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everyone. My name is Tom Zinnen and
welcome to the special edition
here at the new Wisconsin oInstitutes for Discovery.ab
Wednesday Nite at the Lab is a
here on campus every Wednesday public science series we offer
It's sponsored by the Biotech Center, UW Extension Cooperative
Extension, the Wisconsin Alumni Association and Wisconsin Public
Television. And on behalf of all those
folks, welcome here to Wisconsin
Tonight we have three speakers. IDr. Laura Heisler is the
director of the programming here
Research Foundation which is one for the Wisconsin Alumni
building. Her role includes developing and
coordinating programs for the Town Center and the embedded
teaching labs here at the Wisconsin Institutes for
Discovery.
helping plan and coordinate Lnumerous aspects of thein
Wisconsin Institutes for
2006. She brings more than two decades
of biotech industry,
research experience to the intellectual property and
engagement, business creation of platforms for
collaboration here at this new acceleration and academic
Dr. Susan Millar is the director facility.
for the Morgridge Institute for Research and of the educationa
research development group for
Discovery. the Wisconsin Institute for
and senior scientist in the UW Dr. Millar is an anthropologist
and is a national leader in the evaluation of science education
reform. She's leading a team in the
development of online interactive computer games and
other resources designed to help
core science and engineering young learners and adults learn
disciplines. concepts in biomedical
the outreach experiences for Dr. Rupa Shevde is director of
Research. She is also a senior, excuse me,
she is also a senior scientist
and outreach at the WiCell and the director of education
UW-Madison honorary associate fellow in biochemistry here in
the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Rupa is expanding her role to lead the development and
operation of scientific learning
the general public here at the programs directed at youth and
Research. We will also have another
special visitor, and I think
introduce that special visitor, but why don't I ask you to join
me in welcoming Dr. Laura Heisler to the lectern here for
Wednesday Nite at the Lab.
Laura Heisler: Thanks, Tom. And I would actually offer, and
thank you all for coming, I would actually offer that an
equally significant day in
was the day that Tom Zinnen came science outreach at Wisconsin
Nite at the Lab. to campus and started Wednesday
for including an absolutely... So I really want to thank Tom
Letting us be a part of that [APPLAUSE]
have our very first Wednesday grnight be in this series.s
It's really exciting to us and
for. everything we would have hoped
about the Town Center probably a So I actually have given a talk
and a half. hundrThis is my first slide year
presentation in the Town Center so I'm very excited about that.
And in honor of that, I have
as I was putting things together actually very few slides because
have to show them what these I thought, you know, I don't
them. And it's just absolutely a huget
revelation and it's really
So to help me get started, exciting.
this visitor who is going to though, I really want to invite
possible here probably at a level that you're not used to
thinking about with science engagement.
So I'd like to invite Buckingham U Badger to be a part
of how we begin to explore what we can do at the Town Center.
So, Bucky, if you could join me up here.
[APPLAUSE]
Bucky and I were talking I don't think Bucky needs a mic.
Bucky needs a mic. yesterday but I don't think
need a mic? Am I right, No.ky, you don't
Bucky doesn't need a mic. So we've been getting to know
each other as part of putting this whole thing together.
We've been talking a little and I've been asking around about
Bucky and I've heard a couple things.
One is that I heard that Bucky
Am I right? You like to go for hikes.
You like flowers. Am I right?
And I have heard that you have a
I'm going to just guess. favorite flower.
I talked to a few people but I hope I got this right because
Is this your favorite flower, this is Bucky? fresh.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE] Yeah, I thought so.
