The Biology Department Graduate Student Association (BDGSA) is a collection of graduate students affiliated with the Biology Department at Penn State.  We hail from multiple graduate programs including Biology, Ecology, Genetics, IBIOS, Neuroscience, Physiology, and Plant Physiology.  The BDGSA invites speakers to give seminars, helps with new student recruitment, represents graduate students at departmental meetings, and organizes social events for current students.

We tend to meet once or twice a month on Fridays, but check to the right to confirm our next meeting.  If you happened to miss one, you can always read the minutes by clicking on the highlighted dates on the calendar, or just browse below this entry on the home page.  We hope to see you soon!

Guest Seminar Speaker Announcement

 

We have confirmed Steve Ellner from Cornell University as our invited guest seminar speaker for the upcoming Fall 2012 semester (October 9th).  Dr. Ellner is a well-known ecologist and modeler, having done much to develop the use of integral projection models in ecological studies.  His research interests also include rapid evolution in a rotifer-alga predator-prey system and modeling the spread of a fungal pathogen in seafan corals.

 

Exploration Day Details

 

Exploration Day 2012 is happening this upcoming Saturday, April 14th.  We'll be setting up our two booths from 9-9:15am, ready to go at 9:30am.  There are technically two shifts (9-12 and 12-3), but anyone is welcome to stay for whatever portion s/he can make.  Our final list of fun activities for the kids includes the bird beak game, the bird identification board, Jeff's monkey photography, a microscope, the invertebrate collection, coloring sheets, and deep-sea worm arts and crafts.  Please remember to wear your Penn State Biology t-shirt, or see Jennifer about borrowing one.  Also let us know if you haven't worked out a ride yet.

 

Barbeque Social

 

Look to your email soon for details on the upcoming barbeque social to be held this Friday evening at Sunset Park.

Wow, it's been a while!  Sorry for the online absence, but BDGSA is alive and well.  Here's an update to prove it:

To our new members, welcome, and to everyone else, welcome back!  We hope you got to make it to our first meeting of the new academic year, but if you missed it, here's a recap of the important announcements:

 

* Pizza

 

-We have free pizza at every meeting!  Seriously!  For that reason alone you should try to come.  And bring your friends! 

 

* T-Shirt Caption Contest

 

-In the ongoing epic that is our redesign of the Biology Department t-shirt, we've decided on our conceptual idea; all we need now is a good caption.  The logo will incorporate the 5-toed Nittany Lion paw print, which is, as all good biology students should know, anatomically inaccurate.  The t-shirt will point this out somehow using a witty caption.  Send your suggestions to Dominique (dac330@psu.edu).  Whoever comes up with the line we end up using wins a free shirt!

 

* Website Slide Show

 

-We're going to add a photo slide show to the top of the BDGSA website (http://www.personal.psu.edu/jep295/blogs/bdgsa/).  This means we need pictures!  Lab work, field work, hanging out--whatever.  If one representative from each lab sent in just one picture, we'd have the start of a pretty good collection, so please pass your photos along to John (jep295@psu.edu).

 

* Pumpkin Carving

 

-Finally, we'll be having a pumpkin carving event during the week leading up to Halloween.  Sounds fun, right?  More details to follow.

 

We hope to see you at the next meeting!

Welcome back everyone! The first BDGSA meeting of the semester was on Friday. Many new plans are in the works for this semester so please get involved.


New Officers discussed position duties and some changes were made:

- an update to the BDGSA constitution was presented and approved.
- secretary/treasurer will remain as one position
- Graduate Affairs officer will now be the Biology Rep to the GSA and will keep biograds informed of what is happening with the larger grad student body


BDGSA Website:

- Webmaster & Grad-Faculty will work on getting access to the website
- Plans for making the website more useful are being considered. Ideas include, making it a hub for seminar schedules and Biology events, funding opportunities & advice, and recording social events and functions.
- Other ideas? Contact the new webmaster John Parkinson <jep295@psu.edu>


Recruitment weekend:

- The dates will be February 18th - 20th.
- Volunteers are needed to help organize events, meet with prospectives and guide people around campus.


Coffee Hour:

- Now at 2:30 on Fridays
- Last weeks bake sale for Haiti was a big success with over $277 dollars going to Hope for Haiti! Thanks everyone.
- A guaranteed reimbursal policy for up to $15 was approved for volunteers who bring baked goods.


Other Ideas:

- A once a semester newsletter with information about new students, faculty, classes & Grad student achievements is being planned. If you want to be involved join us for the next meeting (Feb 5).

- T-shirts & Mugs: New merchandise will be ordered soon, but ideas for a new design are requested first.

- Social events: Tussey mountain snow tubing in the coming weeks!

The next meeting will be Feb 5 at noon in 317 Mueller.
Please join us!


-Nick
(BDGSA secretary/treasurer)