What is the 2016 Lehigh GRaD Experience?
The GRaD Experience will be held one day during Alumni Weekend (May 20-22, 2016) location and time will be determined at a later date .
This experience is meant to showcase the remarkable research conducted by
Lehigh’s graduate students in every field. The stations at the GRaD Experience
should promote knowledge of broad concepts in your field of research.
Our audience will be inquisitive folks of all ages with little to no background in
your field of study. The goal is to communicate your research field to the public in
a clear and concise way using hands-on demonstrations.
The benefits for graduate students and their labs are significant. First, writing a lesson plan
and explaining your research to kids (age group 8-12 years old) and their non-expert parents is a critical skill regardless of what work you pursue.
Second, if your lab is applying for federal grants, such as the NIH and/or NSF, this fair will
satisfy the community outreach requirement found in the grant application.

There will be a total 16 tables (4 per college). More than 1 person per table are welcome
(limited to 4 per team).

The team leader will give a two minutes (or less) presentation followed by 5-6 minutes of a
hands-on activities with a few minutes for questions. These activities will repeat for the duration of the event.
If you or your lab are interested in the GRaD Experience, please send following requirements
to [email protected] by Feb 19.
Please fill out the following information and send to [email protected]
Team Name:
Team Leader (Full name and E-mail):
Team members (Full names and E-mail’s):
Estimated Budget. Must contain: item name, item cost, website item is found on. Please be very specific for what is needed at your station. Each station requires
a small give-away item so please budget this for 100 people. The total estimated budget per station is $150.
Station details
a. Station Title
b. Station Topic (What is the overarching subject of your station?)
c. Summary of station (what is the goal of your station? What will the children/parents get out of your presentation? Briefly explain the concept/methods used.
limit two paragraphs):
d. Presentation script (2 minutes in length):
Interactive activity script (plan for 5-6 mins of activity):
Please see the sample proposals below for a couple examples of what is required.
Sample proposal 1
(By Katie Fisher and Dan Marad)
Team Name: Molecular Evolution
Team Leader: John Smith ([email protected])
Team members: Team member 1 ([email protected]) Team member 2 ([email protected])
Estimated Budget.
Item Name
Total Item Cost
Website found
Lego parts (x100)
$249
Walmart.com
Poster (x1)
22
Dept. Biological Sciences
Total cost
$271
Station details
Station Title:
The brick and slope pieces of Molecular Evolution
Station Topic (What is the overarching subject of your station?)
Evolution
Summary of station
This purpose of this activity is to demonstrate how natural selection operates on mutations in protein coding sequences. The lab activity itself will be a loose simplification of work done by the Oakeshott lab (1997) wherein a single amino acid substitution was found to infer insecticide (diazinon) resistance in a species of
bowfly by modifying the active site of a carboxylesterase in such a way as to allow the enzyme to behave as an organophosphorus hydrolase. Legos will be
used to assemble an ancestral protein that is sensitive to the insecticide. Sensitivity will be represented by a Lego structure with an active site that can be bound
to and blocked by our Lego insecticide molecule. Lego instructions will be analogous to DNA sequence. Several “mutations” will then be introduced into the instructions that will alter the Lego protein. Some mutations will produce structures to which our “insecticide” can no longer bind. This will be followed by a conversation about how this mutation will be acted upon by selection in both populations exposed to pesticides and unexposed populations.
Presentation script (2 minutes in length)
Hi everyone! My name is John and today I am here to talk to you about molecular evolution in proteins. Proteins are responsible for all of the jobs in our
cells. An important group of proteins called esterases help our brain and spinal cord communicate with the rest of our body. When a nerve is done sending information to another nerve cell esterases turn off the communication by binding to the signals the nerves were sending and breaking them apart. If esterases weren’t in our cells our nervous systems would go haywire. Some insecticides, or chemicals used to kill insects that are considered pests, kill insects by targeting their
esterases and blocking them from doing their job.
Proteins are a lot like Legos; they’re built from small building blocks called amino acids, their final shape determines what kind of job they’ll do, and they
are built from a set of instructions. Instead of a Lego instruction book though, the instructions for how to put proteins together is encoded into the DNA that’s kept
in the nucleus of the cell. Every time a cell divides it must copy all of its DNA so that each new cell will have a copy. Now, suppose I went to every person in this
room and handed them these Lego instructions and told them they had five minutes to copy down all the instructions onto a new sheet of paper. What would
happen? Would everyone copy it perfectly? There would almost certainly be some mistakes. Some people might misspell a word, miss a letter, or even skip a
whole word. The same thing happens when cells copy DNA. Scientists estimate that for every 100,000 DNA bases a cell copies, it makes 1 mistake. There are
all sorts of proteins that double check the DNA for mistakes but even still some mistakes don’t get fixed. When a mistake occurs in the copying of DNA that does
not get fixed, that is called a mutation. If I made a mistake when copying the Lego instructions here, it might change the way the Lego structure that I’m building
will turn out. The same thing is true of mutations. Since DNA are the instructions for how to build proteins, a change in the DNA sequence of a protein might
change how that protein gets built.
Interactive activity script (plan for 2-3 mins of activity):
1. All the students are bowflies and they are given a box of Lego’s and instructions on how to build their “esterase”.
2. Once their “esterases” are assembled we will walk around with our Lego “insecticides”, binding them to the proteins and killing our little bowflies.
3. The activity will be repeated, but this time some students will be handed an instruction sheet with a mutation. The altered instruction sheet will create a protein that the insecticide doesn’t fit in. These bowflies survive the insecticide treatment.
