understand the different roles of board members and professionals.

The class put together a list of Jewish professionals: youth leaders, rabbis, teachers, Hillel directors, camp directors, cantors bar mitzvah tutors, shlichim.

As the time flew by, Marilyn touched on a number of other topics connected to Jewish leadership.
Students learned the difference between "for profit," "not-for-profit" and NGO organizations.

Marilyn also explained the role of the GJF in taking care of Jewish communities in the Diaspora and in Israel. She also discussed mitzvot such as bikur cholim that shape Jewish leadership roles. "Kol Yisrael Areyvim Zeh lazeh" - community responsibility - and tikkun olam is a key mitzvah shaping the work of the federation.

To sum up the session, the eighth grade supplied their ideas for a B'nai Shalom mission:

Celia: To make better Jews who can make better decisions

Zippy: Make Jewish leaders of tomorrow

Jordan: Create open minds

To learn about Judaism and secular studies.

Each student completed the sentence, "Continuing my Jewish journey I will:

• learn
• will be part of Jewish youth groups
• will go to Temple and read Torah
• always learn something new about Judaism
• will be a role model to others
• will help others and think about Jewish values
• will be a Jewish leader
• will help others
• will go to services and try to help the Jewish community
• set an example.