UW-Madison Science Alliance Updater
28 June 2021
Hi Everyone,
Our next meeting is today, Monday June 28 at 10am CT by Webex. I hope to see many of you then.
We will then meet by Webex every other week through the rest of the summer: Mondays July 12 & 26 and August 9 & 23. We will resume weekly meetings in person in Room 1360 Genetics Biotech Center on Monday September 13, all at 10 am.
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On June 24 Chancellor Blank sent an email to the university community providing updates on covid procedures for the fall semester. As of August 9, “we will return to pre-pandemic guidelines for configuring campus spaces. Additional spacing to promote physical distancing will no longer be required; classrooms and other spaces will operate at full capacity.” Furthermore, face masks will not be required although the university expects unvaccinated people to wear masks when indoors.
The statement was silent on the outlook for again welcoming pre-college & youth programs on campus and in person. The general policy remains that all pre-college programs are to be offered remotely, and “remotely” means online: UW-Madison pre-college programs in general cannot be offered at sites off-campus. The current covid policies as posted on May 27 are available here.
Thanks again!
Tom Zinnen
Note: please visit https://science.wisc.edu/science-alliance/ for the Updater archive.
Notable This Week
1. During the summer, Science Alliance meets every other week by Webex at 10:00 am Mondays, including June 28. 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 includes:
- Welcome
- Updates
- Opportunities to Partner
- Other announcements or topics
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:
- The UW Now Livestream. June 29 at 7 pm. “Supply Chains, Labor, and Inflation” with Gregory DeCroix, Wisconsin School of Business; and Kim Ruhl, Economics
- Badger Talks Live: – https://www.facebook.com/UWConnects/live & https://badgertalks.wisc.edu/events/ Tuesday, July 13, Noon
“Creative Writing” with Steven Wright, Creative Writing Lecturer and Clinical Associate Professor, Law
- In Person Saturday Science Workshop at UW Space Place, 2300 S. Park St, in the lower level of the Villager. Most Saturdays at 10:00am. Check at http://www.spaceplace.wisc.edu/#satworkshops.
- Check for other events presented online and available to all at http://today.wisc.edu/events/tag/science
4. Upcoming Lineup for Wednesday Nite @ The Lab online by zoom starting at 7pm Central. WN@TL runs every Wednesday night, 50 times a year.
Register at go.wisc.edu/240r59 Schedule and descriptions at https://science.wisc.edu/wednesday-nite-at-the-lab
June 30 “Adjusting to a Changing Great-Lakes Coast” Adam Bechle, Wisconsin Sea Grant
July 7 “New Recycling Technologies to Combat Plastic Pollution” Reid Van Lehn, Chemical and Biological Engineering
July 14 “Assessing Atherosclerosis with Ultrasound: A Quantitative Approach” Catherine Steffel, Departments of Medical Physics and of Biochemistry
July 21 “Big Peace: Lessons from the Nobel Prize” Solon Simmons, George Mason University
July 28 “The Program for Advanced Cell Therapy” Ross Meyers, Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center
5. Come and Observe the Cosmos with Edgewood’s Astronomy Outreach Team at Ernest Hüpeden’s Painted Forest in Valton, WI. We will have guest speakers, activities for kids, and observe the night sky through the 20” Dobsonian Telescope. (Observing will be weather permitting.) To keep up to date with any changes due to weather conditions, and get reminders for the star parties, visit and like our Facebook Page @edgewoodastro
Star Party Dates: Talks start @ 7PM, come earlier for family activities
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Saturday, August 14, 2021
Saturday, September 18, 2021
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Link to a map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Painted+Forest/@43.5740255,-90.2738505,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x10782e9febe78b0c!8m2!3d43.5740255!4d-90.2738505
Note that you should turn left at the Painted Forest building (looks like a little white church) and proceed up the hill. The telescope will be on the right at the top of the hill.
Edgewood College follows State of Wisconsin current recommendations regarding masking and social distancing in response to COVID-19.