4. Activity will end with the idea that only the bowflies that carried a resistant mutation survived and that they will pass on this beneficial mutation to their offspring. I will end by tying the activity they did in with the ideas of natural selection and evolution.
Instructions:
1. Open your box and find your starting structure.
2. Place both A blocks opposite one another on top of the blue blocks as pictured below.
3. Place the B block on top of one of the remaining blue blocks as pictured below.
4. Place block D or C (depending on kit) on the top of block C as pictured.
or
5. Place the new DC block on top of the remaining blue blocks as pictured below.
You’re done! Now hold your protein and buzz around like a bowfly!!!
Sample proposal 2
(By Dashielle Horn)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Team Name: Widows, Wives, and Old Maids
Team Leader: John Smith ([email protected])
Team members: Team member 1 ([email protected]) Team member 2 ([email protected])
Estimated Budget:
Item Name: Giveaways
Total Item Cost
Vendor
Chocolate Shillings,
Pence
~$100
Chocolatebuttons.co.uk
Coin pouches
$40
Amazon.com
Printed Activity Cards
~$150
Lehigh Printing Services
Total cost
~$290
5) Station details
a) Station Title: Why Do Novels Talk About Marriage So Much?
b) Station Topic (What is the overarching subject of your station?)
i) British Literature
6) Summary of station
a) The goal of this station is to teach the historical conditions linking marriage to women’s social living conditions. Students will learn about the financial and legal repercussions of marital status for wives, orphaned young maids, spinsters, fallen women, and widows to consider the equality and fairness. Surprising conclusions, such as that spinsterhood had the potential to actually afford greater financial independence for women, will encourage participants to think about our assumptions
about gender and society, as well as how this historical context laid the groundwork for our current sex/gender system.
7)
Presentation script (2 minutes in length)
Good morning! My name is John. Today we will be looking at how marriage works in novels. You’ll be surprised that a significant number of novels from in the period 1700-1900, were obsessed with marriage For example, Pride and Prejudice or Jane
Eyre, or even the TV show Downton Abbey. But what was it like for a woman who was married?, spinster? (considered “too old”
to get married), widowed but getting remarried?, And so on.
In modern times, if you think about why people you know get married, it is mostly because two people like each other a lot
and want to spend their lives together. However It gets a lot more complicated when we look to previous centuries. Let’s play
this role playing game to take a quick look. What say?
Rules:
Draw a card and you’ll be the character that’s mentioned on the card. Don’t unfold it until we say it’s time. You also get a bag
of coins; this is your character’s fortune.
Let’s start with you. Unfold your cards by one layer—read the “Fortune” section. What does it say?
Wives: You’re probably pretty set. Your husband either has a ton of money (congratulations! You married a gentleman!) or has
some and is in charge of supporting your family. But, from now on you are legally just so-and-so’s wife. This means that I’ll be
taking your coins—they’re your husband’s now! If he’s nice, he’ll probably give you an allowance to buy yourself some candy
and clothes etc.
Widows: You lost the right to your own bank account with the death of your husband. However, your husband was thoughtful,
he set up what’s called a jointure. so after he died, you still get your money back. BENJAMINS!
OR
You lost the right to your own bank account with the death of your husband and was too selfish and did not set up a jointures.
Well, hopefully you have a generous brother or parents? If not… good luck! You have to figure out where to live and how to
survive.
Spinsters: Some of you fare pretty well—you have rich parents, you can just stay with them until they die. Then, if they leave
you plenty of money, you’re set! You can do whatever you want! Oh, but… it looks like some of you aren’t so lucky. Some
spinsters’ parents aren’t so rich, so they make you earn your keep. You have to be a family member’s housekeeper, governess, or servant… that does not sound awesome.
Let’s find out. Unfold the last section now, the one called “Social Status.” What does it say? Spinsters, it looks like there’s a lot
of variation. Some of you are pretty destitute… I hate to break it to you, but if your father didn’t leave you any money and you
don’t have any brothers to take care of you, you don’t have many options. You could become a governess? I hope you like
kids! Some of you, though, it looks like you get ensnared by some nefarious types and you become a lady of the night. No
bueno. They did not have great reproductive health care back then. Fortunately, some of you have that fat inheritance—you
guys get to do pretty much whatever. You can write novels, do charity work, or just lounge around your estate. The downside
is that you don’t get much respect. People find out you’re unmarried and they make assumptions—they talk behind your back
and say that you’re nasty and mean. They say you’re bitter because no man wanted you. Not cool.
Widows, you’re in a pretty good situation! You can remarry if you want to. If you have a nice jointure, lots of guys might be
flocking to you. Be careful, though—they might just be after your money (especially if you’re older). If you don’t want to remarry, you can just do you. If you don’t have money, though, you’re going to have to hustle… either find a job or find a new husband, pronto!
Wives with rich husbands, I hope you’re having fun! You spend your time embroidering, painting, playing piano, and ordering
around your servants. I hope you’re satisfied with that! Some of you are less well-to-do, though—you guys might not have a
governess or cook, so you have to keep the house running. You raise your kids, cook all of the meals, clean the house, make
and mend everyone’s clothes, and maybe even tend a garden and some livestock. Sounds busy!
8)
Review:
What do you think about what happened to your character? Was is surprising? If you could choose, who would you want to
be? How many people do you think actually got to be the rich wives? Do you think you’d be happy doing that? Why is it that
these conditions only applied to women? How does this compare to what you know about today?