Program SMArT Science and Math Achiever Teams is sponsoring science expos on Tuesday, April 29, at the two New Haven schools that the program is affiliated with: Troup Magnet Academy and Roberto Clemente Middle School. The mentoring program offers Yale student volunteers the opportunity to share their interests in math or science with the middle school students. The participants in the one-on-one program meet once a week for about two hours to work on their projects. The SMArT Science Expos will serve as a showcase for these projects, which range from constructing robots to dissecting animals to studying light reflection and refraction. Other projects included creating bacteria cultures, growing crystals, and learning about volcanoes and the earth's crust. The expo at Roberto Clemente School will begin at noon and be held in the library; the Troup Magnet Academy expo will be held at 3 p.m. in the cafeteria. The SMArT students, volunteers and coordinators will be honored at an award ceremony at each school. For more information about SMArT, call Matthew Friel, director, at 436-3792 or Elisabeth Jaffe, public relations manager, at 436-0399. There is also a SMArT home page on the World Wide Web at www.yale.edu/prgsmart.
Dr. Lorraine Siggins, chief psychiatrist in the mental hygiene division of Yale University Health Services, will present a talk titled "Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy" at the spring conference of the Connecticut Society for Psychoanalytic Psychologists. The talk will be held 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at the New Haven Lawn Club, 193 Whitney Ave. Dr. Siggins, who is also clinical professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, will discuss the place of brief psychotherapy in resolving the developmental issues of late adolescence, with special emphasis on the modification of defensive and personality structures during this time of transition. The fee for the talk, which is open to all mental health professionals, is $30 for members of the society, $40 for nonmembers and $5 for students. A continental breakfast is included, and CE credits are available. For further information, or to register, call Virginia Shiller at 776-3681.
Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland, clinical professor of surgery gastroenterology, will sign copies of his new book "The Wisdom of the Body" beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 10, at the Yale Co-op, 77 Broadway in New Haven. The event is free and open to the public. In "The Wisdom of the Body," Dr. Nuland proposes that the true secret of our species' survival has been the development of the human spirit. His previous best-selling work, "How We Die," won a National Book Award.
On Sunday, May 4, Yale professors Jonathan Spence and Murray Biggs will take part in a special discussion of "The Joy Luck Club," now playing at the Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Dr. in New Haven. Mr. Spence, the Sterling Professor of History, will serve as a panelist along with John Starr, past president of the Yale-China Association, and playwright Susan Kim, who adapted for the stage Amy Tan's 1989 novel about four Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters. The panel will be moderated by Mr. Biggs, adjunct associate professor of English and theater studies. The discussion will be held at 4:30 p.m., following the play's 2 p.m. matinee that day, and is open to the public free of charge. The Long Wharf production, which will continue through Sunday, May 25, features sets by Ming Cho Lee, professor adjunct of design at the School of Drama. For further information, call the theater's box office at 787-4282.
On Saturdays mornings in March and April, Davies Auditorium of the Becton Engineering and Applied Science Center was packed with high school students who were participating in this year's "Frontiers of Science and Engineering" program. Sponsored by Yale engineering, the free program brought youths from schools in Connecticut as well as from New York and Rhode Island to campus to learn about a variety of topics from faculty members. These included "Light at Night," with Robert G. Wheeler; "Mosquitoes, Ticks and Disease" with John F. Anderson; "Energy: The Ultimate Resource" with D. Allan Bromley; "Man and His Structures: From Pyramids to Nanophase Materials" with Turan Onat; "Can Machines See?" with Peter N. Belhumeur, James S. Duncan, Gregory N. Hager, A. Stephen Morse and Steven W. Zucker; and "Credit Card to Smartcards -- Portable Digital Information" with Roman B. Kuc.