Been to our website yet? Go find activity ideas there and more: http://www.ubclts.com ______________________________________________________ UBC Let's Talk Science Partnership Program E-Newsletter Volume 12, Issue 2 October 2008 ______________________________________________________ In this issue: Orientation/training sessions Teacher Partnerships Volunteers Needed - Lord Byng Secondary Career Conference (Oct 15, 16) - SUB Volunteer Fair (Oct 21) - National Science and Technology Week (Oct 24) - Teacher Professional Developments sessions (Oct 24) - Rural visit: Kelowna/Vernon/Penticton (Oct 29 – Nov 1) - Genome BC programs (now – Spring 2009) - Science Creative Writing Symposia (year-round) - Terry Talks (Oct 6 application deadline) - sanofi-aventis BioTalent Challenge (Oct 8 application deadline) Recently completed events - Science Day at Southpointe Academy - Britannia Homework Club - DNA Music Volunteers of the Month LTS in the Media - Graduate Student Handbook - First Nation Newsletter - GSS Graduate Magazine - Faces of Scholarship - Canadian Family Magazine Science Joke of the Month ____________________________________________________ == Orientation/training sessions == The two training sessions we just held were well-attended and immensely successful! For those who signed on with us recently or could not come to the previous training sessions, the next one will happen Thursday October 16th from 5:30-7pm on campus (location TBA). Food and refreshments will be served, so please RSVP! == Teacher Partnerships == The teacher partnerships are underway and some volunteers have already contacted their teacher partners! If you would like to work with a teacher partner but have yet to receive the Excel file of teacher listings, please let us know and we will send the list your way! == Volunteers Needed == ++ Lord Byng Secondary Career Conference (Oct 15, 16) On October 15 and 16, Lord Byng Secondary is holding a Career Planning Conference for Grade 9s and 10s, and they are looking for grad students to speak about their research. The sessions are 1-hour long and the following timeslots are available: October 15 at 10:30, 12:30, 1:45; and October 16 at 9:00, 10:30, 12:30. Tea/coffee and light refreshments will be provided. If you are interested please email Lisa Shopland-Black (lshoplandblack@telus.net), and include our email (lts@ubclts.com) in the CC so we know you're going. Thanks! ++ SUB Volunteer Fair (Oct 21) It's time for the annual fall Local Volunteer Opportunities Fair at UBC, hosted by AMS Connect. Join us for this opportunity to network with UBC students and recruit them into LTS. Our booth will be on October 21st from 10am-2pm in the Student Union Building (SUB). Please email us if you want to help us (wo)man the booth! ++ National Science and Technology Week (Oct 24) To celebrate this year's National Science and Technology Week, we will be hosting a booth with hands-on activities on October 24th at the Richmond Brighouse Library. Last year, this event was extremely well attended so this year we will be co-hosting booths with the National Research Council Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation/ Department of Materials Engineering, and Genome BC. We are looking for 4-5 volunteers to help out, so please email us (lts@ubclts.com) if you are interested! ++ Teacher Professional Developments sessions (Oct 24) 1) The UBC Faculty of Applied Science is hosting its annual teacher Professional Development Day (called Discover-E!), on October 24. They are seeking ~10 volunteers to help with the Department tours from 9:45 am to 12:15 pm. You would not be required to present at all – just lead the teachers on pre-determined tours. Please contact Bhavani Veylan bveylan@apsc.ubc.ca and CC us to arrange the day, if you are interested. 2) Also on October 24, the Michael Smith Laboratory will have a teacher ProD on October 24. Professional UBC student speakers are welcome. Please email us if you are interested in helping out! Visit http://www.bioteach.ubc.ca/teacher-conference-2008/ for more info. ++ Rural visit: Kelowna/Vernon/Penticton (Oct 29 – Nov 1) Ultra-fun way to get involved with LTS-PP! We are looking for 3 volunteers to accompany our Trip Leader to Kelowna-Penticton-Vernon. Please see the trip information below and contact Lisa at lts.rsvp@gmail.com to sign up! - Oct 29-Nov 1 to do in-class visits and to participate at a Science World Community Science Celebration. **It may be possible to go for Oct29-30 OR Oct 31st – Nov1 instead of the whole trip** - Activities are all set to go, and training will be provided for all activities. The entire trip (travel arrangements, food/accommodations) will be paid for by LTS/Genome BC! ++ Genome BC programs (now – Spring 2009) 1) DNA Music Mentors Cathy Anderson is leading a program at Point Grey Secondary to create music from DNA sequences! Goal of this project is to have the students perform their 'DNA music' at a concert in the spring. We have had an overwhelming response from the school and now we need some help! Email Cathy (canderson@genomebc.ca) for more info. 2) Mystery-writing opportunity We are looking for volunteers to write mysteries for website visitors to solve online, and potentially be used for in-class workshops. The idea is to present website readers with some clues, preliminary evidence, and they will solve the mystery by piecing together the information. The last clue will be DNA evidence (e.g.: banding patterns on a gel). We have an outline to follow, and can provide examples. The best four entries will receive authorship and $100! Also, if you are interested in writing a blurb to explain how DNA evidence is used to identify