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Middle school girls who are entering the seventh or eighth grade this fall are invited to explore how engineering, math and science affect their lives by attending a free Energy Education Workshop offered by the Women in Engineering Program at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ.

In a mock divorce trial created by the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ’s Center of the American West, people representing ColoradoÂ’s urban and rural areas will argue their sides complete with a bailiff and a judge on Friday, June 30, in Idalia. The program will be held at the Route 36 Bar and Grill at 26375 U.S. Highway 36 in Idalia beginning at 8 p.m.

Mark your calendars and pull out your picnic baskets because the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ is hosting "Picnic on the Quad," July 8, beginning at 3 p.m. in the historic Norlin Quadrangle. Free activities at the picnic will continue into the evening and include live music, hands-on science workshops for kids, ice-skating and ice cream, sidewalk chalk art projects and special visits from CU-Â鶹ӰԺ’s Ralphie the buffalo and Will Shakespeare himself.

Margaret Murnane, a professor of physics at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ, is the winner of a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship sometimes known as the "genius grant." She is the fourth CU-Â鶹ӰԺ faculty member to receive the prestigious award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago. Murnane was one of 25 recipients of this year's awards.

Nearly 100 underrepresented rural and minority high school students from Denver, Â鶹ӰԺ and St. Vrain Valley schools will get the chance to be engineering students at CU-Â鶹ӰԺ June 21-24 through an expansion of the popular Success Institute.

A University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ researcher has been awarded a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship from The Cancer Fund of the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Foundation of New York.

High school students from throughout Colorado will participate in CU-Â鶹ӰԺ’s Business Leadership Program June 11-17, sponsored by the College of Business and local corporations. The free program offers 30 outstanding minority students the opportunity to get a head start on their college careers.

Katy Garmany will present her final live astronomy show at Fiske Planetarium June 16 ending a nine-year stay as director of the planetarium and Sommers-Bausch Observatory at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ and 26 years on campus. In July, Garmany will begin a new position at Columbia UniversityÂ’s Biosphere 2 astronomy program in Tucson, Ariz., where she will be one of three full-time faculty teaching a variety of astronomy courses and supervising observation projects for a class of about 25 students.

The CU Parents Association at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ will host a series of orientation barbecues for parents of incoming students in June and July at the University Club. The barbecues coincide with orientation sessions for new freshmen and transfer students and provide opportunities for new CU-Â鶹ӰԺ parents to become acquainted with the associationÂ’s board members, the office of parent relations and staff from student affairs programs and services. The sessions also provide a time to meet and greet parents from around the world.

ItÂ’s a good idea that just got better. The College of Engineering and Applied Science at CU-Â鶹ӰԺ is expanding its popular High School Honors Institute to reach middle school students interested in careers in math and science. The college is collaborating with the St. Vrain Valley School District on a pilot program that will bring 24 seventh and eighth grade students to the campus for a two-day residential program, June 15-16. Organizers hope to be able to open the program to other school districts for participation in future years.