I had the opportunity to work with three outstanding second and third grade classes at Robert S. Payne Elementary School in Lynchburg, Virginia. The students asked excellent questions and discussed their favorite books about Mae Jemison and other astronauts! Robert S. Payne's Tracy Proffitt leads a STREAM (science, technology, reading, engineering, art, and math) lab, through which a number of the students have already been introduced to using a microscope to analyze soil samples. Ms. Proffitt also facilitated a meeting with a group of fifth grade girls who are particularly strong in science and math. We discussed their favorite science icons, including Marie Curie, and I shared some of Rachel Ignotofsky's Women in Science illustrations with them.
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This spring, I am exploring STEM with the wonderful students of Franklin County, Virginia. Largely a rural area, Franklin County is known as "a natural setting for opportunity" and is one of the most beautiful areas that I have visited. The natural landscape around the county's schools provides countless potential learning opportunities for students. I have visited Dudley Elementary and Snow Creek Elementary, where the students offered particularly creative ideas for experiments and microscope applications during our discussions! This year, I have expanded Girls Can Change the World with Science to include visits to elementary schools in Albemarle County and Charlottesville, beginning with a fantastic morning spent with Broadus Wood Elementary's inquisitive second graders. I am also excited to have been invited to work with Katie Philbrook, Broadus Wood's Gifted Resources teacher, to plan a revitalization for the school's large courtyard, which will include projects for the students to use design thinking to explore SOL topics such as soil, erosion, energy sources, and conservation. As Service Co-Chair of the Rodman Scholars Council at the University of Virginia, I work to plan and execute monthly service events for the Rodman program. The first Rodman Scholars service event of 2017 took place at the Virginia Discovery Museum's Kid*Vention, an annual Charlottesville event intended to introduce children to the exploration of exciting scientific fields. This year, Kid*Vention welcomed nearly 1,100 visitors. Our group was fortunate to have the opportunity to serve as an exhibitor at this event aimed at making science exciting and accessible to students in the community. We had a great day making mini lava lamps with the young scientists! During the Jefferson Scholars Foundation's Institute for Leadership and Citizenship this summer, we each had the opportunity to participate in a public speaking workshop with Marcia Pentz of the McIntire School of Commerce, culminating in a speech on a topic about which we are passionate. I chose to expand upon my interest in STEM outreach, and I have included a transcript of the speech below: Jefferson Scholars Foundation Institute for Leadership and Citizenship Speech Monday, August 8, 2016 Many of you have probably heard about my interest in STEM outreach at some point. Thankfully, I’m not here to tell you a list of information that you can easily find by reading my LinkedIn profile. Instead, I want to give you some insights into why I’m motivated to pursue STEM outreach and what that means about who I am, and perhaps I can inspire you to try a little outreach yourselves if you haven’t already. I created my outreach program, Girls Can Change the World with Science, after I completed a project through which I was granted funding to travel to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to research astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. She discovered that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but most of us do not know her story because she did not receive all of the credit that she deserved for her discovery. For example, if I had brought in a stack of science and engineering textbooks as tall as I am, it's very likely that many of them would mention the most abundant element, but it's also very likely that not one of them would mention who discovered that fact. As I interviewed women scientists of several generations for that project, a common thread was that almost all of them told me that they feel that young girls today still need more role models to inspire their interest in STEM fields. I myself have been incredibly fortunate to have grown up with role models. I grew up in a rural setting in which the environment was central, and my father, who is an engineer, farmer, woodworker, auto mechanic, builder, and patented inventor all-in-one, has the strongest work ethic of anyone I have ever met. My mom, who is a state laboratory inspector, has always encouraged and supported me to pursue my interests and passions. I was lucky enough to have those two role models right there beside me growing up. But most young girls are not that lucky. Some children do not have strong role models at home, and it is nearly impossible for them to imagine themselves pursuing a STEM career if they have never even been exposed to the concept in their everyday lives. It is with that in mind that I set out to help girls see themselves as scientists and engineers. At this point, you may be thinking, “Mary-Michael likes working with kids.” But what if I told you that that wasn’t the case, at least when I started out on this path? I’m not someone who naturally has a maternal instinct or who is naturally drawn to kids. When I started working with kids, it was a struggle. I was way out of my comfort zone. Over time, I learned to overcome this by thinking less about myself when I went into a classroom and more about the students and how I could best present myself in a way that would truly make them excited to participate in my presentation and, for example, make them truly want to take a drop of pond water and look at all of the microorganisms inside it with a microscope. One vivid memory of my outreach occurred at Altavista Elementary School, my alma mater, when I asked a group of girls what they thought a scientist looked like. One girl, Sara, raised her hand and said, “a white lab coat and gray and white hair sticking straight up with all these scissors on his hands.” My goal is to help girls realize that, sure, scientists and engineers can look like Albert Einstein, (maybe not Edward Scissorhands, which seems to be what she was describing), but scientists can also look like you and me. They can look like Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to go into space as a NASA astronaut. A scientist or an engineer can also look like those young girls in that classroom. I told Sara that she herself looks like a scientist to me. This summer, I am working as an intern at the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center here in Charlottesville. Not only do I have the opportunity to discuss nature and science with camp groups, but I also spend a significant amount of time kayaking with these students and learn about nature that way. Even though it has only been one summer, I feel that I've been able to make real connections with some of those students. And every time a student that I’ve worked with over the past three years reaches out to me with book suggestions or asks for my advice on science fair project ideas, I feel that what I’m doing, and the relationships that I’ve forged, truly matter. Recognizing that what I do is worthwhile makes me want to continue these connections and this outreach throughout the rest of my life, not just in college, as I pursue my other passions and hopefully a successful career. That's why what we're doing with the Boys and Girls Club on Wednesday is so important. We truly have the power to make a difference in some of those kids' lives. And, who knows, maybe there's a future Jeff Scholar in that group! This summer, I am working at the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center, which serves as a hands-on center focusing on the historic Lewis and Clark expedition as a gateway for learning about STEM, exploration, transportation, the arts, the natural environment, and native cultures. As an extension of my STEM outreach, I collaborate with Executive Director Alexandria Searls and visiting student groups from Charlottesville elementary schools.
