UMBC is a host for the 2012 Global Game Jam which takes place this coming weekend, January 27-29. This is a 48 hour event, where teams from around the world work to develop a complete game over one weekend. The first year had 54 sites in 23 countries. The second year had 124 sites in 34 countries. Last year was up to 169 sites. The UMBC site is open to participants at all skill levels and affiliations. Thanks to generous sponsorship by Next Century, there's no registration fee and food will be provided all weekend. However, you DO need to sign up in advance, just log into globalgamejam.org and select UMBC as your site.

The jam will start at 3:00pm on Friday, January 27th in the UMBC GAIM lab, room 005 in the ECS building with presentations by Microsoft about developing for the Windows Phone.  There will be some spiffy giveaways at the end of the weekend for teams that choose make a Windows Phone game.  The main event starts at 5:00pm with video keynote talks by Will Wright, Baiyon, Gonzalo Frasca, Brenda Garno Brathwaite and John Romero.  After these presentations, the theme for this year’s games will be announced, and participants will brainstorm game ideas and form into teams. For the rest of the weekend, each team will work to build a brand new computer game around the theme. At 3:00pm on Sunday, the final games must be uploaded and from 3-5, the group will review what was accomplished over the weekend.

For more information on the jam and how to participate, see the UMBC GAIM site.

Classes at universities in Maryland begin in a few days. Over the past few weeks, there have been questions concerning what can be done to adequately prepare for a new semester of graduate courses.  Part of the answer is in the question itself:  one must “prepare” for the new semester before classes begin.  There are several things that can be done to prepare.  Here are a few suggestions:

1) Remind yourself that you really want this degree.  Think about your career goals. Review job opportunities in the field of your choice so that you’ll know what kinds of credentials you’re working toward.

2) Get your house in order.  Move close to campus, plan your travel times and routes, think about how life at home will run while you’re in school. If you have a family, make a plan for quality time, pick-up times for children, and other items like sharing duties with other family members or friends. If you work while attending school, plan ahead so that you have solid times for work responsibilities, travel between work and school, time in class, and study time.

 
3)  Have a plan for strong performance.  For example, you can re-read the Guaranteed 4.0 book (also available on Amazon) which discusses re-writing notes, talking with professors, and reading chapters before class. During the PROMISE Summer Success Institute, we provided a free copy of this book to all new students. If you have another system, review that system and plan to follow the tips.  Identify what you did correctly last semester and where you might have fallen short according to that plan. Once you identify gaps are, address how you will make changes for the upcoming semester.

 
4) Prepare all of your materials in advance.   Get copies of all of the syllabi. Even if the syllabi online are from previous semesters, they will give you an idea of the load and expectations for the course.  Get all of your books. These days, with Amazon, you can get almost any book without having to wait for materials to be available in the bookstores.

5) Make outlines and timelines. Include a timeline for your classes and study times.  In your timeline, include time for professors’ office hours. Think about the times that you can make yourself available for study groups.  Some courses may require projects and you may need to be flexible. Think, in advance, about your flexible times. Begin an outline for each course now, before the start of class.  Make a list of the concepts that you need to learn by the end of the course, and begin to familiarize yourself with some of the terms and concepts.

This is a short list, and you may have other things that you like to do to prepare. We don’t want students to go into class with a notebook and simply wait for the professor to provide all of the information. That method may have worked throughout undergraduate studies, but in graduate school, one must be a proactive learner. In graduate school, the professor will introduce the concept and will present the material, but you will be expected to analyze and synthesize information outside of the classroom. Employ whatever method works for you. Prepare, be productive, and be consistent throughout the semester.  Good luck and have a great year!

__________________________________________________________

The text content of this post was compiled and written by the staff of PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP

and may not be copied without referencing the PROMISE organization, as “PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP”.

PROMISE AGEP Online Information by PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Classes at universities in Maryland begin in a few days. Over the past few weeks, there have been questions concerning what can be done to adequately prepare for a new semester of graduate courses.  Part of the answer is in the question itself:  one must “prepare” for the new semester before classes begin.  There are several things that can be done to prepare.  Here are a few suggestions:

1) Remind yourself that you really want this degree.  Think about your career goals. Review job opportunities in the field of your choice so that you’ll know what kinds of credentials you’re working toward.

