Letters to a Pre-Scientist

I serve on the Advisory Board as a member of the Development Committee for this wonderful non-profit. With the program, I have been a pen-pal to some amazing students all across the country—from rural Illinois to the heart of Los Angeles. Through a pen-pal relationship, students from low-income communities connect with STEM professionals to explore what they do at work, to broaden student ideas of what scientists really look like, and to inspire them to explore their own future in STEM. Read more about it, here!

Higher Education and Outreach Research

I believe it is important for outreach organizations to self-reflect and assess whether their program is meeting its goal. Under the umbrella of the Dark Skies, Bright Kids organization, I led the ``Assessments Team’’ and pursued several studies on the impact of our outreach efforts.

  • Through the “Draw a Scientist Test” we ask the students to draw their idea of a scientists before joining the club and meeting ourselves and on the last day of the program. We found that students perceive a gender imbalance (~30% drew female scientists) that only slightly improves through participation, but that there is a significant decrease in students who draw a scientist doing a stereotypical activity after the club (e.g. working with beakers). These results were published in the peer-reviewed Physical Review Physics Education Research journal.
  • We examined astronomy graduate students’ responses to open-ended survey questions about their experience volunteering with an educational outreach program to investigate how participating in outreach influenced their identity and self-efficacy as scientists and educators. We found that ‘connecting with students’ and ‘difficulty managing behavior’ enhanced and diminished, respectively, participants’ confidence and identity as scientists and educators. We suggest ways in which universities and departments can aid graduate students’ experience in educational outreach and the myriad of benefits that the individual, university, and community may reap when a higher value is placed on participation in educational outreach in graduate programs. These results were published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement.

Dark Skies, Bright Kids

Dark Skies, Bright Kids is a primarily graduate-student led organization out of the Astronomy Department at the University of Virginia. The program’s mission is “to foster the natural curiosity of children in the surrounding community by helping them to explore the Universe in a social setting with fun, hands-on activities.” As a part of this team, I organized and led week-long summer camps in rural parts of Virginia, put on Star Parties for the community that attracted 500 people, and converted our usual hands-on activities to a virtual format during the pandemic.

Astronomy on Tap - Charlottesville

Exciting and informal astronomy presentations and pub trivia are brought into the bar to reach a wider audience. While founded in New York City, the Charlottesville community has a plethora of both astronomers and breweries that lead to fun nights talking science with the public. For up-to-date information on when the next AoT event is happening in Charlottesville, keep an eye on their Facebook page. To read more about the nation-wide organization, go here!