This past Friday, I crawled out of my academic ivory tower,
dusted off my social skills, and paid a visit to the 5th and 6th
grade science classes as Cesar E. Chavez Multicultural Academic Center in Chicago to chat about being a scientist. I was treated like a celebrity. I
can’t wait to go back!
I should probably mention that my sister teaches at Chavez,
and I was such an object of wonder because the students adore my sister. Still,
it was a great ego boost, considering that I had brought trash as my object
lesson. We used the trash to talk about how long it would take different items to
decay and where the trash would end up if it were washed into Chicago’s
stormwater system. Regardless, what kind of mean visitor brings in old (clean) milk jugs
and gives them to kids?
Well folks, I’m a scientist, and I did. But mostly I told
the students about being a scientist. I shared pictures with them and told
them about the fieldwork in 8-degree weather in the middle-of-nowhere that
earned me my MS. They wanted to know if I was ever scared, and, also, did the
water bugs bite my hands? And furthermore, why did my sister have yellow hair
and I had brown? Try explaining genetics to an audience that hasn’t studied Punnett
Squares, yet. Actually, I dare you, do try it.
While I taught a lesson, the science teachers didn’t need my
help to do their jobs—what they really wanted was to introduce these students
to a real, live scientist. I was there to tell these students about all the options and adventures
a career in science had given me and to suggest that science could open doors
for them, too.
We like to joke that scientists and engineers don’t have
good social skills, and that’s why we’re terrible at outreach. But visiting
this school didn’t take a lot of skill. It took a smile, one pretty lame story,
and a desire to answer questions on my part, and the kids did the rest. What do
you think: do you like this model of outreach, or would you rather participate
in a more formal setting, like a science expo?
