UMass Amherst Life Science Graduate Research Conference

Tomorrow (Friday 2 December) is the UMass Amherst Graduate Research Conference. Stop by the Life Science Laboratory building, Room S330, to hear the latest findings of UMass's graduate students. Or listen on the web live.
EVENT FLYER
Thanks to the LSGRC for organizing this event!

Bumble bee disease on the radio

Fernald Club Blog-founder Evan Palmer-Young was interviewed by a local radio host, Chris Fournier, for a program called Unscripted, which will be played Monday at 8pm on WXOJ-LP 103.3 FM NORTHAMPTON, MA. Topics include the difference between bumble bees and honey bees, Evan's journeys in science, and current and future research themes.

If you want to listen via the live web stream, or your phone -- go Here. Thanks to Chris for doing the interview during daylight hours, and to UMass Journalism Professor Nicholas McBride for facilitating. 

edit: Link to recording is here

Evolution 2016 Austin TX

A big week for the Fernald Club graduate students at the Evolution Conference in Austin TX. Daniel Peterson, Laura Doubleday, and blogger Evan Palmer-Young presented pieces of their dissertation research to an international audience.

Get all the latest entomology talks on the Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLbk92wFKK32tphMS0saI7Q/videos

Here are the highlights from my talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKJ3Efd8LIc

HERE

Relive the glory and follow your colleague through a journey punctuated by

1) Discovering the clicker does not work (0:00)

2) Discovering that there is a microphone, that does work, and makes one's voice audible (1:20)

3) Discovering that the audio system in the conference room is sufficient to alert the bomb squad (4:48)

4) Defining "juggernaut" (12:40)

Thanks to my colleagues for their help getting the talk into shape! Sorry for the choppy delivery. I recorded three talks myself directly before, and missed my zen visualization and warm-up, as well as familiarization with the key A/V equipment.

Scientists in the Classroom: Photos

Thanks to Alessandra D'Angelo for hosting me (Evan) in her class, Katie DeMars for signing up for the program, and the Scientists in the Classroom program for inspiring this visit.
Here are some photos:

 Trying out a new phenotype...

Scramble competition!

 Are slides worth beans?

 Competition for resources!

 Maximizing fitness...

Scientists in the Classroom, Part II

Last week, Outreach returned to the Morgan Elementary School in Holyoke, MA. This time, I (blog-author Evan Palmer-Young) got to teach a lesson to 4 classes of 6th and 8th graders. The theme of the lecture was, "Evolution by natural selection". I used an activity where students initially varied in phenotypes (cutlery utensils), and had differential reproductive success based on their ability to gather the available food source (beans).

Here are the slides.

Which phenotype do you think was most fit?

That's good medicine!

On Monday 28 March, Fernald Club's own Scott Schneider defends a thesis on meat-framing ants! (scott's dept page)
Get all the details by going to the defense!

Monday 3/28
 9:30 am
French Hall 209 

Congrats Dr. Scott! Stop by with your stethoscope to give the Fernald Club a periodic checkup!

New outreach program: Scientists in the Classroom

A new outreach program, Scientists in the Classroom, aims to bring science to underprivileged schools. The main program goals are to improve knowledge and understanding of climate change and evolution.
Fernald Club blogger and blog-steward Evan Palmer-Young is matched with Morgan Community School in Holyoke, MA. Watch the blog for updates on 2 class visits this semester.
Learn more about Scientists in the Classroom here:
http://ncse.com/ScientistsInTheClassroom
The program is run by the National Center for Science Education.