This spring, the University of Virginia School of Engineering Rodman Scholars successfully completed the inaugural first year Rodman class service project. The class of 2019 partnered with the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center, which serves as a hands-on center focusing on the historic Lewis and Clark expedition as a gateway for learning about STEM, exploration, transportation, the arts, the natural environment, and native cultures.
Located in Charlottesville’s Darden Towe Park, Lewis and Clark regularly hosts school groups and members of the Charlottesville community. The first year Rodmans completed a large-scale day of service which included building benches, repairing and improving upon existing benches, renovating and varnishing the Red Pirogue boat, making and repairing trail signs, working on biofilters, and beginning work on a pollinator garden. The first year project is the result of the Rodman Scholars Council’s introduction of a new community service initiative in which the first year class plans and executes a service project designed to fulfill a need in the community, make a lasting positive impact, and strengthen the bonds of the class. As the RodCouncil service committee’s first year liaison, I worked with the service co-chairs, Kathleen Galligan and Gage DeZoort, as well as RodCouncil co-president Joey Hsu and Lewis and Clark executive director Alexandria Searls, to plan the event over the course of last semester. In addition to its positive impact on the community, its fulfillment of Lewis and Clark’s need, and its great degree of permanence, this service project further strengthened the bonds of our first year class and promoted togetherness. Through this project, we added group service to our existing academic, social, and extracurricular interactions. The process of working with each other to plan and execute a meaningful contribution to a local organization was a positive experience that fostered a sense of community and an interest in service. Lately, as I've been working on a Ray Bradbury English project and an online aerospace course, I've thought about the fact that the initiative of the space race to the Moon produced a generation of brilliant scientists, provided a spark for student interest in science, and was the source of enormous national pride in the fact that America was indeed a leader in science. The collateral benefits from the initiative were priceless to the future of science and technology.
There has been no real comparably focused and persevering government initiative in the sciences since that time. Could there be a correlation between this and the tremendous waning in science interest among American students since the space race? It is human nature to push the limits of the most advanced tools that we have at any time to prosper. President Obama’s speech to NASA promoting cancellation of future lunar landings, with the emphasis refocused on manned missions to new frontiers such as Mars and near earth asteroids, echoes Kennedy’s push to put a man on the Moon in some ways. America has been to the Moon numerous times, so it is natural to want to discover an entirely new frontier and reap the associated technological benefits. On January 8, 2014, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a press release announcing the U.S.'s decision to support the extension of the life of the International Space Station from 2020 to 2024. The press release also stated that the United States has a goal of sending humans to "Mars, asteroids, and other distant destinations." The decision by the U.S. to extend its participation in the life of the ISS is an exciting development in scientific news. This will undoubtedly lead to further medical and technological developments, commercial space activity, research, and international cooperation. An interesting video, Benefits for Humanity: In Their Own Words, explores many spinoffs from ISS technology that are benefiting humanity on Earth and can be viewed on YouTube at http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HhsaKTFz0TM. Fifteen nations are collaborating in ISS research which melds their talents to make our planet a better place. I am hopeful that our nation's schools are informing students of the exciting developments occurring every day as a result of the ISS and that those students will locate within themselves the sense of passion and fascination expressed during the Space Race era. "The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible." ~Ray Bradbury |
Mary-Michael RobertsonI work with young girls in an effort to inspire them to consider futures in STEM careers. Archives
June 2020
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