Avenues of Scientific Discovery 2015

Join us on Thursday, April 9th in the Memorial Union Plains Room of NDSU's main campus from 1:00 -4:00 pm for the first ever Avenues of Scientific Discovery (AoSD) event!

This is a graduate student run event open to local high school students and the Fargo-Moorhead community. NDSU graduate student's have created several hands-on activities that showcase their fields of study that will allow you to experience what science is all about in the real world. Stop by and check out the many different booths set up while you move at your own pace to investigate what these life-science fields are all about. Participate in the activities, pose questions to the graduate students, or just come to witness science in action. All are welcome!

NDSU Campus Map

(Parking is available to the general public in the southern Memorial Union parking lot)

This year's participating life-science fields are listed below. Click the names for more information: 

Animal Science
Biological Science
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Physics
Public Health
Veterinary & Microbiological Sciences

Come experience the amazing science behind liquid nitrogen, the extraction and examination of DNA, and the microscopic world around us. So many more activities will be available as well, all exploring the different avenues of scientific discovery. Community members, high school or college students are all welcomed to stop by. You are never too old or young to experience the different avenues of science and their importance! 

This event is thanks in great part to these contributors:

North Dakota State University

Center for Science & Mathematics Education

NDSU Graduate School

NDSU Office of Admissions

VETERINARY AND MICROBIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Bacteria, molds, and viruses are everywhere – in the food we eat to the air we breath and every surface we touch! Microbiologists study how microorganisms survive and grow and more importantly, how these seemingly invisible organisms influence our lives in both positive and negative ways. You probably know that microbes cause illness, but what you might not know is that most microbes are essential to our daily lives. For example, without microbiology we wouldn’t be able to enjoy many of the foods we eat, including bread, cheese, and yogurt.

Our booth allows a first-hand look at microbiology by giving you the opportunity to prepare slides and examine what bacteria look like up close and personal with the help of a microscope. You will also have the chance to take pictures of your work and be able to keep your slides as a memento of your experience with microbiology. You can also sample some of the amazing foods that are only made possible by microorganisms. How bacteria are able to grow and replicate will also be discussed. Our booth will provide you with even greater details on how microorganisms survive and thrive in the world around us. Just keep in mind, we are not alone!

To learn more about microbes check out NDSU's Vet Micro webpage here.

PUBLIC HEALTH

Public Health is the science of preventing disease, encouraging healthy lifestyles, and prolonging life in general. Our field focuses on making large impacts on human wellness and increasing the life expectancy of people throughout the world. Recent outbreaks of Ebola and measles have highlighted the importance of public health. Here at NDSU, there are four specializations in the public health program: Management of Infectious Disease, Health Promotion, Public Health in Clinical Systems, and American Indian Public Health. 

It’s important to understand how diseases spread and to identify the first case in order to better understand where the outbreak began and how it is spreading. With this knowledge, infection control practices and vaccines can be implemented to prevent an outbreak in the future. At our booth, you will be able to track and manage an infectious disease outbreak just like an epidemiologist. So, stop by our booth and become disease detectives! Can you find patient zero?

Stop by NDSU's public health webpage here to learn more!

PHYSICS

Would you believe us if we told you that you could hammer a nail with a banana? What if we told you that you could defy gravity by making your own simple magnets? Or what if we told you that you could turn the oxygen you breathe into a liquid? We’ll explore the answers to these questions by dropping the temperature in a big way.

Temperature affects everything around us; it changes the way materials look and how they feel, the way they behave in response to forces and pressure, and even the way they interact with magnets! To explore the effects of extreme temperature, we’ll use one of the coldest things we can get our hands on, liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen exists at a balmy -320 degrees Fahrenheit; as you might imagine, cooling objects with liquid nitrogen can lead to some bizarre phenomena as well as some really fun experiments.

At our booth you can explore the relationship between extreme temperature and various forces to see what happens when bananas, balloons, superconductors, marshmallows, magnets, and even the air itself experience the frigid cold. Prepare to be amazed!

Check out the Physics department's webpage here!

CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY

Ever wonder how dirty clothes get clean, or how lightening bugs glow? Why sodium chloride (table salt) is safe to eat, but a breath of chlorine gas or eating a grain of sodium can be deadly? All of these questions can be explained through chemistry and biochemistry. Chemical reactions and transfers of energy are what determine the world we live in. From the air we breathe to the vehicles that we use in daily transportation, the world is completely composed of chemistry.

The field of chemistry investigates what makes up everything around you; from why some things are solid and others are liquid to why some things stink and others smell sweet. Biochemistry is a field that specifically focuses on the chemistry of living things. At our booth the power of detergents will be analyzed, chemical luminescence will be explored, and the chemical effects of various salts will be investigated. Chemistry and biochemistry encompass everything on Earth to everything in the universe with many different career options available. Check out our booth to learn more and don’t forget, chemistry is all around us!

To learn more check out NDSU's chemistry & biochemistry website here.

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Wetlands are important ecosystems because they can naturally purify water.  Aquatic plants suck up contaminants from the water that moves through these systems. Lemna (duckweed) and Typha (cattails), for example, take up heavy metals, which helps maintain a healthy habitat for animal life.  Wetlands host a number of invertebrates, birds, and mammals. They also provide flood control and groundwater replenishment. You can learn more about the important ecological functions of wetlands at our booth!

In addition, you can learn about one of the most important building blocks of life. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is present in nearly every organism on earth and it contains all of the information necessary to build an individual. Nearly every cell on the planet, with the exception of red blood cells and some viruses, contains these long fibers of DNA. In our booth’s activity, you and your group members will be able to extract the genetic material from a strawberry. Strawberries are octoploid, which means they have eight copies of each chromosome. A buffer composed of basic household materials can be used to extract the DNA from the strawberry. This reaction buffer contains only soap, salt, and water. The soap is used to break apart the plasma and nuclear membranes to give us access to the genetic material, while the salt breaks up the protein chains that surround the nucleic acids. Stop by our booth to learn more about the structure of DNA and its importance!

To learn more check out the Biological Sciences website at NDSU here.