Katie Page Receives the 2014-2015 Dr. Elizabeth A. Ennis Innovator Award
Congratulations to Reach for the Stars Teacher Fellow Katie Page, for receiving the 2014-2015 Dr. Elizabeth A. Ennis Innovator Award! Katie works with graduate student Sam Hadden.
Graduate Student Speaker Series nears capacity for 2015 programing
The Graduate Student Speaker Series. (GS3) has a few remaining openings for presentations at local high school science departments. Please contact Michelle Paulsen (m-paulsen@northwestern.edu) to schedule an event.
Meagan Morscher Wins Block Award
Reach for the Stars Alumni Meagan Morscher won the Martin and Beate Block Award for her presentation at the Aspen Center for Physics’ winter conference on Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters.
The Block award is given to one promising young physicist at each winter conference, in honor of the founder of the winter conference series, Martin Block.
Meagan began her training in science communication in 2010 as an inaugural member of the Reach for the Stars program, to which she returned in 2013 in a leadership capacity and founder of the Graduate Student Speaker Series.
New Program ‘The Graduate Student Speaker Series’ (GS3) Launches
The Graduate Student Speaker Series (GS3) is a newly-launched program that has been created as an extension of two Northwestern programs: Reach for the Stars and Ready, Set, Go.
In this program, Northwestern Ph.D. candidates visit local high schools to present their cutting-edge research to small groups of STEM teachers, answer questions, and discuss ways to incorporate the research content into the high-school classroom. GS3 hosted a kick-off event at Maine East High School on February 6th. All high school STEM teachers were encouraged to join to learn about the exciting research being done at Northwestern across many STEM disciplines.
Michelle Paulsen Contributes to Science Communication Conference
Michelle Paulsen, director of CIERA’s “Reach for the Stars” program, was invited to the #GradSciComm workshop at the National Academy of Sciences; this workshop brought together 30 science communication leaders to explore ways to incorporate science communication training into STEM graduate education.
Taking place on December 5th and 6th, this conference focused on new ways to improve the communication skills of graduate students to non-technical audiences. The NSF-funded Reach for the Stars program fits well with this goal: it helps graduate students build strong communication skills through their work with teachers in K-12 classrooms.
Reach for the Stars Invited to Springfield for One-Day Workshop
Six of CIERA‘s Reach for the Stars teachers and graduate fellows were in Springfield, Illinois, on Friday August 9th to run a one-day computational modeling workshop for middle and high school teachers. The group was invited to give this workshop to share the materials they have developed as part of CIERA’s NSF GK-12 program.
Michelle Paulsen, Ami LeFevre contribute to writing of “The Power of Partnerships: A Guide from the NSF GK-12 Program”
Reach for the Stars participants Michelle Paulsen (Program Director) and Ami LeFevre contributed to the writing of “The Power of Partnerships: A Guide from the NSF GK-12 Program”. This guide, compiled by the National Science Foundation, provides effective practices for creating STEM based projects and programs. K-12 teachers and administrators will be able to turn to this guide as a reference point for creating their own GK-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs.
The National Science Foundation gathers information from across the country to capture the knowledge and experiences from more than 10,000 graduate students, 1,000 principal investigators (university faculty), 300 project evaluators, and 12,000 K–12 teachers.
Michelle Paulsen co-authored Chapter 9, entitled “Evaluating Projects”. Ami LeFevre contributed to Chapter 3, entitled “Effective Recruitment and Selection Strategies for GK-12 Fellows and Teachers”. Additionally, a featured item on Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky’s visit to Northwestern’s appears in Chapter 10.
The complete guide is available online.
Nearly 70 Chicago-area Student Research Projects Featured at Northwestern
CIERA’s Reach for the Stars contributed to the 6th Annual Northwestern University High School Project Showcase on May 20, 2013. This event was hosted by The School of Education and Social Policy’s Office of STEM Education Partnerships (OSEP) and took place in the Norris University Center as part of Northwestern University’s Undergraduate Research and Arts Exposition.
Throughout the day nearly 70 Chicago-area high school students showcased posters of their research projects. The students each created their projects as part of the project-based math or science curriculum at their school or through an independent student research course or club. Some even created them as an entirely independent project. Scientists and professionals from Northwestern adjudicated projects; the event wrapped up with an awards ceremony.
The winners were Barrett McCabe for “The Effects of a Hydroponics System on the Growth Rate of Tanacetum cinerariifoium in Comparison to Traditional Soil Agriculture” in life science; Sean Hickey for “The Use of Activated Sludge Process in the Bioremediation of Heavy Metal Contamination in Drinking Water” in environmental science; Connor Kotte for “Variations in the Duration of Sleep in Danio rerio in Response to Changes in Melatonin Levels” in human biology; and Dekonti Davies from Walter Payton College Preparatory High School for “Trench Etching in MOSFETs” in physical science.
Winners in the two curriculum project categories were Leandro Padilla for the critter project and Jessica Molloy-Garcia, Richard Guzman, Carlos Anguiano, Mari Hernandez for the Florida school project.This showcase has been an important component of Northwestern’s, OSEP’s, and CIERA’s goal to encourage students to explore hands-on, inquiry-based STEM learning.
Learn more about the event here.
Reach for the Stars held “Computational Thinking and Mathematical Modeling” Workshop
On May 13th, Reach for the Stars held “Computational Thinking and Mathematical Modeling”, a workshop that drew 35 middle and high school teachers and administrators from across the Chicago Public School District. This free, all-day event addressed questions such as: What are Computational Thinking and Mathematical Modeling? How are these skills utilized by university researchers? How can they be taught as part of the existing high school science and mathematics curricula? Are they already being taught?
These questions were explored by speakers from Reach for the Stars, Net Logo and CT-STEM who specialize in a variety of areas including Astronomy, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physical Science, Earth Science and Computer Science. The workshop included presentations on the role Computational Thinking and Mathematical Modeling play in the Next Generation Science Standards, and break-out sessions where participants had the opportunity to choose from an assortment of small group presentations. Attendees left with a new set of ideas and tools with-which they can more effectively teach students various math and sciences.
