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Welcome to Your Biotechnology Field Trip at the BTC Institute!

Posted on by Karin Borgh

BTCI provides our students an opportunity that they could never get in the classroom.
—Jim Geoffrey, Biology Teacher, Kaukauna High School

Kaukauna High School students arrive at the BTC for a biotechnology fieldtrip.
Kaukauna High School students arrive at the BTC for a biotechnology fieldtrip.

Your bus has arrived and parked in the circular driveway at the front of the BioPharmaceutical Technology Center on the Promega Corporation campus in Fitchburg, WI. Your BTC Institute hosts – and instructors – for your field trip are Barbara Bielec (K-12 Program Director) and Ryan Olson (Biotechnology Instructor). They’ll greet you in the Atrium and direct you to a conference room where you can leave coats and backpacks, and then to the lab you’ll be working in during your visit.

Here’s a taste of what happened next for students from Random Lake High School and Wonewoc High School on December 3rd, and from Kaukauna High School on December 4th.

Continue reading “Welcome to Your Biotechnology Field Trip at the BTC Institute!”

Support Young Scientists: Mentors Needed for Dane County Biotechnology Youth Apprentices

Posted on by Karin Borgh

I moved back to Madison from the east coast last September and I have to say it’s been really great being back in the Midwest… the Youth Apprenticeship Program opened doors to opportunities for me that may never have existed if I had not participated in the program. It established the foundation of my entire resume throughout college, which was crucial to the genetic counseling application process. — Kristin Gunderson, Genetic Counselor, Carbone Cancer Center (Kristin worked in the lab of Dr. Deane Mosher, UW School of Medicine Public Health, under the mentorship of Dr. Bianca Tomasini-Johannson and is a 2006 high school graduate.)

Yang Chen, 2015 graduate, at her worksite in the lab of Dr. Xuehua Zhong, UW-Madison Department of Genetics; mentor: Dean Sanders. Yang is currently a freshman at UW-Madison, majoring in microbiology.
Yang Chen, 2015 graduate, at her worksite in the lab of Dr. Xuehua Zhong, UW-Madison Department of Genetics; mentor: Dean Sanders. Yang is currently a freshman at UW-Madison, majoring in microbiology.

OK, we are not going to be shy about it: We need any assistance our readers may be able to provide to help us find additional mentors for high school juniors and seniors who are enrolled in the Dane County Youth Apprenticeship Program in Biotechnology.

The good news is that there are 32 students who have elected to participate in the program, given their strong interests in the life sciences and in particular, biotechnology. They represent 14 public high schools in the area. They (1) complete all necessary classes for graduation; (2) attend a hour-hour intensive laboratory course at the BTC Institute from 4:30–8:30pm on Wednesdays; and, (3) work in laboratory settings throughout the community.  (For details, please visit: http://www.btci.org/k12/yap/yap.html) Continue reading “Support Young Scientists: Mentors Needed for Dane County Biotechnology Youth Apprentices”

Compelling Science Communication

Posted on by Michele Arduengo
An archive of 35mm slides. There's probably one in a dark corner of your lab.
An archive of 35mm slides. There’s probably one in a dark corner of your lab.

Back in the dark ages, when I was in graduate school, compelling science communication meant traveling to a conference to give a presentation from 35mm slides. We always made sure that our slide carousels were in our carry-on baggage. That carousel was more important than our underwear or our toothbrush, no trusting it to baggage claim.

Things have improved markedly, I’m happy to say. Now everything has to go in the carry-on baggage, because most PIs don’t have the financial room in their grants to pay for checked bag fees. Fortunately, we can store copies of our presentations on several different clouds and bring a thumb drive or two on board the plane, tucked safely away in the underwear in the duffle bag that doesn’t quite fit in the overhead compartment. No need to choose between unwieldy slide carousels and clothes.

But are PowerPoint® and Prezi® presentations the best way to communicate your science? When you hit your audience with slide after slide of bullets are you killing their interest? When you show that slide of three years worth of work and say “Don’t worry about trying to read this…” are you killing your presentation?

Is there a better more compelling way to communicate science? Accurately. So that people care. So that people understand.

FameLab International certainly thinks so. Begun in 2005 by the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK, FameLab seeks to promote better science communication through sponsorship of a competition in which scientists and engineers have three short minutes to communicate their science with enthusiasm and accuracy–armed “with only their wits and a few props that they can carry on stage.” The competition will have run its course in 2021, but viewing the videos is a great way to learn how to give great presentaiton.

It is truly a global competition with over 5,000 young scientists and engineers from 25 countries around the world competing for the grand prize each year. The Grand Final Competition is held in June each year, but you can take a sneak peak at some of the entrants on the FameLab Facebook page now.

Here’s a winning taste from the 2014 competition. There is more on the FameLab YouTube channel.