Dear miRcorers,
Now we are at about 1/3 of our 2025-26 MVP meetings. We spent an unusually long time understanding biology related to infectious diseases due to their unique features. Now, we will delve more deeply into data analysis and gene networks. Thanks for sharing your group’s research progress at 9th meetings. We will do similar check-ins before the Thanksgiving break (no meeting during the breaks).
1) 10th MVP meeting agenda
1:30-2 pm ET: Office hour run by education committee
2-2:25 pm ET: miRcore transcriptome research methods
2:25-2:35 pm ET: Student teaching
2:35-2:45 pm ET: Committee announcement
2:45-3 pm ET: Promote Middle School Biology Workshop
3-4 pm: Group activities
4-4:30 pm: Committee meeting
2) Upcoming: November 15th agenda
11:45 am – 2:15 pm ET: Middle School Biology Workshop (UM, Scripps, Virtual)
2:15 – 2:30 pm ET: transition
2:30 – 3:30 pm ET: Invited speaker, Dr. Adam Lauring talk in person at Dow Building room 1013, University of Michigan Engineering School (GIDAS members and parents invited)
3:30 – 4 pm ET: Group work
4-4:30 pm: Committee meeting
3) From the Education Committee:
3a) Zoom Training Session for Middle School Biology Workshop (11/7)
All registered student teachers and group leaders have been asked to attend a mandatory Zoom training session this Friday, 11/7, from 5-6 PM PDT/8-9 PM EST. During this meeting, we will go over content, logistics, and important background information. If you have a conflict, please email an Education Committee officer with a valid reason. Thank you for helping make this year’s workshop a success!
3b) Emails to Schools for Middle School Biology Workshop
We strongly encourage all MVPers to continue emailing elementary and middle schools in their area (especially near UMich!) Event attendance relies on outreach. The more students we reach, the more we get the opportunity to work with! Remember that three emails will give you 15 minutes towards your five required fundraising hours.
Adding to the Education committee note: the University of Michigan site registration number is half of the Scripps site’s. So, Ann Arbor area students, please contact your middle school teachers, principals about the upcoming workshop. I remember a couple of principals contacted about the workshop last year thanks to our students. It will be nice to have similar responses this year.
4) Searching for NorCal meeting location
Parents, if you know places which can host our NorCal student meetings, please let me know. NorCal Committee Chair Claire has been looking at various places but we couldn’t find a place for the 15th meeting yet. Though we will not be able to meet locally on the 15th, we are exploring places for future dates. Please help.
5) Attendance and group consolidation
We will shift/combine group members based on your attendance after this weekend (Nov 9th). Thanks for sharing your commitment when you are missing the meetings. Please respond to the weekly projection form – welcome to add notes – so that I have the record of your commitment as well as contact your group leader cc’ing your members for your absence or attendance.
6) miRcore student website and volunteer hours
We are in the final testing stage for a volunteer login site where you can find your own volunteer hours. Your miRcore id will be the key, so please contact Veena if you don’t have the ID yet.
7) Reminder to GIDAS leaders (repeat item)
Please advertise the upcoming talk at UM campus at 2:30 pm ET on November 15th by Dr. Adams Lauring. He welcomed the local school students for his talk. He is the section head of infectious disease at the University of Michigan Medical School with research interest in the genetics and evolution of RNA viruses and a great speaker. Yes, he will be in-person at UM.
Location: Room 1013, Dow Engineering Building (Dow, Dow Herbert H. Building), University of Michigan North Campus (2300 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109)
8)Attendance projection form
Consult the weekly email for the form link. Please respond as soon as possible. If you don’t submit the form by Friday 11 pm ET, you are not guaranteed to get this weekend’s meeting link.
Thanks for reading the important messages above as you pledged to sign up for MVP.
Inhan Lee, Ph.D.
Have Questions?
Visit the FAQ page to see commonly asked questions and their answers!
Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH talks to miRcore students about the role of genomics in modern medicine.
Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D.Director, National Institute of Health speaks to miRcore students about COVID-19, health disparities, and precision medicine.
Jonathan Pevsner, Ph.D, Chief of Genomics Research Branch, NIMH, NIH speaks to miRcore students on the topic of Genes and Mental Health.