2) Get your house in order.  Move close to campus, plan your travel times and routes, think about how life at home will run while you’re in school. If you have a family, make a plan for quality time, pick-up times for children, and other items like sharing duties with other family members or friends. If you work while attending school, plan ahead so that you have solid times for work responsibilities, travel between work and school, time in class, and study time.

 
3)  Have a plan for strong performance.  For example, you can re-read the Guaranteed 4.0 book (also available on Amazon) which discusses re-writing notes, talking with professors, and reading chapters before class. During the PROMISE Summer Success Institute, we provided a free copy of this book to all new students. If you have another system, review that system and plan to follow the tips.  Identify what you did correctly last semester and where you might have fallen short according to that plan. Once you identify gaps are, address how you will make changes for the upcoming semester.

 
4) Prepare all of your materials in advance.   Get copies of all of the syllabi. Even if the syllabi online are from previous semesters, they will give you an idea of the load and expectations for the course.  Get all of your books. These days, with Amazon, you can get almost any book without having to wait for materials to be available in the bookstores.

5) Make outlines and timelines. Include a timeline for your classes and study times.  In your timeline, include time for professors’ office hours. Think about the times that you can make yourself available for study groups.  Some courses may require projects and you may need to be flexible. Think, in advance, about your flexible times. Begin an outline for each course now, before the start of class.  Make a list of the concepts that you need to learn by the end of the course, and begin to familiarize yourself with some of the terms and concepts.

This is a short list, and you may have other things that you like to do to prepare. We don’t want students to go into class with a notebook and simply wait for the professor to provide all of the information. That method may have worked throughout undergraduate studies, but in graduate school, one must be a proactive learner. In graduate school, the professor will introduce the concept and will present the material, but you will be expected to analyze and synthesize information outside of the classroom. Employ whatever method works for you. Prepare, be productive, and be consistent throughout the semester.  Good luck and have a great year!

__________________________________________________________

The text content of this post was compiled and written by the staff of PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP

and may not be copied without referencing the PROMISE organization, as “PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP”.

PROMISE AGEP Online Information by PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

This is the second appearance in the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series by Darlene Seto, a graduate student at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. In this two-part diary entry, Seto talks about ways that gender can play a role for a student of sustainability. This first part looks at gender as a concern in environment-related research. The second installment, to be published next week, will look at gender as a concern for students in their academic careers. This blog post was originally posted on the Getting to GREENR blog, which supports GREENR, an interdisciplinary web portal for environmental and sustainability studies. AASHE welcomes questions and invites feedback on each Sustainability Student Diary entry. Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

As a female student interested in all kinds of social justice and sustainability issues, I wanted to take the time here to talk about the particular ways in which gender can play a role for a student of sustainability. Given that this could be a pretty big subject area, I’ve decided to split this up into two broad topics: looking at gender as a concern in environment-related research (which I shall discuss here), and as a concern for students in their academic careers (which I shall take on in my next post).

Gender is of course, a fluid and socially constructed term, although for the purposes of the current post, I’m going to focus on the general female-male dichotomy. Gender, to start with, is a particular locus for inequality and social difference in environmental politics and studies. Eco-feminism is one large strand of research that combines gender and sustainability studies. One of the arguments in eco-feminism examines how women become associated with “natural” or even “primitive” scenes, whereas men become associated with “culture” and, accordingly, as progressive and dominant over nature, and thereby, women. The argument, in practice, is not as dualistic as this may sound. Social inequality exists for both men and women. Nonetheless, the argument and connection stand: women, as a marginalized group, are disproportionately burdened as victims of environmental devastation, and the history of environmental degradation and the oppression of women are linked at numerous intersections.

Furthermore, the way we associate gender with different physical or emotional traits, or forms and types of labor, often results in differing outcomes between men and women in a variety of ways. There are often both formal and informal mechanisms which operate to enforce asymmetrical gender access to resources. In North America, we might think of management positions or pay equity, while in other circumstances, it might be in terms of land ownership, water rights, or food access. Identifying how perceptions of gender can operate in particular situations - and may result in different outcomes for persons of different genders - is an important part of sustainability.

