Join us on January 13th as Julia Robson presents: Conservation in the Parks: A Community-based Approach

Greetings and Happy New Year to you all!! Let's start 2020 off right by gathering in our back room spot at the Sugar Maple!! This month's talk brings it close to home as Waukesha County Parks' very own Julia Robson speaks on community-based research!!

The effects of urbanization have been demonstrated to be the leading cause of the loss of biodiversity on a global scale. Solutions to preventing the extinction of locally rare species and degradation of imperative ecosystems can effectively be addressed by local park and recreation agencies through strategic natural areas preservation, active stewardship, and community engagement throughout the process. In addition to helping connect people to nature, local parks are essential in creating environmental stewards who will advocate for and protect our most precious public resources -- our land, water, trees, open spaces and wildlife. Join us to learn more about how community-based monitoring and restoration initiatives are making an impact in southeastern Wisconsin.

So, bring your family, friends, neighbors, teachers, postal worker, whoever!! It's 2020 and time for some SCIENCE!! Hope to see you there!!!

Julia has over ten years of experience working in natural-resource management. She has worked throughout the Midwest on various projects including multi-taxa biodiversity assessments, habitat restoration, environmental education and community engagement, and environmental planning. Before coming to Waukesha County Parks in April of 2018, she worked for the Urban Ecology Center and Milwaukee County Parks. Julia also serves on several conservation-related boards and committees including the Southeastern Wisconsin Invasive Species Consortium, the Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory's Science Committee, and Waukesha County Land Conservancy's land management committee. In 2016 the community-based wetland-monitoring program that she developed for Milwaukee County was awarded the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' Citizen-Based Monitoring Program of the Year award. Julia graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UW-M) in 2012 with a BS in biological sciences and a BS in conservation and environmental sciences, and in 2018, she was named "Graduate of the Last Decade" by UW-M's alumni association. In 2017 she created a project called "Walk to Sustain Our Great Lakes" walking over 340 miles from Milwaukee to Lake Superior raising $10,000 for Great Lakes conservation initiatives.

Join us on December 9th, as we host a free screening of Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

Seasons greetings my fellow nerdlings!!! Now that the week of feasting has ended, it's time to return to the cozy Sugar Maple and digest some SCIENCE (FICTION)!!! That's right!! It's time yet again for a kitchy sci-fi screening. MST3K-style haggling of the most excellent special effects is heavily encouraged (and easier to do after an 11% ABV beer or two...). And don't worry, this will be the 1959 flick, not the 2008 Brendan Fraser one.

So!! Tell your family!! Tell your friends!! Come grab a beer and see a cinematic classic for Freeeeeee!!! (#BYOP - bring your own popcorn) Hope to see you there!!

Join us on November 11th as Dr. KathiJo Jankowski presents: Life on Wisconsin's West Coast: Upper Mississippi River Ecology

Greetings once again my fellow nerdlings!! It is with the utmost enthusiasm I bring to you our November USS speaker: personal friend, college classmate, and ultimate frisbee teammate of mine... Dr. KathiJo Jankowski!!! She is coming from the western reaches of our fine state to discuss the importance of the links between water quality and climate change for the Upper Mississippi.

Wisconsin is surrounded by Great Lakes, but America's Great River traces nearly 150 miles of its western border. The Upper Mississippi River forms the economic and ecological heart of the Upper Midwest, providing recreation, navigation and drinking water to millions of people in the basin and homes for diverse species of fish and wildlife. While pressures in the basin continue to threaten water quality, climate change is adding an extra layer of complexity to our ability to protect and manage the river. Come hear about how water quality and climate change are linked and what we are doing about it!

Kathi Jo Jankowski is the Principal Investigator for the Water Quality Component of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program's Long-term Resource Monitoring Element.  She coordinates water quality monitoring and research on the Upper Mississippi in coordination with several federal and state agencies. Her research aims to understand how land use and climate change impact ecosystem processes in large rivers. She is specifically interested in nutrient and carbon cycling, ecosystem metabolism and food web ecology and has worked in freshwater systems from the boreal zone to the tropics. 

So!!! Tell your family!! Tell your friends!! Tell your neighbors!! Come all to the cozy back room of the Sugar Maple on 11/11/19 for some beers and water ecology education!! Hope to see you there!!

Join us October 14th as Dennis Miller presents: What Birds See

Greetings once again!!! Come one and all as we return to the cozy back room of the Sugar Maple for our October talk on Bird Vision!!!