[APPLAUSE] Would you like these?
roses for a lot of reasons, Nobut I think some things thatut
Bucky doesn't know and I think
going to be able to explore here, and I'm sorry these roses
are a little sad, is that actually roses, all roses are
descended from the kinds of plants that you can find in the
garden just over here.
garden, and so instead of just So we call this our Mesozoic
an environment that was warm and putting green plants to create
winter, the organizers of the building got together with the
botany department and the horticulture department and
curated the country's only
a Mesozoic era or dinosaur era permanent indoor installation of
So it's not just green plants, garden.
just green plants. it is green plants but it's not
it's a learning tool, it's an It's aexploration tool.g tool;
And to bring this tool to life
we call our discovery niches. So we have a lot of different,
or three different discovery
talk about them. niches in the building, and I'll
you go over there and some of you can see it from here, it's
this red touchscreen very inviting shape that you want to
go and touch it.
tour through time and understand And you'll be able to take a
significant, why this moment in time when these plants or the
ancestors of these plants were
fact all flowering plants, and around is significant, how in
vegetation that we rely on to produce, well I shouldn't say
all vegetation to produce food, but all crops, all flowering
plants actually have their
that you see in the Mesozoic origins from the kinds of plants
You'll be able to make garden.
was contemporary with those cplants and in the building and
we're going to have rotating
in that niche. displays from the geology museum
sort of what's going on in the So that gives you a sample of
Now the other thing that's Town Center.
about you, Bucky, is that you like the Badgers and you like to
go to football games. I heard it, I think it's true.
[LAUGHTER]
this whole facility, and this is So one of the visions for
and we just had a session a reat 5:00 o'clock tonightaid,
where we were hearing from a
Boston. sHe said even in Boston wheren
there are more universities per capita per square mile than
anywhere on the planet, they
One of the founding visions of don't have anything like this.
particular, who gave very Jogenerously to make this in
possible, was that on football
that people would be as excited about coming here, you can come,
so people would be as excited to
science as they would be to go come here and learn about
Now that's a tall order but I think we can do it.
And one of the programs I'll
some of the things that are in mention, and I have a listing of
called Huddles with Faculty. progress right now, is something
partnership with the Alumni Association where on football
Saturdays, and you might or might not like this, we're going
to have a faculty member from UW, we're going to have a
faculty member from the other team's university and they're
going to explore some science together.
And so we'll see where that can go but it's something the Alumni
Association has done before.
We're going to have Babcock We couldn'tice cream.tter place.
We're right here
So that's another thing that you by Camp Randall.
So thanks so much for coming. And I think I'm going to move on
with my presentation and I know you have some push-ups to do and
you have a big trip coming. [LAUGHTER]
So thanks so much, Bucky. Thank you so much for coming.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you. Sorry about the rose.
All right so I'm just going to Awesome.
through some of the goals in a spend a few minutes now going
what we intend to do here, little bit more formal way of
look for in the near term. what's going on and what you can
standing here some of the And I'll things.u as we're
So I know the public TV folks are sad that the doors are open
because there's a lot of traffic
amazing to be able to show you but I insisted because it's so
Okay, so in this building, which the features.
couple of years now, there are you've watched come online for a
partners. And it's important to have a
sense of what's going on here.
might eat lunch, right above you You come in the Town Center, you
created research institutes that actually are two brand new newly
really the major impetus for really form the backbone and
building. So I have superimposed over
their relative locations. So on the western side we have
what we call the Wisconsin
The whole building is the Wisconsin Institutes, plural.
And there's a public institute
called the Wisconsin Institute that's part of the university
And it's made up of researchers from all different schools and
colleges across campus, cheek by jowl.
There are computer scientists and engineers and biologists,
and that's never been done in a deliberate way on this campus
before. So that's one of the huge
departures. So everyone who works at the
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery is a faculty member
from UW.
graduate students and postdocs. There are five research leaders
from very different areas, an entire spectrum of research
ranging from nursing to biomedical engineering and
pretty much everything in between, and they're going to
each be recruiting a cadre of three new scientists from,
deliberately, obligatorily, beyond UW to bring new talent to
the university. So that's what going on on the
public Wisconsin Institute for
On the eastern half of the Discovery side right above us.
the private nonprofit Morgridge resInstitute for Research. is
And this is also a new research institute that was created to
come into this building and to
investigation, and that institute actually is made up of
people who are not necessarily
employment with the University associated in terms of their
So it's a private institute kind of like Salk, or Scripps,
or Broad, or Whitehead. So very much integrated with and
collaborating with, and here to accelerate the missions of the
university but administratively distinct.
