Science, Technology, and Environmental Studies

Category: Events

  • Daniel Willingham – J. James Wood Lecture

    “Digital Technology and the Future of Eduction”

    Wednesday, February 28, 7:30 PM

    Schrott Center for the Arts

    BCR Credit and Co-Curricular Event

    Digital technologies have changed many aspects of our lives, especially the way we work, entertain ourselves, and communicate. How have digital technologies changed schooling, and what changes are in store for us in the future?

    Willingham earned his B.A. from Duke University in 1983 and his doctorate in Cognitive Psychology from Harvard University in 1990. He is currently Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1992. His research concerns the application of cognitive psychology to K-16 education.

    He writes the “Ask the Cognitive Scientist” column for American Educator magazine, and is the author of Why Don’t Students Like School?, When Can You Trust the Experts?, Raising Kids Who Read, and the upcoming The Reading Mind. His writing on education has appeared in fourteen languages.

     

  • Jordan Ellenberg – J. James Woods Lecture

    “How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking”

    Tuesday, December 5, 7:30 PM

    Schrott Center for the Arts

    BCR Credit and Co-Curricular Event

    The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In this talk, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how wrong this view is: Math touches everything we do, allowing us to see the hidden structures beneath the messy and chaotic surface of our daily lives. It’s a science of not being wrong, worked out through centuries of hard work and argument.

    Drawing from history as well as the latest theoretical developments, Ellenberg demonstrates that profound mathematical ideas are present whenever we reason, from the commonplace to the cosmic. And, he shows how to use this knowledge in our lives, whether you’re a business looking to discover the power of big data, a corporate audience out to improve logic and understanding within your organization, or a college crowd with an appetite for the latest research by one of America’s rising scholarly stars.

    The Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Ellenberg is the author of two books: How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking, and The Grasshopper King, which was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. Recently, he served as a consultant (and actor, briefly!) for the film Gifted. Ellenberg has held an NSF-CAREER grant and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and in 2013 he was named one of the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society.

  • Margaret Lowman – J. James Woods Lecture

    “Life in the Treetops- Exploration of Tropical Rainforest Canopies”

    Thursday, November 9, 7:30 pm

    Atherton Union, Reilly Room

    BCR Credit and Co-Curricular Event

     

    “I climb trees for a living,” says Margaret Lowman, better known as “Canopy Meg” (www.canopymeg.com). Dubbed the “real-life Lorax” by National Geographic, Lowman has earned an international reputation as a pioneer in forest canopy ecology, canopy plant-insect relationships and devising ingenious canopy access methods to explore this “eighth continent”, home to about half of life on earth.

    Lowman will speak about her discoveries of biodiversity in forest canopies and take the audience on a global tour to some of the forest canopy hotspots wehre she conducts long-term research and educational programs.

    Equipped with degrees in biology and ecology and a Ph.D. in botany, Lowman developed her childhood interest in building tree forts into mapping canopy biodiversity worldwide and spearheading the construction of North America’s first canopy walkway. Over the years, she has used science education to influence government policy and encourage environmental stewardship. Included among her many outreach initiatives are large-scale, distance-learning programs; newspaper columns; science books for both technical and public audiences; and nature camps for disadvantaged youth. Since 2010, she has been based at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences where she is director of their new Nature Research Center and professor at North Carolina State University. She also serves as executive director of the non-profit TREE Foundation.

    “One of the biggest issues facing the next generation is keeping our kids linked to nature,” says Lowman, a sentiment reflected in her latest book, It’s a Jungle Up There (2006), written with her two sons.

     

  • J. James Woods Lecture – Dr. Robert Sapolsky March 21, 7:30 pm

    Robert Sapolsky

    The Biology of Good and Evil

    Tuesday, March 21, 7:30 PM
    Atherton Union, Reilly Room

     

    BCR Credit and Co-Curricular Event

     

    MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Robert Sapolsky explains the relationship between our innate primate biology and human behavior patterns. A celebrated author and professor of Biology and Neurology at Stanford University, Sapolsky explores how our hormones and genes may influence concepts like aggression, love, evil, justice, and altruism, as well as contextualizing how identical behavior is perceived in different settings.

  • Homo naledi Strides Again! ~ STES Co-Curricular

    Homo naledi Strides Again!

    A presentation by Dr. Zachary Throckmorton

    Thursday, November 19th

    5:00 – 6:30 PM

    University of Indianapolis

    Schwitzer Student Center -UIndy Hall A

    Homo naledi Strides Again!

  • Michael Mann ~ The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars ~ Co-Curricular & BCR Event, October 27th, 7:30PM

    Michael Mann

    The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars

    Tuesday, October 27, 2015 – 7:30 p.m., Reilly Room

    The ongoing assault on climate science in the United States has never been more aggressive, more blatant, or more widely publicized than in the case of the Hockey Stick graph–a clear and compelling visual presentation of scientific data, put together by Michael E. Mann and his colleagues, demonstrating that global temperatures have risen in conjunction with the increase in industrialization and the use of fossil fuels. Here was an easy-to-understand graph that, in a glance, posed a threat to major corporate energy interests and those who do their political bidding. The stakes were simply too high to ignore the Hockey Stick–and so began a relentless attack on a body of science and on the investigators whose work formed its scientific basis.

    Michael Mann

  • Conservation Science at the IMA – STES Co-Curricular

    Butler Brown Bag Series for Faculty Research, Scholarship and Creative Work: The Art of Chemistry – Conservation Science at the IMA

     Presentation by Mike Samide, Chemistry

     Tuesday, October 20, noon – 1 p.m., AU111 (UClub)

    Students, staff and faculty are all welcome. No RSVP required.

    Did you know that in a back corner of the Indianapolis Museum of Art sits a multi-million dollar conservation science laboratory?  Employing chemical and instrumental techniques for the study of art and related materials is essential for proper care, storage, and display of objects of cultural heritage.  In addition, chemical analysis can often support curatorial efforts to better understand artists and their work.  This presentation will include reports on various projects related to chemistry and art that were completed during Mike’s recent sabbatical at the IMA.

    Visit legacy.butler.edu/faculty-development/brown-bag-series for information on upcoming presentations and ADA access.

  • Let’s Talk About Water – STES Co-Curricular

    The “Let’s Talk About Water” event is scheduled for Thursday, September 24th at 7PM in PB 156.  This event will count as an STES co-curricular and refreshments will be served!  Click into the image below for additional information.

    Let's Talk About Water

  • Plan 2020 Fellowship Symposium – STES Co-Curricular

    The Plan 2020 Fellowship Symposium is scheduled for September 16, 2015 at 4:30PM.  This event will count as an STES co-curricular!

    Plan 2020 Fellowship Symposium

  • Lucianne Walkowicz – Look up for a Change ~ Cocurricular Event, September 16th, 7:30PM

    Walkowicz