———————————-
Rachael Lancor, PhD
Faculty Development Coordinator
Associate Professor of Physics
Division of Physical, Computational, and Mathematical Sciences
Edgewood College
Office: SON 203A
Phone: 608-663-6997 (o); 608-215-3493 (cell)
WebEx: https://edgewood.webex.com/meet/rlancor
Star Party Dates: Talks start @ 7PM, come earlier for family activities
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Saturday, August 14, 2021
Saturday, September 18, 2021
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Link to a map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Painted+Forest/@43.5740255,-90.2738505,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x10782e9febe78b0c!8m2!3d43.5740255!4d-90.2738505
Note that you should turn left at the Painted Forest building (looks like a little white church) and proceed up the hill. The telescope will be on the right at the top of the hill.
Edgewood College follows State of Wisconsin current recommendations regarding masking and social distancing in response to COVID-19.
———————————-
Rachael Lancor, PhD
Faculty Development Coordinator
Associate Professor of Physics
Division of Physical, Computational, and Mathematical Sciences
Edgewood College
Office: SON 203A
Phone: 608-663-6997 (o); 608-215-3493 (cell)
WebEx: https://edgewood.webex.com/meet/rlancor
6. Due this week on June 30: Wonders of Physics 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/.
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. The UW Geology Museum to Reopen Today, June 28
8. Schedule of Events for Madison FUN Partners
9. Aerospace Jam: A Drone-based & Sensor Competition for Wisconsin High Schools for Spring 2022. Applications due August 2.
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 are now open through August 2. 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
Kristin Michalski, NBCT
East Troy High School
Science Team Leader
Milwaukee Area Physics Share (MAPS) Coordinator
10. A $45 Million Gift Speeds a New Extension Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
I believe this Extension Center will likely put the U of I in the vanguard of land-grant universities in welcoming the public to a state’s public land-grant research university.
Another example of a Cooperative-Extension-dedicated public building is the Nationwide & Ohio State Farm Bureau 4-H Center at Ohio State in Columbus.
11. A Note from Michelle Harris on Biocore Outreach Ambassadors.
I would like to share what the Biocore Outreach Ambassadors have been up to. This includes the resumption of our face-to-face Wisconsin Heights Summer Science Camp (our 13th time offering camp), which happened just a few weeks ago (June 7-11) at Wisconsin Heights Middle School. We had 24 kids ages 9-14 attend camp.
This year for the first time, our Science Camp was incorporated into the Wisconsin Heights Summer School Program. It was an experiment, and I think it was a very successful one. If Science Alliance partners would like to hear more, I’m happy to fill them in at one of your meetings this summer. In the meantime, please share this article published recently by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Mallory Conlon from the UW-Madison Quantum Science Outreach group led one of three research sections. Mallory invited a reporter to come to camp to learn more about what her campers were doing. The other two research sections were Stream Ecology (led by Biocore Lab Manager Seth McGee) and Genetics & Development (led by my camp co-director, Dr. Daniel Parrell). I’ve attached a few pictures from those two research sections here.
Enjoy the beautiful day!
Michelle
Michelle A. Harris, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Distinguished Faculty Associate
Biology Core Curriculum
University of Wisconsin-Madison
307 Noland Hall, 250 North Mills Street
Madison, WI 53706-1708
Phone: (608) 262-7363
email: maharris@wisc.edu
http://www.biocore.wisc.edu
This year for the first time, our Science Camp was incorporated into the Wisconsin Heights Summer School Program. It was an experiment, and I think it was a very successful one. If Science Alliance partners would like to hear more, I’m happy to fill them in at one of your meetings this summer. In the meantime, please share this article published recently by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Mallory Conlon from the UW-Madison Quantum Science Outreach group led one of three research sections. Mallory invited a reporter to come to camp to learn more about what her campers were doing. The other two research sections were Stream Ecology (led by Biocore Lab Manager Seth McGee) and Genetics & Development (led by my camp co-director, Dr. Daniel Parrell). I’ve attached a few pictures from those two research sections here.
Enjoy the beautiful day!
Michelle
Michelle A. Harris, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Distinguished Faculty Associate
Biology Core Curriculum
University of Wisconsin-Madison
307 Noland Hall, 250 North Mills Street
Madison, WI 53706-1708
Phone: (608) 262-7363
email: maharris@wisc.edu
http://www.biocore.wisc.edu