So it's very much private and very much has the ability to do
things in a nimble way that may complement what the university
can do. So the idea is sort of a spark
plug for a large public research
So that's the vision behind the creation of the research
enterprise upstairs.
though is this space that we're in right now: the Town Center.
So from the beginning it's been a part of the vision to have a
full floor dedicated to what
people in. we're doing right now: bringing
we make sure that we bring in, And then the challenge is how do
back, how do we get people to engage and how do we get this to
be a very fruitful, productive, meaningful part, integrated
part, of the life of this whole enterprise?
And that's really what you're a part of today and that's what
we're starting. Our first day on the job was
last Friday and this will be a
So that's what we're doing. So the goal of the Town Center,
the mission, is to create a place to gather, share ideas and
celebrate science, creativity and discovery.
We chose these words really carefully because we wanted to
make sure that we deliberately
to the arts, to education, to social science, to humanitiesn
and that we really have a very
cross-pollination across all meaningful interdisciplinary
all walks of the community, walks oall ages.versity,
When we talk about who is this
everybody. for, it's actually for
a demographic or a member of the I can't think of an age group or
to bring into this mix somehow. And so that's the challenge that
we have going forward is what are the program structures?
How do we bring people in?
a cup of coffee? How does it go beyond having
of the thinking is and where a And so that's been where a lot
Let's see, I actually skipped lot of the a slide.rently is.
Shoot.
do, actually I think the reason I skipped a slide is I'm so used
to showing the elements in a
So I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the elements
that we pulled together to make this possible.
And some of the founding vision came from early in the
construction process. George Austin and his team,
project manager George Austin,
called the Project for Public Spaces based in New York.m
Their work really focuses on
and malls and hospitals, spaces hwhere people come together ands
where you really want to create a sense of destination.
And their philosophy around that, and this was very powerful
for the design team, their
the power of 10. philosophy is something called
comes, they can find The idea that anytime anybody
So on one day maybe it's have a cup of coffee, meet a friend and
touch a world class microscope. Or come for a lecture and bring
your kids to a science play or a
running water. science show and stare at the
But those are the ideas that And those are three.
because on any given day there are multiple things
things. yoAnd the more you find moret
dimension to your experience, the more you're going to come
back. So that's the underlying
philosophy. A lot of that is given
expression in the building
So you can see that there are multiple entrances, there's a
lot of daylight, there's the
then there's sort of the garden that we talked about and
maybe you could call them bells and whistles, and I'm actually
hearing the chimes right now so it's right on cue, that will
attract you and bring you back
interactive and sort of and thmultifaceted.to make
So I'll start by talking about
concept. the discovery niches, this
which you can see behind me. I mentioned the Mesozoic niche,
table that you can interact It's a touchwith.n technology
And over time we'll be building more and more layers of
connectivity in there so that you can research one of the
plants that you see in front of you, learn what that plant is,
when it was around. Then over time you'll be able to
go and see what that plant's
And then who on campus is doing research on some of those
descendants and how are some of those descendants in the salad
that you'll find at the restaurant today.
So over time we're going to be
so that it becomes an building exploration.e content
When you're in the Mesozoic niche, those chimes that you
heard are actually a part of our
So any state construction comes with a percentage of the
funding, the construction budget
And so we worked with an artist who came up with an interactive
sound and light display that
the vertical walls that are in triggers sounds and lights on
a mathematical sequence that the Fibonacci sequence, which is
of sunflowers, things like that. recurs in nature in the spirals
have and probably our biggest, Other discovery niches that we
is this 3-D niche. most exciting and most unusual
collaboration with Rock Mackie, who is one of the researchers at
Morgridge, and Kevin Eliceiri,
facility on campus called LOCI. And working with them as well as
with companies that provide the highest caliber microscopes like
Nikon and a local company called
able to create this station that Prairie Technologies, we were
that will actually be a research has a high resolution microscope
So campus researchers are going to bring their specimens here,
and they're going to interact with each other right here in
the midst of this public space. We're going to change out that
science on a regular basis, monthly, weekly, so that you
begin to have scientist of the
sense of the whole spectrum of week and you begin to get a
And hopefully we'll, and we scalready have probably abouts.
50 scientists lined up waiting
So it's going to be different to bevery time you come. in.
