PGSS day-trip to Quebec City

September 25 · 8:00am - 8:30pm

Spend the day touring to the capital of Quebec and
soak in the sights of one of Canada’s oldest cities.

Cost: 35$/person
32$ for children (2-12yrs old)
Free (children under 2)
$37/person (guests/ pgss non-members)

The Event includes:
Tour fee (coach bus), Montmorency falls (falls admission is included but cable car in not included in the fee),observation tower and tour guide/driver tips.

Limited seats!
Register early
via email: social.pgss@mail.mcgill.ca
In-person: at the PGSS Office (Thomson House, room 401).
Deadline for reservation is September 18.

BGSA Events - a taste of what you can expect this year

Dear New, Old, Incoming, Finishing, Procrastinating and Thesis Writing Biology Students,

As you may have noticed with the flurry (no snow, thank goodness, and yes I know, I recycled that joke from last year) of emails from the listserv, the BGSA has some fantastic events in store for everyone for the 2010-2011 year. We think it would be beneficial to show you just how fantastically awesome these events are. So, if you clink the title of this post, it should link you to our photo albums. For those of you still trying to just log onto Minerva or are stuck in dial-up land, I've included a few to whet your appetite for the events to come.

First up, the camping trip. This year, it is scheduled for September 10-12 in beautiful Gatineau Park.

Once everyone was set-up, dinner com- menced, with Allen and Morgan providing musical accompa-niment to the group who not only aligned themselves in pecking order, but also lined up their drumsticks to all face the same way. Later that night, Morgan single handedly battled the growth hormone modified raccoons that roamed the camping site. One raccoon did almost make off with Ben's wallet at one point...

The next day was beautiful, sunny and, as all good grad students know, that mean chilaxing by the water. Believe it or not, the discussion was on the values of baysian statistics in ecology and the latest developments in pipetting techniques...

We found a cave you could go spelunking in, and Maria, with her great smile, mentioned how it would make a great office space.

In the end, a merry band of bio marauders posed for a picture and everyone went home happy and content, and excited for THIS YEAR'S TRIP SO HURRY UP AND REGISTER!!! IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!

And a few more events... Pumpkin carving - an epic battle between labs to show who can not only carve the best pumpkin, but tell the best story about their pumpkin!

And many more - check out the photo website at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/mcgillbgsa

There are more pictures of these and other past events, so we look forward to seeing you at as many of the events as you want to come to!

Cheers,

BGSA

Welcome Back Softball Game and BBQ!

Hear ye hear ye! To celebrate the beginning of what promises to be another fantastic year in the McGill Biology Department, the Biology Graduate Students Association (BGSA) cordially invites YOU to the WELCOME (BACK) BBQ & SOFTBALL GAME this Friday!

WHO: All Biology graduate students and postdocs
WHAT: BBQ (veggie and meat options), drinks, softball and frisbee
WHEN: Friday, Sept 3 from 4-6 pm
WHERE: Reservoir field, the big grassy field across from Thomson House between Dr Penfield, des Pins and McTavish streets (just go around the construction...)
WHY: Because the food is FREE and some of Quebec's FINEST beer will be on hand for $2

This is a great way to meet new students, catch up with old friends, and kick off the Labour Day long weekend. You don't have to be able to catch, throw or hit the ball in order to play with us -- and we still came second in the league! Please bring your labmates!

Hope to see you there.

Cheers,

Your friendly neighbourhood BGSA

Stats Workshops 2010

The BGSA is proud to bring you a series of Statistics Workshops starting this fall! Workshops will be taught by your peers (grad students and faculty), and designed to be hands-on. We will be using the R statistical software package, and as many open-source resources as we can find!

Workshops will be held Friday afternoons in the Stewart Biology computer lab (N4/17), from 2 - 4 PM (14h - 16h). Every other week in between main workshops will be informal help sessions for you to come with specific questions regarding previous topics: e.g. help applying a method to your data.

The series starts off with an ever popular introduction to R and probability, on Friday September 17 & 24, 2010. This will essentially be two topics taught concurrently over two workshops to help you get comfortable with working in R, and some elementary principles to help you perform statistical analyses in R more efficiently. No experience required.

Registering for individual workshops will guarantee that you reserve a seat in the room, but it is not required in advance. There is a registration form on the web site, and spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration will remain open until the start of the workshop, so even if you didn't register ahead, you are welcome to join us, as long as there are seats available! So don't be late! We'll announce on the web site if any workshops are getting full, so you have time to get a seat for your favourite topic(s).

