Things to know for BIOTEC 2018!

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Hi everyone! BIOTEC begins Monday, and we’re really excited to have you here with us!

Here are some things to know for the week:

  • See the map below for the best places to park and/or to drop off students! Each day we will begin at 9:30 AM in room 211 of the Biological Sciences building.

parking BIOTEC

  • If you are driving yourself each day, on Monday you will need to come to the location on the map marked “Drop-off” so you can pick up your parking passes for the week (try to get there a little early so you’re not late for the start of the day). Each pass is good for one day, and you should be given 5 passes in total. (There are no parking restrictions on the weekends.) If you didn’t fill out your waiver form, or didn’t say you were parking on campus on that form, then there probably won’t be parking passes available for you.
  • Lunch will not be provided on any of the days, unfortunately. Please a bring a lunch each day!
  • Please dress in long pants and close-toed shoes every day! With that said, the cooler you can dress while meeting that requirement the better; we will spend parts of some days outside and it can get quite hot!
  • The final day of the camp, Saturday June 23rd, we will be touring some of UCF’s biology research labs in the morning. After lunch, we will have a “research fair” of sorts where students will present on their weeklong research projects to their peers. Parents are welcome for this final portion of the camp, which will begin at approximately 1 PM on Saturday!If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! If I forgot anything major, I will make another post and send another email. Otherwise, see you on Monday!

    Chris (clong@knights.ucf.edu)

What’s happening in BIOTEC 2018?

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You may be wondering: Just what are we going to be doing in BIOTEC this year? Well I’m excited to tell you that the answer is “A ton of cool stuff”. Each day we’ll be meeting in room 211 of the Biology building at UCF at 9:30 AM, and ending the day in the same room at 3:30 PM. In between, we’ll sometimes go to different places on campus, but we’ll always begin and end in that room.

On Monday, June 18th, we’ll have a quick introduction of our instructors and the week, followed by Swaran’s fun and informative cell biology-based scavenger hunt/escape game. After lunch, students will be assigned to their groups for their week-long research projects; these projects provide a more in-depth look at one area or topic that the students will work on each day of the camp. These projects include an in-depth look at liver functionality, using PCR to investigate diseases in wild animals of the UCF Arboretum, using camera traps to examine the effects of fire on animal habitat use, and exploring the uses of plant chemicals for medical purposes!

On Tuesday, we’ll start our day with animal anatomy, where sea turtle biologist Chris will lead the students in some dissections and data collection on animal digestive tracts and how their form lines up with their function. In the afternoon, we’ll start our look at disease ecology with frog disease ecologist Matt.

On Wednesday, we’ll zero in on parasites and what makes them awesome! Ian and Thienthanh from the zombie ant lab will talk about the cool research that makes them tick (pun definitely intended), including a tour of UCF’s Bug Closet and examining the specimens there for parasites.

On Thursday, we’ll abandon the animal world completely, delving instead into plant physiology and biochemistry. Jordan, sunflower plant biochemist extraordinaire, will lead students out into the Arboretum to collect leaves from wild plants for analysis of their physical and chemical defenses, and visit UCF’s greenhouses as well!

On Friday, we’ll take these individual topics and apply them to the broader foci of ecology and animal behavior with turtle Wonder Woman Katrina and manatee biologist Madison. They’ll take the students out into the Arboretum to look at the effects of fire ecology on biological community dynamics, and in the afternoon use pillbugs to conduct habitat choice experiments.

Finally, on Saturday, the students will spend the morning touring biology labs at UCF and learning about the research conducted there. In the afternoon, students will present the results of their weeklong projects to their peers, and parents and teachers are welcome!

I hope you’re getting as excited as I am, and we can’t wait to see you!

Chris

Things to know for BIOTEC 2017!

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Hi everyone!

It’s almost time for BIOTEC 2017! Here are some things to know as we get ready for a fun week:

1. You can find the daily schedule and a map of the best places to park at https://ucfbiotec.wordpress.com/schedule-and-program/. Each day at 9:30 AM, we will begin in Room 211 of the Biology building (on the second floor), and possibly venturing out to other labs during the course of the day but always finishing in room 211.
2. If you are driving yourself each day, on Monday you will need to come to the location on the map marked “Drop-off” so you can pick up your parking passes for the week. Each pass is good for one day, and you should be given 5 passes in total. (There are no parking restrictions on the weekends.) If you haven’t emailed me before now to request parking passes, we may not have them for you and as a result you will have to pay $5/day for parking.
3. Lunch will only be provided on Saturday, July 1st. Otherwise, you will need to pack a lunch for each day; you won’t be able to venture off and buy food somewhere as there isn’t enough time.
4. Please dress in long pants and close-toed shoes every day! With that said, the cooler you can dress while meeting that requirement the better; we will spend parts of some days outside and it can get quite hot!
5. The final day of the camp, Saturday July 1st, we will be touring some of UCF’s biology research labs in the morning. After lunch, we will have a “research fair” of sorts where students will present on their weeklong research projects to their peers. Parents are welcome for this final portion of the camp, which will begin at approximately 1 PM on Saturday!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! If I forgot anything major, I will make another post and send another email. Otherwise, see you on Monday!

Chris (clong@knights.ucf.edu)

Map and important reminders

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Map and important instructions here
Map and Instructions BIOTEC

Camp starts at 9:30a on Monday, June 27.
On the first day of camp, simply drive in between PSB and BIO and we will guide you from there!

If you are planning to park, we will give you your parking passes at this location

– try to arrive around 9:15a so you have time to park and make it back to camp when it begins at 9:30a!

A map is above and in ‘Schedule and Program’.

What to bring:
  • Photo consent and Research Informed Consent forms.
  • Lunch Monday through Friday. Saturday we will provide lunch.
  • Wear closed -toe shoes.
  • On Wednesday and Friday we will be outside for part of the day. Please bring a bottle for water and wear clothes and sunscreen appropriate for the hot weather!
We are looking forward to meeting you! See you on June 27!

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact tmanteuffel@knights.ucf.edu

Website updated

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A couple updates:
This website has been updated to reflect current instructors; check them out on the “People” tab.

Students should expect to receive consent forms soon via email. 26 students have been accepted to BIOTEC from several counties in the central Florida area.  We look forward to seeing them in June!

We thank NSF, ACS and the UCF Biology Department for their financial support. The camp could not happen without it!

-TM

BIOTEC pictures

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DSC03150

BIOTEC is done and we had a great camp! Thank you to all the students and instructors who participated. Above is a photo of Tiffani sharing the EPaS lab’s research with students. Please find more photos of BIOTEC on Google drive here!