We also have what we call a macrostation or a low resolution
microscope. And that's where you can put in
that rose or a penny or a tooth or something that you find.
And that will be a really revelatory moment for kids.
And in the panel that we had at 5:00 o'clock, we had an
elementary school teacher talk
when a school kid puts something about the magic that happens
understands that there's a world under a microscope and
And just all the things that get that they never even thought of.
So all of that kind of stuff is tgoing to happen at the 3-D.
niche.
working 3-D printer. In addition, there's actually a
objects. So a printer that prints 3-D
paper, it prints 3-D objects. IThat's actually a workingn
instrument from a rapid prototyping facility that's part
of Morgridge Institute. So machine will be working, it
will be producing things that are part of research and part of
technology development, and it's
And then our last niche is that rigmedia wall across the way.e.
That is an interactive and you
experience it. probably had a chance to
it. It was really fun to watch him
make it all ripple. Is it's an interactive,
gesturally activated, basically media portal that will be a
place for us to have art
and further and further information about what's going
on on campus, links to the
So that begins to give you a community, things like that.
science into this space. sense of how we bring the
science into the community is Awhat we call our embeddedng
teaching labs.
four, in the northeast corner, So up on floors two, three and
on University Avenue, you see andthis beautiful glass space by
that's cantilevered out a little
It's a really unusual feature. bit over the street.
They're as sophisticated and These are state of the art labs.
research labs themselves, but they are dedicated to teaching.
So researchers that work at one of the institutes can't look
over there and say, oh, there's some empty benches.
I'm just going to put my
Actually there's a separate keyed entry and they won't be
able to do it.
teaching. So thesAnd teaching who?cated to
Teaching K-12 kids, obviously,
some of the schools, with DPI aand the School of Education on
thinking about after-school activities or even pilot classes
that kids can come in and get some experience in a lab setting
like that.
Teacher education a big focus and a big part of the
partnership that we've been exploring with the School of
Education.
especially in this time of Faculty and students often need,
opportunity to retool or a take a boot camp or a SWAT class
really on some new technology.
they can come do that. And this will be a place where
is going to talk in a minute, Aand she leads a lot of classese
on stem cell technology and allows researchers from across
campus, and frankly across the
learn new techniques, and those couspaces are ideal for that.nd
And then a final category that
something new for campus, is can use those labs, and this is
new technologies. They'll be able to bring their
beta test or their emerging technologies up here.
We'll be able to be sort of a central locus for campus
researchers from all over to
experiments, try out the come and bring their
companies so that instrument instruments, interact with the
really responsive to the needs development can actually be
So these are some of the things that are in the Town Center.
And what I want to do before I
Rupa Shevde and Susan Millar, we're going to talk more about
the research and institutional
and of the Wisconsin Institute outreach elements of Morgridge
you a short video that gives you for Discovery, I want to show
Town Center holds and what we're a sense of the promise that the
of members of the community and exccontinuing to build on. lot
I understand because we have the
takes a minute to key up this lvideo so just bear with me.y
And actually while that's happening this gives me a
perfect opportunity to talk about some of the things that
are coming down the pike. So already we are working on a
bunch of different frameworks to
bring people in. continue this discussion and
starting after the new year and the new semester, open houses
for teachers to come in and brain storm.
And we had an impromptu one at
I'm actually hoping tonight after the presentations if we
have some time we can brain storm a little bit about things
that you'd like to see or take
We are working with partners your questions.
the Aldo Leopold Nature Center like the Children's Museum and
Science Alliance and Tom Zinnen ato create a regular Saturday
science program.
beginning probably once a month in the beginning and then we'llt
ramp up and we'll figure out
what's the good audience, what sort of what's the good time,
space. kinds of activities work in this
All of these pilots and I hope So we're going to be piloting.
figure out how to do all of this everyone gives us a moment to
doing is brand new. We want to explore some kind of
Town Center nights or sort of first Fridays kind of program
that would appeal to maybe not
maybe singles, maybe life-long so much kids, maybe couples,
Maybe it's an art and science leardiscussion.e in.