For example, Susan Hanson is one author who has written about how gender and sustainability intersect. In her 2010 article, “Gender and Mobility: New Approaches for Informing Sustainability,” she examines how gender differences in mobility (given that women travel shorter distances, use the car less and public transport more) can affect sustainable transportation decisions.

To better illustrate this, I thought I might give a brief sketch of a couple individuals in my department who are particularly interested in the intersection of these fields:

Danika Kleiber is a fellow Resource Management and Environment Studies (RMES) student at UBC. A self described feminist biologist, she received her Bachelor of Science from Tufts University, where she undertook a double major in biology and women’s studies, and a Master of Science from the Department of Forestry at UBC. Currently, Danika is doing her field work in the Philippines, where she is looking at issues of gender in marine-protected areas. More specifically, she is examining how gender roles influence what is considered "fishing," and how overlooking certain marine resource extraction methods (predominantly used by women and children, but also increasingly by men as well) can undermine effective and equable marine management and conservation.

Leila Harris is a professor of mine with dual appointments in IRES and the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies at UBC. Much of her work focuses on environmental (particularly water) issues as they intersect with gender or ethnicity, or connections to environmental justice, difference and inequality more generally. For example, part of Leila’s research has been focused in Turkey, where she examined how the changing water resource system along the Tigris Euphrates basin affected resource access, management and knowledge between men and women particularly, but also with respect to the Kurdish- and Arabic-speaking minority populations in the region.

To provide one example, the onset of access to irrigation water has changed not only the primary crop grown - from wheat, barley and other pulses to cotton - but also shifted divisions of labor between men and women. Where women were once the primary caretakers of wheat, as well as the herders of sheep and goats and animal products for household use, their roles have shifted with the tremendous labor needs for the cotton harvest. So while women now participate extensively in the cotton harvest, men have taken on new roles in cotton marketing and sales due to the crop shift, resulting in new narratives about the contributions of men and women to the household. With the more indirect contributions of women now to household needs, there is now the suggestion that women no longer work and just "sit" while men are providing for household needs, since they engage in market transactions and bring home cash from the sale of cotton.

The research of these two women are excellent examples of how environment and gender studies co-exist and complement each other, and why considering issues of gender is important for all students of environment or sustainability issues. It’s an issue that I hope gets further taken up, both in our studies and in our everyday life as students and professors, given that gender inequality is still a problem in academia, as elsewhere. Stay tuned for more!

The BMORE PROUD Planning Team needs your help! As some of you may know, UMBC is hosting the 3rd Annual BMORE PROUD LGBTQIA Leadership Summit on Saturday, February 18, 2012.

We are currently looking for breakout session presenters/co-presenters (students, staff, faculty, & organizations/individuals that support the LGBTQIA community), organizations for the resource fair, and attendants.

If you know of anyone who would be interested in presenting at the conference or participating in any way, please direct them to our website, http://bmoreproud.org/, where they can fill out a registration form. We are especially in need of breakout session presenters and organizers for the resource fair.

Registration is also open for those interested in attending the conference (it is free for UMBC students, staff, and faculty).

If you have any questions or need any clarification, please do not hesitate to contact me at oesiekp1@umbc.edu or 410-455-3463.

The University of Michigan Biophysics Summer Research for Undergraduates Program (REU) provides selected undergraduate students from around the United States an opportunity to conduct ten weeks of summer research with some of the country's leading biophysicists. The program is conducted in concert with the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program and is supported by funds from the National Science Foundation. REU students have the opportunity to participate in a biophysics laboratory utilizing various techniques such as x-ray crystallography and NMR.

The Biophysics Program at the University of Michigan is one of very few standalone biophysics programs in the US and has a long tradition of interdisciplinary research. Since Biophysics is extremely intellectually diverse, our aim is not only to provide research experience in a subfield of the discipline, but to also provide an overview of state-of-the-art research in the field, and the experimental and theoretical/computational methods and techniques that are commonly used.

DEADLINE:  February 24, 2012