Computers are available in the computer lab, as long as you have a McGill ID. There are more seats than computers, however, and you are welcome to bring your own laptop to work on (laptops are also available to sign out from the library or teaching services, I think).

More information is available on the BGSA website (see the link on the sidebar to the left):

Temporary web site for the workshops

Feel free to forward this to your colleagues in other departments who may be interested.

See you in the computer lab,

Jonathan Whiteley & Neeltje Boogert

Biology Graduate Students' Association

McGill University

September Orientation Camping Trip

We've reserved group campsite number 5 in Gatineau Park (it can be found by clicking the Taylor Lake link). We already have about 25-30 people coming; even if no one else signs up, it will only cost each person < 4 dollars per night for camping + food + transportation + gear. This also means that you are all welcome to invite significant others (just be sure to let me know soon so we dont over book the trip).

To make sure we don't over or under book the trip, we are collecting a $20 deposit (non-refundable) per person. Please email me if you are not in town (you can give me money when you get to town), if you are in town, please bring your deposit to my office W 6/1 in Stewart biology by Monday (August 30th). I have meetings all week, so ill be in and out, but if i'm not there, just leave an envelope under the door with the money and your name on it and email me to let me know you dropped it off (talk about a run on sentence).

Gatineau Park offers a variety of outdoor activities: hiking, swimming, canoe/kayak rentals, fishing, bike rentals. As far as food is concerned, we're going to create groups that are responsible for buying and preparing one meal. Please let me know if you have any dietary restrictions (i.e. vegan/vegetarian, allergies, etc.) so we can accommodate. The total cost of the weekend will depend greatly on the number of vehicles owned by graduate students. I'll let everyone know the projected price as soon as I know how many cars are coming.

Details:

Date: Friday Sept 10th to Sunday Sept 12th

Alcohol policy: Officially, they dont allow it, unofficially they dont care as long as everyone is cool.

Gear: Please email me back with whatever gear you have (including extra gear you can bring), what we need:

Cars

Tents

Sleeping bags

Sleeping Mats

camping pots and a camping grill grate (not backpacking stoves, just a grate to put over the fire pit)

tarps

coolers

cooking utensils for fire

We have some instruments coming (guitars, fiddle, banjo, washtub bass), but if you have anything especially awesome, let me know , and ill let you know if we can squeeze it in!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! BUNGEE JUMPING

Monica Radovski has organized BUNGEE jumping as a side trip on the camping trip!

monica.radovski@mail.mcgill.ca.

For all the adventurous people:
Have you ever wanted to plummet towards an aqua-blue, spring-fed
lagoon, whilst being tethered to beautiful limestone by a large
elastic cord? Well now's your chance! We're lucky enough to be
camping very close to the highest bungee jump (200 ft/61 m) in North
America! The jump is with Great Canadian Bungee in Wakefield, Qc.
Some of us are planning to go there during the day on the Saturday.
If you don't want to take the plunge they also have a zipline, B.B.Q.
and picnic facilities, a lifeguard beach, a volleyball net and much
more. You can check it all out on their website:
http://www.bungee.ca/

It's cheaper to bungee jump if we're a group of at least 10 people,
and we have to book the jump a couple of weeks in advance because
they're pretty busy on weekends. We also have to figure out the car
situation before we go, so please let me (Monica R.) know if you're
interested in bungee jumping or just coming along to watch and/or take
part in the other activities they have. My email address is
monica.radovski@mail.mcgill.ca. This is just one option for something
to do on Saturday, so there's no pressure to come.

Here are the prices as listed on the website:

BUNGEE JUMPING
First Jump (Regular Price) $97.45
Additional Jumps (Same Day) $53.16
Group of 10 or More $70.87 ( 48hr advance reservation )

RIPRIDE
The RIPRIDE® $31.01
(add on with any Bungee or raft trip) $22.15

PACKAGES
Jump and Rip Ride $119.60
Jump, DVD and T-Shirt $132.89
Jump, Rip Ride, DVD, T-Shirt $155.04
(DVD is a 2 disc set with Adrenaline Overload Promo
video and your personal jump video)

Peace,

Caolan

--

Caolan Kovach-Orr

Ph.D. Candidate, Fussmann Lab
McGill University
Stewart Biology Building
1205 Docteur Penfield
Montreal, Quebec H3A 1B1


Lab: Stewart Biology Building, Room W 6/3.
(514) 398-4096

Office: Stewart Biology Building, Room W 6/1.
(514) 398-6467