While bird vision is accomplished by the same chemistry and general physiological structure as mammals and other animals, there are many adaptations which support survival in their ecological niches. While we can’t see through bird’s eyes, by using a number of photographic techniques we can at least get some idea of what they might see. This presentation will describe some of these techniques and illustrate the results.

So tell your family, friends and neighbors!!! Come by, grab a beer and let's learn about how our feathered friends see!! Hope to see you there!!

Mr. Miller is a "retired" engineer having spent 35 years working on topics of building environmental control at Johnson Controls. Since retiring he has done work on mobile robots, virtual reality, photography and numbers of other technologies which has been applied to teaching young people in Marquette University's Engineering Outreach Program and adults in the UWM Osher Program and in UWM's Continuing Education for Engineers. His interest in applying photography to understanding what birds see comes from many hours doing nature photography and volunteer activities at the Milwaukee County Park's Wehr Nature Center.

Join us September 9th as Dr. Charles Franklin presents: The Past, Present and Future of Public Opinion Polling

Hear ye!! Hear ye!! It's that time once again when we science nerds gather at the Sugar Maple "watering" hole to learn things and stuff about science!! Well, this month we're changing it up a wee bit and looking into the world of political science where we will be hosting Marquette Law School's very own Dr. Charles Franklin to speak on the intricacies of public opinion polling!!

The development of scientific samples of the public and the methodology of survey research grew from the late 1930s when probability samples of households were first developed. These evolved into random samples of telephones in the 1960s and are now evolving to samples and surveys using the internet. Each era has faced challenges while advancing our ability to measure public opinion among a representative sample of the population. We’ll talk about this evolution and pay special attention to the issues facing polling now and for the next few years.

Summer is over now and it's time to grab a beer and learn things!! Tell your family, friends and neighbors!! Hope to see you there!!

Charles Franklin is professor of law and public policy at Marquette Law School, and director of the Marquette Law School Poll. Prior to joining Marquette in 2012 he was Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison for 20 years. He is past president of the Society for Political Methodology, and an elected fellow of the Society. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan.

Join us on August 12th as Daniel Case presents: Crewed Spaceflight: Engineering Design and Lessons Learned

Hellllooooooooo Space Nerds!!! Please come from the far reaches (of the Milwaukee area) and join us yet again in the back room of the Sugar Maple on August the 12th to hear Daniel Case talk about aerospace engineering!!!

Designing things for humans is complicated, and it is even more so when taking into account some of the quirky things about living and working in space. This will be a low-key presentation on a high altitude subject - part habitat design, part life sciences, and maybe even some radiation protection!!

Daniel Case is a Ph.D. candidate in Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado - Boulder. At CU, he researches ways to keep astronauts healthy and safe in the space radiation environment, in an effort to help enable long-term human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit. His focus is on integrating passive shielding into space habitat design, ideally providing as much radiation protection using as little mass as possible.

So, come get your nerd on!!! Grab a tasty beer at the bar and join us in the back room for some Space Science!!! And as always - Tell your family and friends!! Hope to see you there!!

Mini Brains: The Exciting World of Lab Grown Mini Organs

Lovely summer greetings to all my fellow nerdlings!!! I know there are many distractions once the weather turns nice, but why not wind down this coming Monday with a frosty brew and a wee bit o' SCIENCE!?! Come one and all yet again to the Sugar Maple for a mind wrinkling talk on MINI BRAINS!!!

If the idea of having human cells growing in a dish already sounds exciting, you might want to sit down for this talk. For a couple of years now, scientists have been able to grow mini-organs in labs. Mini stomachs, kidneys, livers, and yes, even mini brains. These are called organoids: 3D structures with multiple cell types that resemble (in structure and in function) the real organs in your body. They are currently being used by scientists to study different diseases and possible treatments. Organoids are usually derived from human stem cells, which means they maintain their genetic material, so we can also explore genetic diseases and even genetically engineer specific mutations of interest. We live in a time when genetically engineered lab-grown mini-brains are a cool, and slightly spooky, reality.

So tell your family!! Tell your friends!! We hope to see you there!!

Born and raised in Curitiba, Brazil, Thiago Arzua now pursues his Ph.D. in neuroscience at the Medical College of Wisconsin. His doctoral research focuses on disease modeling during early neurodevelopment, for conditions such as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and Anesthetic-Induced Developmental Neurotoxicity. One of the main models used in his lab is cerebral organoids or mini-brains.