Two days after starting work as the new director of INDS, Stephen Freeland traveled to Washington DC to present a public lecture on the emerging science surrounding the possibility of other life in the universe. This lecture was invited by the Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion (DoSER) program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which welcomed a diverse group of politicians, scientists and members of the general public to a Q&A about the implications of this work.

The research about which Dr. Freeland spoke falls under the emerging science of astrobiology (https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/about-astrobiology/) which, by placing together insights from the traditional scientific disciplines, is rapidly forming a consensus picture that life should not be as rare as was once thought. In fact the focal point of the lecture were "three clues consistent with extraterrestrial life."

A full description of this event, together with a video of the event, can be found here:

www.aaas.org/spp/dser/events/archives/lectures/2013/Exoplanets/Exoplanets6_19_2013.html

Since Spring 2012, students of Jill Wrigley’s INDS 430 Food
Systems Seminar learn about the intersecting benefits, problems and challenges generated
by modern food systems. Now, thanks to a BreakingGround grant (umbcbreakingground.wordpress.com),
 students in Spring 2014 will get their
hands dirty while challenging their minds and forging new relationships beyond
the classroom.

Two thirds of the new course will be spent in small group
work devoted to various projects on and off campus. Each project asks students
to propose or enact some improvement of the food system at UMBC or in a
neighboring community or schools. Examples include (but are not limited to):

Growing Microgreens
at UMBC:  What are the nutritional advantages
of microgreens and how can we deliver them to plates of fellow UMBC students?  This project will integrate horticulture, entrepreneurship,
marketing/communications and policy.

Edible
Campus: The K-12 community is creating edible schoolyards in schools across
the country, and globe.Why not edible
campuses? Students selecting this option will research how and where UMBC might
develop this idea.

Garden
Pals with Neighboring schools and communities:Students will utilize the UMBC Biology
Greenhouse to grow vegetable seedlings for transplant into container or
in-ground gardens at various partner sites within the K-12 community.

What’s on
Our Plate at UMBC?: Students selecting this option would undertake a
“community food assessment” of the food provided to them at UMBC using an
adapted version of the Real Food Calculator created by Real Food Challenge, or
using an instrument of the students’ own design.

Food
waste and food recovery at UMBC: How
can UMBC reduce food waste and alleviate hunger and promote health in the
Baltimore region?

• Semester Academic Honors - earned at least a 3.5
• Dean's List - earned at least a 3.75
• President's List - 4.0!!!

These honors are only for students who took classes full-time and the credits were not taken as pass/fail.

http://www.umbc.edu/inds/students/academic_awards

Will YOU be on the list next semester? We can work with you to make it happen!

• Documentarian/Audio Visual Lead - create and edit videos for the web and podcasts
• Online Journalist and Social Media Lead - must have an interest and experience in print journalism and social media
• K-12 Education Lead - work closely with the Museum's Education Outreach division

For more information and instruction on how to apply (by July 1), please visit http://www.smithsonianofi.com/blog/2013/05/20/nmah-history-freedom-school-fall-internships/

greeNEWit’s Agents of Change Program recruits high school and college students with an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for social change to assist with social media, marketing and development needs. Students can get hands on experience as social entrepreneurs by means of two of greeNEWit’s social projects: Cleats for Bare Feet and the OUR Schools program.

Through the program, greeNEWit provides students with important career skills and instills a passion in them for entrepreneurship and sustainable living. The goal is to create a collaborative working environment that fosters the generation and sharing of ideas.

Go to http://www.greenewit.com/home/careers/apply-now-summer-interns to read more about the various opportunities!