Please Join Us at the Nutshell Games October 27!
Where can you learn about 30 research projects in 45 minutes? At Virginia Tech's third annual Nutshell Games, to be held at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, October 27, at the Moss Arts Center.
Hosted by Virginia Tech's Center for Communicating Science and held in conjunction with the Virginia Tech Science Festival, the third annual Nutshell Games will take place in the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre at the Moss Arts Center at the conclusion of the day-long Virginia Tech Science Festival.
Thirty Virginia Tech graduate students will each have 90 seconds to present their research--research in a nutshell--to the audience at this friendly science communication competition. Three winners, determined by a panel of judges to have been the most engaging and to have communicated their research the most clearly, will each receive a $500 prize. All of the contestants will receive a professional quality video recording of their talk--and the opportunity to share their research.
"The Nutshell Games were great! It’s amazing how much you can learn in a minute and a half," commented an audience member after the 2017 event. "It was also interesting to see so many polished speeches in a row. I’ve graded many student presentations in my day, but seeing good ones altogether like that was educational for me-–well worth my time!"
Presenters this year include graduate students from a wide variety of research fields, including biomedical engineering, urban affairs and planning, plant and environmental sciences, industrial and systems engineering, arts leadership, geosciences, biology, psychology, nutrition, rhetoric and writing, and many more.
With an emphasis on communicating to non-scientists, the Nutshell Games will be judged this year by a panel of six people from both on and off campus. The judges are
· Honzik Schenk, 7th grader at Blacksburg Middle School;
· Dr. Shernita Lee, director of Virginia Tech's Graduate School Office of Recruitment, Diversity, and Inclusion;
· Michael Sutphin, Blacksburg Town Council member;
· Christina Martin, the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) coordinator for Giles County Public Schools;
· Larry Hawkins, biology teacher at Blacksburg High School; and
· Ruth Waalkes, associate provost for the arts at Virginia Tech.
The Nutshell Games event is open to the public free of charge. Please join us at the Moss Arts Center October 27 for a celebration of science!