Maybe it's an interaction with
discussion with the researcher. I talked about the Huddles with
Faculty.
called the Gilson Lectures which WARF has a long-standing program
acceleration. We're taking that to all kinds
of new levels.
program where there's an And then finally a science cafe
with a researcher or not informal kind of a give and take
faculty member or an advanced necessscholar on campus.but a
So these are some things that are the works right now that you
can look forward to over the
We also have some events on the calendar that are very much
up your alley.
long-standing event, is going to Darwin Days, which is a
to celebrate the Mesozoic be here thigarden.and is going
And the fossils in the floor, I don't know if you went on a tour
but there are fossils in the
It's my favorite thing. Every floor tile has fossils.
It's absolutely amazing.
be here. Science Expeditions is going to
sort of a marquee event, a We're working with campus on
Big Read program, if you know that book The Immortal Life of
Henrietta Lacks and an
that. iWe are partnering with Union
South and the Nelson Institute
Research Center on Earth Day on and the GApril 20th.Bioenergy
And then very exciting working
others on a first ever Wisconsin with Tom Zinnen and a lot of
the lenses to exploring science: Science Festival that brings all
discussions, lectures, hands-on populaactivities., book
So this will be something that
fall. And with that, I'm going to turn
to the video. Is it ready to go?
It's about a four minute video. And then I'm going to turn it
over to Rupa Shevde to talk about the outreach experiences
at the Morgridge Institute.
You grow bacteria in these
I feel it's really important plates.
researchers actually doing for children to be able to see
That's why teacher Troy Dassler made a special effort to
take his after-school science club on this unique field trip
to UW Madison.
for teachers and for children to >> Right now it's very difficult
the university and to research. f>> It's a big campus and it'so
intimidating. >> I want you to stay together
so no one gets lost.
accessible. >> We think with the Town Center
we're going to help shrink this campus a little bit and bring
people together.
the world of cutting-edge >>science by creating a publicen
space at the heart of a science building.
It's extraordinary that people would devote an entire
floor of a science building to a
We have a chance to welcome the entire community.
How you doing buddy?
relations for UW Madison, Dawn >> As director of community
I want to make sure that all Crim knows all about welcoming.
that we're building that the communities in Madison know
This was all about bringing people together to do new things
that are greater than the sum of
The idea is to intermingle their parts.
and scientists, technology and students and faculty, families
People are going to see that art.
Tandem Press recently created an exhibit called Tiny: Art From
Microscopes at UW Madison.
incredible. People really loved this whole
idea of science and art.
humanities component and that will just be the beginning.
Different parts of campus can come out and also showcase the
work that they're doing.
location and see a variety of things that are happening on
campus. >> It will open the minds of all
visitors. >> And collaborations between
the business community and
the outcome. scientists will hopefully serve
need to get the products out in >> To rethe marketplace.es, you
We've got great science and technology here.
We want people that understand
to sit down, talk with a how to put businesses together
look for a practical application researcher and then they can
And at the core of it all is that improves our lives.
real science. >> It's not a science museum.h
We're looking to find a way to
here accessible to people so make the science that's going on
understand it, have input into that they can think about it,
We're bringing K-12 kids in, it.
this. and To come into a lab, usebout
cutting-edge equipment. >> I think to inspire a child,
you need to give them experience
It's not a fake lab set up. It's a real lab where real
research goes on. >> You may be in a situation
that some youngster will come and say, so why do you really
care about this?
about something that a And it will force you to think
Researchers here, children colleague will never ask you.
together there. here, That's powerful.y come
For children to imagine themselves as scientists, they
have to see scientists as real
Scientists are cool, they're people.
people from other countries. young, they're women, they're
anything, right? >> And right now you can't see
dream about being something >> I want amazing.be able to
The first critical ingredient is inspiration.
There's lots of different ways, I think, to be inspired to think
about science.
labs look like some sterile place that few are allowed tog
go, that they're just part of this community where research is
over in one end and education the another end and having an
ice cream in another end, I think that's great, I think it
gives the right impression. >> I guess it's been a little
frustrating as a teacher not
need, and I think it's been wonderful that the university is
stepping up to the plate. And it's not just going to be
for people that work at the university.
