What good is laughter? Bob Keiper to explain May 10 at Village Books

Can humor motivate employees, students and loved ones to succeed? Yes. Can it cure illness? Well ... it doesn’t hurt. Research shows that laughter can be used to enhance people’s health and memory by stimulating the immune system and both sides of the brain. And a sense of humor has been found to be an excellent antidote to apprehension and panic.

Bob Keiper, an associate professor of secondary education at Woodring College of Education, will discuss these topics in his presentation "Laughter: Motivation & Medicine" at noon Tuesday, May 10, at Village Books in Bellingham. This presentations is part of the WWU Connections brown-bag series at the bookstore, located at 1200 11th St. in Bellingham's Fairhaven district.

It has been demonstrated that when used in a classroom or training session, laughter builds trust, relieves test anxiety, makes learning more fun and helps students remember information longer. Using personal anecdotes from his long teaching career and from his experience with three life-threatening illnesses, Keiper will show attendees how laughter can be both motivational and medicinal.

Keiper supervises student teachers and is the instructor for “The Dynamics of Teaching,” a required course at Woodring College of Education. He has more than 20 years’ public school teaching experience and has been at Western since 1990. He has presented his “Teacher As Actor” workshops nationwide.

This event is co-presented by the Western Washington University Libraries.