Johns Hopkins Gazette: September 19, 1994


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Newsbriefs
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Envirojam Festival at Homewood to celebrate the environment

The Maryland Department of the Environment will hold
Envirojam, a festival to celebrate the environment, on
Garland Field at the Homewood campus. The event will run from
6 until 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, and 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 24, with interactive environmental exhibits,
Maryland crafts and foods, and Maryland wine-tasting on
Saturday only. Children's activities will include face
painting, the Chesapeake Bay Wildlife Touch Tank, and
exhibits from two zoos and the Maryland Science Center.
Festival admission is free; for more information, call
631-4192.
    On Friday night, the T&T Steel Band will perform from 6
until 9 p.m. on the festival site. On Saturday at 8 p.m., the
acoustic band Disappear Fear will perform in Shriver Hall to
benefit Students for Environmental Action on the Homewood
campus. Tickets to Disappear Fear are $8 for Hopkins
affiliates, and $10 for the general public. Tickets will be
available at the door, or in advance at the Union Desk in
Levering Hall. For information, call 516-8197.


'Little League' elbow a problem for big league hopefuls

Little League pitchers are at greater risk than professionals
for elbow injuries because the young big league hopefuls
overtrain when they throw, say researchers at the School of
Medicine and the Bennett Institute of Sports Medicine. The
painful stress to the elbow among 7- to 15-year-olds has been
labeled Little League elbow after the amateur baseball
association for youngsters. 
    The syndrome, which is marked by pain during or after
pitching that is not relieved by resting the joint, could
reach epidemic proportions as more players enter the leagues,
according to researcher Edward McFarland, director of sports
medicine at Hopkins and a co-author of the study. "Parents
should realize that elbow pain in children is abnormal," he
said. "If a child develops elbow pain, the first thing he or
she should do is stop throwing, but usually they don't have
to stop batting. The problem can be solved if Little League
pitchers don't throw too often or too hard."
    The Hopkins-Bennett team used a video camera to study
the pitching movements of 10 professional and 10 Little
League pitchers at four periods during the pitch: foot
contact on the ground during the pitch, rotation of the
shoulder during delivery, release of the ball and the
follow-through after the ball leaves the pitcher's hand. They
found that both professional and Little League hurlers turn
their elbows toward the body during the motions of pitching,
especially when cocking their arms. But during the
follow-through period, after the ball leaves the hand,
professionals more quickly relax their elbows. 
    The study, presented at the convention of the American
Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine in June, won the 3M
Award for research in the basic sciences.


Liberal Arts program expanded at School of Continuing Studies

The School of Continuing Studies has expanded its noncredit,
liberal arts Odyssey Program to three Hopkins off-campus
centers, providing part-time, adult learners opportunities to
take courses that are closer to home or work. Odyssey
lectures are now scheduled at the downtown Baltimore,
Montgomery and Columbia centers and the Homewood campus.
    The SCS also joins forces this year with the Smithsonian
Campus on the Mall, the Embassy of Ireland and several local
cultural institutions to provide unique programming for
Odyssey. This is the first time SCS has undertaken such an
effort with Washington, D.C. institutions, as well as the
Baltimore Museum of Art, the Baltimore Opera, the Krieger
Mind/Brain Institute and the Walters Art Gallery.
    "SCS and its partners can offer a wider variety of
high-quality programs," said Tom Cain, director of the
Odyssey Program. "By expanding to off-campus centers, we can
extend these programs to the community."
    Courses developed include Meet the Directors: A Dialogue
on Modern Art; The Irish, at Home and Abroad; Mind and Brain:
The Inner Frontier; and Gaugin and Post-Impression. For more
information and a complete list of Odyssey courses, call
516-4842.

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