It's for the middle schooler, it's for the high schooler and
it's for my kids, my kids in my classroom, it's for them.
This Town Center is in the
Wisconsin Idea which has brought spirit of a long history of the
people into contact with each other in ways that simply don't
occur at every university.
their car past the Town Center, >> Whekids are dreaming.ing in
They're looking at the place
there. wondering what's going on in
don't have to wonder. We can open the doors and let
them in.
All right, so that gives you
can go, and what I want to do a now is take you virtuallyis
upstairs in spirit to talk to Rupa Shevde who heads up the
outreach experiences for the
Research. And I mentioned before, I think
that from the beginning education has been a primary
driver in configuring the whole enterprise, all three parts of
it, but none more so than the Morgridge Institute because John
and Tashia Morgridge have absolutely been insistent and
passionate that the science that
into the hands of all ages. gAnd that's where Rupa is int
charge and is building great
So I'm going to turn it over to things Rupa.search.
[APPLAUSE]
Laura. >> Rupa Shevde: Thank you,
coming here and learning about And thank you for all of you
going to be doing. the exciting things that we are
so excited to embark on this new And just like Laura said, we are
discovery niches, to be using the embedded teaching labs.
My team is called Morgridge Outreach Experiences and one of
the unique things about my team is all of us are scientists
so we do research.
And it has allowed us to We work in the lab every day.
dilute it and deliver it to simpvarious age groups.t not
And our mission is that we're committed to inspiring
curiosity, imparting knowledge
the minds of tomorrow's and encouscientists.tivity in
Our goal of the program is to really make the science that is
going to take place here at the Town Center in the discovery
niches as well as in the
accessible to everybody, to be embedded teaching labs to the
students of all the ages. So what we try to do is we make
students of all ages, especially
that science is very relevant to the younger students, understand
contributions to real life real life and science makes
then they understand that if because if they understand that,
they will be making a difference they want to be a part of that,
that's a very powerful thing. inWe want to always created
excitement about science. We also try very hard to instill
confidence in students because
students. weWe work with the underservedof
population. We work with rural Wisconsin
kids. And over years we have realized
that they think that campus is
to. notThey have the fear of thecome
unknown.
survive. They don't think they can
very friendly people, and instead of just trying to say,
well I will go to a community college, and I have nothing
against community college, but
away from where I live, I will instead of going just two blocks
Madison or I will go to a university on the west coast or
east coast. So by allowing us to expose them
to science, they're also
impart that message to them that allowing us to, hopefully,
and scientists are just regular nopeople, but really that wel
believe in them and that they can do whatever they set their
mind to, they can dream big and we will help them achieve their
dreams. And so we come alongside
teachers and the educators. One of the uniqueness of our
program is we don't say we're the scientists, we know the
science and here it is. We take time.
We work with the teachers.
needs are. We understand what the teachers'
would work for that particular And we develop a program that
because the teachers and the school or that particular group
the finger on the pulse of what the students need and what they
would benefit most from.
programs. We have started working, even
though this building wasn't up
programs so we started working and running, we had to start the
programs, and in the last six months we have conducted over 40
outreach events and they include
to our lab on a field trip. If a large group comes, then wee
can do simple things because
We actually go to schools. there is a lot of them.
helped us build a microscope Olympus Microscope Company
and we take the microscope to the schools because one of the
frustrations we've had is when
everybody wants to see we go and talk about stem cells,
PowerPoint picture of the ststem cells was not enough. a
And schools do not have the kinds of microscope, these are
phase contrast microscopes that are very expensive, schools do
not have the budgets. So we had to come up with an
idea. Yes we want to let the students
see the cells, but they all cannot come to our lab because
some of the schools are very
And so we decided that we will far.
lab to them. make every effort to take the
could put a plate of cells under And it was wonderful when they
cells. the microscope and look at the
trouble that we went to Anto design such a microscope.e
So we can actually take the lab experience to them.
We have career conferences. We talk to students and teachers
about career choices. We've noticed that a lot of
times students and teachers,
science teacher and there is a they think that there is a
And they say, we don't want to scientist.
we shouldn't even think about be eithescience career.therefore
So our goal is to help them understand that there are a
variety of careers between a
And so we have information on sciencedifferent careers.entist.
