Science Outreach on Campus
Sharing Science With Wisconsin

UW-Madison Science Alliance Updater – May 24, 2021

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UW-Madison Science Alliance #Updater
 
24 May 2021  
 
Hi Everyone,
 
In normal years, the weeks between UW-Madison graduation and the end of the K12 school year were a programmatic paradox:  while the rest of campus idled in an idyll, those of us who host field trips were in our frenziest time of year.  The campus field trip office  orchestrated multi-site round-robin tours with destinations such as the Geology Museum and the Physics Museum, with Discovery and DC Smith Greenhouse, with Botany Gardens and Babcock Hall Dairy Store, with the Chazen and Camp Randall, among others.  
 
Kids and parents and teachers would rotate on the hour to the next site and trek across the street or halfway across campus.  Field trips upended the normal cadence of a school day, especially the astonishingly routine idea that for some students lunch started as early as 10:45.  Keeping people snacked up and hydrated was a point of attention.  
 
After the apex in the first week of June came the deserted second week—a time to recover, restock and re-set for the coming wave of summertime groups who piped their verve into our otherwise somnolent quarter of campus.   
 
We’ll be resuming live programs in person on campus with public groups this summer, but it’ll be another season before we will once again welcome yellow busloads of our future to this place that helps to fuel it.  It will be good to have the kids back.
Thanks again!
 
Tom Zinnen
Note: please visit https://science.wisc.edu/science-alliance/ for the Updater archive.
 
Notable This Week
 
1.  Science Alliance meets weekly by Webex at 10:00 am Mondays, including May 24. Email Liz Jesse at ejesse2@wisc.edu or Tom Zinnen at zinnen@biotech.wisc.edu to receive the link. The meeting notes are archived on https://science.wisc.edu/science-alliance/.   
 
The draft agenda for Monday, May 24 at 10am includes:
 
 
2.  Now in Archive:   Please invite your colleagues in research & outreach to check out the YouTube archives of presentations from  2021 UW Science Expeditions Open House on April 9, 10 and 11.   
3.  Programming Events coming this week and soon:

4.  Upcoming Lineup for Wednesday Nite @ The Lab online by zoom starting at 7pm Central. 

Register at go.wisc.edu/240r59    Schedule and descriptions at https://science.wisc.edu/wednesday-nite-at-the-lab

May 26  “Life in the Late Triassic in Wyoming: A Timely Story of Puzzle Pieces”  Dave Lovelace, Geology Museum & Department of  Geoscience  
June 2  “Ways Glaciers Move”  Luke Zoet, Department of Geoscience
June 9 “Rural Medical Training: The Stats, The Need, The Future”  Laura McDowell, Obstetrics & Gynecology
June 16 “Six Ways to Reduce Your Risks For Alzheimer’s Disease” Nathaniel Chin, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
5.   Josh Knackert is helping spread the word about a new survey underway of science communicators and outreachers by Parmvir Bahia (https://www.linkedin.com/in/parmvir-k-bahia/). Here’s the survey link:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JFDKL7R


Why are we doing this?

• The STEM Engagement field and profession (specialists including but definitely not limited to: full-time, part-time or any-time science communicator; officer for outreach organization; events producer; STEM festival coordinator; science education toolbox creator; science librarian; or anyone else who helps connect non-experts with scientific topics and expertise) is continuing to evolve. We want to do our part to help the world better understand this work.
• This survey is being conducted by the members of the LiveSci Collective, a growing community of practice for STEM engagement professionals. We want to better understand 1) who is out there, as best as possible, in the STEM engagement professional landscape; 2) your professional and personal goals, in the context of being a part of a community of practice; and to this end, 3) collect data that will be shared back (anonymously) to the STEM engagement professional community regarding current compensation rates for this work.
6.  Wonders of Physics Goes Online for 2021
 
After 37 years of physics presentations to the public, The University of Wisconsin – Madison is this year sponsoring a physics video competition for teachers and students. We invite you to submit a 2-minute video demonstrating a physics concept. Awards will be given for the best videos, and winners will be posted on our website and edited into a longer video to be shown on public television. We encourage submissions from students and teams, but for legal reasons, anyone under the age of 18 must work under the supervision of a parent, guardian, or teacher who will submit the video on their behalf. This could be a fun educational project for families or for physics classes during this period of social distancing. The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2021. You can find more information at https://wonders.physics.wisc.edu/contest/.

7.  Coming up later this month on University Place of PBS Wisconsin (and also online at pbswisconsin.org/uplace):

 
5/24 at 9 pm                    Violence And Warfare In Humanity’s Past
(and 8:00 am)                  Nam Kim, Department of Anthropology, UW-Madison            
 
These programs may also be viewed on or before the broadcast date at  pbswisconsin.org/uplace .
  

8.  Schedule of Events for Madison FUN Partners
9.  June 7-11:  Virtual Public Hearing on Improving Enforcement of Title IX.  
10.  Aerospace Jam:  A Drone-based & Sensor Competition for Wisconsin High Schools for Spring 2022

Aerospace Jam is a competition for high school students across Wisconsin to use drones on a NASA-inspired simulated moon mission. The program is a partnership between the NASA Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium and the Milwaukee Bucks. Our goal is to recruit students from diverse backgrounds and cultivate a welcoming and inclusive event that will foster meaningful interactions among teammates and teams.  See the flyer attached for more information.

Applications to compete in the Aerospace Jam event will be open in late May 2021. The event is open to all public and private high schools in Wisconsin.  To learn more, visit: https://www.carrollu.edu/aerospacejam and http://wsst.wildapricot.org/resources/AerospaceJam_SaveTheDate.pdf