Advanced patient simulators help University of Iowa College of Nursing students master clinical skills, but they can't replace the human element needed to learn consultation and teaching. That's where community volunteers come in.

The Iowa Summer Music Camps, presented by the University of Iowa School of Music, will offer four camps in 2014, focusing on piano, musical theater, percussion, and jazz. Application deadline is May 2; an early bird discount applies to applications submitted by April 18.

The University of Iowa School of Music will present a free recital by Jamaican pianist Paul Shaw at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 13, in Riverside Recital Hall on the UI campus.

University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Michelle Huneven and Mona Simpson will read from their new novels at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the University of Iowa Writing University website.

University of Iowa alumni can make career contacts in a new online networking series from the alumni association.

A University of Iowa Alumni Association event April 22 focuses on what children learn by watching television and other media.

Update 4/9 9:09 a.m.-Postponed. UI Facilities Management Landscape Services staff intend to conduct a prairie burn Wednesday, April 9, starting at 8:30 a.m., weather permitting. The prairie burn will occur adjacent to Hawkins Drive and west of the Ronald McDonald House.

UI alumnus and craft-chocolate maker Michael Mast will speak about his new cookbook Thursday, April 10, at 6:30 p.m. The first 100 people to arrive at Shambaugh Auditorium for the presentation will receive a small sample of Mast Brothers chocolate.

The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop will present a free reading by poet, performer, and librettist Douglas Kearney at 8 p.m., Monday, April 14, in the Frank Conroy Reading Room of the Glenn Schaeffer Library, adjacent to the Dey House.

The University of Iowa will host a range of activities and events to commemorate Earth Month, which runs for most of April. A selection is highlighted below for the media, while the events, where noted, are open to the public.

UI graduate student Andrew Nelson examined the effectiveness of several methods of measuring radium levels in flowback water, including gamma-ray spectroscopy, emanation techniques, and EPA method 903.0.

The process of 3-D printing of living organs will be the subject of the 2014 Paul D. Scholz Symposium on Technology and its Role in Society to be held from 5 to 5:50 p.m. Thursday, April 10, in Lecture Hall 1, Van Allen Hall.