We connect them with people on
other career choices. caWe will be having a careersin
conference this summer. So we are trying to make sure
that they understand that there are a lot of choices.
We also participate in family science night.
We have teacher training
We have specialized courses that courses.
biotechnology sciences. We do after-school enrichment
activities. We actually do a very intense
hands-on lab activity.
camps which are two- to four-day And we do a variety of science
campus and work in the lab with camps where us.dents stay on
So they get to experience the college life, so to say, and
also experience what science
Some of the camps that we've labs look like.
information is on our website, done in the past, and all this
Generation Exhilaration Camp for is a middle school camp called
This was a camp where we brought future scientists.
Georgia, and paired them with 12 12 students from Atlanta,
here on UW campus. students from the PEOPLE Program
students. AndSo this was a our firstrved
experience with middle school,
on our website, if you get a and there is a wonderful video
We also do, this will be our chance you can see it.
science camp for rural Wisconsin fourth year of doing summer
one teacher from five different rural Wisconsin schools come tod
us for four days and learn
science and all the areas where istem cell science is done,
including engineering, neural cells, cardiomyocytes, heart
muscle cells, regenerative
We also did an enrichment program for one of the schools
on the southwest side of Chicago
And the teachers wanted the students to stay after school
for an enrichment program.
them, and as a reward for staying after school for a whole
year they got to come and spend two days in our lab.
So these are just some of the glimpses of things we do.
Now we don't do outreach just in
in virology and we will be doing stem cells, we also do outreach
for medical devices as well. outreach in the next six months
We launched the website Thison May 5th.site.
We talk about all the challenge areas.
We have a lot of teaching resources that are downloadable
in PDF formats. We have news and features.
We will soon have a place to
and teachers, and we will start cona "did you know?" series,ents
which will change every week. So there will be a catch phrase
like did you know, and then it
and teachers in the classroom wand they will be able to learns
more. One of the first ones we are
launching is hepatitis C and the
So those are works in progress. We do work very closely, as
Laura said, with a lot of programs on campus.
And these are some of the partnerships that we've had.
We work with the Stem Cell and
Outreach on campus. We work with the PEOPLE Program.
We work with Wisconsin Alumni Association to do grandparents
university where grandparents and grandkids come and learn
together. This is a very interesting
program.
Engineering, Science Alliance, We work with the School of
student organizations, as well UW Madison career services and
Education Research Challenge as Susan Millar's group which is
And I'm going to end at that. If anybody has questions or
information.
Stanley Stem Cell. This is our mascot
and cells in general to very We had to talk about stem cells
have a mascot who has become young kids, and so we decided to
years. very popular in the last few
And I'm going to end with that. So Thank you for your time.l.
[APPLAUSE]
Susan Millar: I realize it's
try to make this quick. My name is Susan Millar, and, as
Rupa just said, I'm the leader
Challenge Area. I would just like to clarify
that you'll see the logo up at
The Education Research Challenge the top there.
the Morgridge Institute for ArResearch and the Wisconsinh
Institute for Discovery.
collaborate with the Town Center And we are delighted to
What the Education Research Challenge Area does is we make
scientific discovery visible and
creating and studying digital games for learning science.
This is a very different
have thought an education aresearcher would bring to this
kind of work. In order to help you understand
why a person who, as Tom Zinnen said when he introduced us
earlier, why a person who has been studying attempts to
improve undergraduate stem
why would I be doing a research eduarea that's attempting tors,
develop games for learning
Well, because one of the things that I learned in the many
20 years that I studied these efforts is that we as a nation
through the many research efforts that are underwritten
by the National Science Foundation and other groups, we
know a great deal about how to
high quality science and math and engineering learning going.
What we're not very good at is
many, many people, and not just gethe people who are able tot
benefit from pilot programs,
from this. so that many people can benefit
do this job, I looked around and So when I had the opportunity to
young people already are is in I became aware that where our
They're playing games. games.
are playing games. And, actually, many, many adults
the go to scale problem. So that kind of solves
And then I thought through this Tquestion of well, what is it
that kids are doings and adults are doing in games.