• March trilogy (graphic novel, multiple authors)
• Bone series (graphic novel, Jeff Smith)
• The Door Within (Wayne Thomas Batson)
• To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
• Candide (Voltaire)
• The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexander Dumas)
• Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
• I Am Malala (Malala Yousafzai)
• The Cactus (Sarah Haywood)
• 1984 (George Orwell)
• The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Kelly Barnhill)
• The Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware)
• The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
• Silent Spring (Rachel Carson)
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Robert A. Heinlein)
• The Farewell (2019)
• Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
• Office Space (1999)
• Vinland Saga (Summer 2019 Anime)
• What Happened to Monday (2017)
• Always Be My Maybe (2019)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• Gattaca (1997)
• Re:Zero (Spring 2016 Anime)
• The Incredibles (2004)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
• “I decided to memorize the dictionary. I got through six pages before I got too bored. I learned next to nothing.”
• Trust Me, I’m a “Biologist”
• “What’s the difference between a poorly dressed person on a bicycle and a well dressed person on a tricycle? Attire.”
• “Why should you save your pennies? Because it makes good cents”
• xkcd
• “Medieval medicine wasn’t always on point, but those medieval physicians sure had a sense of humour!”
• “Twin 1 is in prison for 20 years. After 10 years, he calls his twin.’Hey, remember how we always said we finish each other’s sentences?'”
• “We really need to stop talking about mitosis… it’s such a divisive issue!”
• “A chemist walks into a bar with his friend after work. He tells the bartender, “Can I get an H2O?” His buddy looks at him strangely. “George, you don’t have to say it like that. We’re not at work anymore.”
The first chemist walks into the bathroom and cries. His assassination plot has failed.”
• “Haikus are easy / But sometimes they don’t make sense / Refrigerator”
• “‘My ability to do calculus is limited.’
‘Is it approaching zero?'”
• “‘You got any sodium jokes?’
‘Na!'”
• (^in response^) “I slapped my neon that one!”
• “‘I tried to sue the airline for losing my luggage’
‘Did you win?’
‘I lost the case'”
• Checklists/scheduling
• Planning something enjoyable after studying
• Switching between studying and relaxing
• Using a dedicated study room to shift mindset
• Forest app
• Pomodoro method
• Turning off notifications (Do Not Disturb)
• Classical music/marches
• Turn off any music so it’s not distracting
How to Use Zoom, MVP GDrive, and Skribbl.io
How to use Zoom
Zoom is a free platform that offers video conferencing, screen sharing, and chatroom functionalities. You can seamlessly set up online meetings, send out invitations for people to join, and add meetings to your Microsoft Outlook/Google Calendar using Zoom. All miRcore volunteers are expected to have Zoom installed for use in group research meetings and committee meetings.
You can download the Zoom Desktop application (the “Zoom Client”) for Mac or PC here: here.
Instructions for setting up and using Zoom are available here.
The Zoom application is also available for mobile devices: Zoom at the App Store and Zoom on Google Play
How to Navigate the miRcore Volunteer Program’s Google Drive Folders
At the beginning of each volunteering season, miRcore volunteers receive access to several Google Drive folders containing resources for research, fundraising, and other miRcore activities. Depending on the folder, volunteers will have “View only” or “Editing” permission in each Drive folder.
Please see this presentation (courtesy of Rhea Cong, miRcore Volunteer Program Vice President, 2019-20) for details on how to navigate the Drive system and set up research folders for your research group: https://docs.google.com/
Google Drive Hierarchy (Folders and Subfolders)
• 2019-20 MVP Resources
• Useful files
• RNA division
• Practice Data
• Meeting Slides
• 2019-20 MVP Research
• MVP RNA
• MVP DNA
• MVP online
• MVP general
• Fundraisers
• miRcore Officers 2019-2020 (this folder is accessible only to miRcore Officers)
Skribbl.io Instructions
How to Join:
• Have one member go to skribbl.io
• Have that member click ‘Create Private Room’
• Change the settings to 8 rounds and 40 seconds per turn
• That group member will send the link (at the bottom) to the other people to join
• Once everybody has clicked the link and is in the room, press start!
The goal of the game is to try to guess what other people are drawing. When it’s your turn to draw, try to make your drawing convey the word you are given so that other people will be able to guess. The person with the most points wins.
Today’s game should start and wrap up in about 10 mins.