people (e.g.: for investigations) this is another writing option. Please email Cathy, canderson@genomebc.ca, for both opportunities. ++ Science Creative Writing Symposia (year-round) Based on a template created by 16 awesome UBC arts and sci-engineering, we will run a total of 64 full day workshops for high schools at the Michael Smith Labs in partnership with UBC Bioteach and the UBC Creative Writing Program. Let us know if you are interested in joining. Previous projects are available on our youtube site: www.youtube.com/user/UBCLTScom ++ Terry Talks (Oct 6 application deadline) Imagine the University's most fascinating and engaging students coming together for a day to give the talk of their lives, share ideas, and discuss their visions for UBC and the world. Terry Talks (http://terry.ubc.ca/terrytalks; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5NEB4l5gpw) takes place on Saturday, November 22, 2008. This event is modeled after the popular TED conference and will provide UBC students with a platform from which to communicate their passions and desires with their peers. Apply now to participate in Terry talks - deadline for application is October 6th – and please notify us via email after you have applied, thanks! ++ sanofi-aventis BioTalent Challenge (Oct 8 application deadline) Sponsored by LifeSciences British Columbia, the sanofi-aventis BioTalent Challenge (SABC) is a nation-wide highschool competition brings together creative young Canadians in solving a problem using biotechnology. As part of the venture, they are looking for mentors to aid the students in this competition. What's needed is commitment from your lab for one student group (usually 1 -2 students) by October 8th, and making a very short presentation on your research interests at SABC's Pitch Day on October 16th. If interested, email Jennifer Siegfried (jsiegfried@lifesciencesbc.ca), Regional Coordinator for the program. Remember to CC us too! ____________________________________________________ == Recently Completed Activities == ++ Science Day at Southpointe Academy Thanks to Kun Huang, Layali Rashid, Lisa Mansson, and Paul Mori for making the day a great success! Kun led a dry ice/pop-Mentors demo, Layali and Lisa helped students extract DNA out of kiwis, and Paul had a blast (no pun intended) with helping the students fire off bottle rockets! ++ Britannia Homework Club Paul Mori is our lone LTSer on this venture, but he's doing a great job providing in-class homework/curricular help to Britannia Secondary students. This is Paul's second year on this homework club, so thanks Paul for all your time and dedication! ++ DNA Music Derek van Pel helped kick-off the DNA Music Mentors program by assisting Point Grey Secondary students navigate GenBank (a gargantuan online gene database) to find genes from which they will be making music from! (We still need volunteers for this program, if this sounds fun to you please scroll up and find the segment on "DNA Music Mentors" for more info!) ____________________________________________________ == Volunteers of the Month == Congratulations to Heidrun Spohr and Chelsea Woo for being our Volunteers of the Month! Heidrun gave us a huge hand in organizing our office/activity supplies, while Chelsea did an exceptional job in getting LTS involved in Celebrate Learning Week (which is happening right now; more in next newsletter!). As always, our VOTM receives a $20 UBC bookstore giftcard. Enjoy Heidrun and Chelsea! ____________________________________________________ == LTS in the Media == ++ Article on the LTS-PP CEDAR Summer Program Scanned PDF here All UBC first Nation Longhouse Publications can be accessed here by Ryanne James and Tim Michel | UBC First Nation Longhouse News | Vol. 14 | Issue 1 | 2008 | pp.34-35 ++ LTS-PP features in the UBC First Nation Newsletter Scanned PDF here All UBC first Nation Longhouse Publications can be accessed here by Sam Lee and Lars | UBC First Nation Longhouse News | Vol. 14 | Issue 1 | 2008 | pp.39 ++ Cover and inside features in the UBC International Student Handbook See the LTS portion scanned here . The full UBC International Student Handbook 2008/2009 can be found online here . by UBC International | UBC International Student Handbook 2008/2009 | Sep 2008 ++ Feature on the LTS-PP All Science Challenge in the all-new Graduate Magazine: Take a look at the scanned pdf here . by Lars | Graduate Magazine | No. 1 | 2008 | pp.26 ++ Coordinators and volunteers (Dave Kent, Shannon Woronn, Mike Christie) and UBC outreach celebrity Dave Ng interviewed on UBC reports: Click here for the PDF version Click here for the online version by Meg Walker | UBC Reports | Sep. 4, 2008 | pp.1&3 ++ Theresa Liao featured on the cover of "UBC Faces of Scholarships 2007" Click here for the PDF version by UBC | Faces of Scholarships 2007 | Sep 2008 | Cover _____________________________________________________ == Science Joke of the Month == Never lend a geologist money. They consider a million years ago to be recent. ___________________________________________________ Lars Rose, Sam Lee, and Irene Yu UBC Let's Talk Science Partnership Program University of British Columbia 2357B-1874 East Mall Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 Phone: (604) 822-9166 Fax: (604) 822-5945 Email: lts@ubclts.com Web: http://www.ubclts.com -- Irene Yu, Lars Rose, Sam Lee Coordinators, UBC Let's Talk Science Partnership Program University of British Columbia 2357B-1874 East Mall (Brock Hall Annex) Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 Phone: (604) 822-9166 Fax: (604) 822-5945 Email: LTS (at) ubclts.com Web: http://www.ubclts.com Utube: www.youtube.com/user/UBCLTScom