Well, you get into the game, you
what's going on, you look at observe, you try to figure out
take action and then you do that simulated events and then you
Well guess what? cycle over and over.
problem-solving process that That is the very same
And so we can do the goes on in science.
goes on in the labs in places plike this and all over thet
campus and elsewhere, of course,
games. in the nation, right inside of
to develop games that have So what we've decided to do is
engineers, the medical topics that are proposed by the
scientists and the biologists, researchers, the computer
Wisconsin Institutes for primarily at first here in the
And as we go on, we'll be looking for game ideas from
scientists and engineers and so forth beyond this particular
area. And then what we do is we also,
in selecting the games that we
and our resources on, we're detrying to focus on areas ofon
critical social importance so that we can provide the best
public resources to address the challenges that face us in our
society and also to identify the
We also, and as those of you who most promising opportunities.
the other presentations that may have been here in some of
Discovery Institute opened, we have taken place since the
multidisciplinary approach in designing these games.
We attempt to create a
excitement of engaging game play, the stuff that keeps youre
kids playing games that you might not want them to be
playing for many, many hours
science content, ways of into the night, with valued
labs. So thus it is that our research
and development teams are including learning scientists
from the College of Education over here and elsewhere, game
designers and people who study
education researchers like how people learn in games,
computer programmers who do a lot of the work inside of thee
digital gaming. We also are incorporating people
who are experts in how people learn science, biologists,
medical researchers, computer scientists, engineers, very,
very interdisciplinary. And these people come from both
the University of Wisconsin's Wisconsin Center for Education
Research in the School of Education and others in the
School of Education, from, of course, the UW's Institute for
Discovery and of course the Morgridge Institute for
Research. So our games invite people to
play roles as scientists. For example, you might play the
role of a scientist or medical
ambiguous scientific data practitivisualizations.rpreting
We already have a prototype game
find in the east conference room called Oncology which you can
I'm going to be quiet so that you can listen to this for just
a couple of minutes.
how it is that medical This enables you to understand
practitionercells.tify cancer
For the younger people
to get this on an iPad in the audience we're hoping
Okay, so another one of our relgames, which is...
prototyped and on display upstairs, invites people to play
the role of instead of being a
virus seeking to infect and scireplicate a living cell. a
This game is called Virulent.
One of the wonderful things about this game which came out
of a discussion between our education researchers and game
designers and John Yin, who is
Discovery research biologist, is the Wisconsin Institute for
different scientists together, that this has drawn a number of
so how to make this happen.ut
I'm pleased to say that the young people who have tried
this, the parents have trouble
So our goal is to engage players getting them away from it.
to experience the fun of in these scientific worlds
of fun that drives scientists to problem-solving, the same kind
and stay late hours. come to their labs day after day
learning from factual information, there's a lot ofg
factual information in Virulent.
cells still, and I'm just beginning to figure out all the
stuff that's in there.
also the values of the Concepts, processes, skills and
know many people who come to scientific enterprise which I
care about a great deal. science lectures Wednesday night
is using our games to invite Another idea that we're pursuing
professional amateur players into what are called
These are communities where if communities.
particular type of scientific activity such as contouring
those cancerous tumors in the Oncology game, you may be
invited, on the basis of your performance because you get
leveled up in games as many of
contours or whatever the game is you know, to contribute your
highest quality optimized results that might be offered to
medical practitioners who in
use that in order to improve the turn would actually potentially
with real patients. So I'm just going to finish here
with a quick thanks to the team that built Virulent and
Oncology. Two of them, Rich Halverson
and Kurt Squire are faculty in the School of Education here
at UW-Madison and are just
understand about learning and fantasticgaming.chers and
And then you can see the
of our team, Nate Patterson, wonderful other members
Kevin Harris, Sarah Chu, Henrich Ben Shapiro, Mike Beall,
So I am realizing that the hour is late and you all have been
probably sitting here long enough.
It's pushing 8:00 o'clock.
to Laura for a little bit of I'm going to turn this back over
Thanks. [APPLAUSE]