Using best practices to engage, excite, and educate.

I’m undoubtedly the happiest when I’m surrounded by children observing chemical reactions, connecting circuits, collecting data, and simply exploring the world around them. My interest in science education pedagogy and practice began in college and since has incorporated far-reaching, diverse, and fulfilling outreach initiatives.
 
Read below to learn about just a few of my past adventures in science outreach.

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Carnegie Institution for Science 

USA Science & Engineering Festival

The USA Science & Engineering Festival is the largest science festival in the country, taking place every two years in Washington, DC. Organizations from across the country make the trip to DC to participate in this *party of all parties* dedicated solely to celebrating science, technology, engineering, and innovation. The festival's 3000+ exhibits and 30+ stage shows draw in over 350,000 visitors and lasts three days. It is an event to be seen and experienced!

MY ROLE:

American Association for the Advancement of Science - 2014
In 2014, a colleague and I managed a 2,000 square foot exhibit space consisting of 6 hands-on stations around the theme “Brain Meets World: Science of the Senses”. Activities at 5 of the stations were used from the previous Festivals and I developed and designed the activities at the 6th station: the “Brain Station". The Brain Station focused on how the brain controls our senses. In addition, I ran all volunteer recruitment and scheduling and managed all 75 volunteers over the entire 3-day event. I also helped manage event logistics such as booth setup, contracts, shipping, and budgets along with my colleagues.
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Me and 3 of the Science Cheerleaders
Carnegie Institution for Science - 2016
Using my Festival experience from 2014, I managed booth festivities for Carnegie Science at the 2016 USA Science & Engineering Festival. I designed the 1,600 square foot booth, creating all marketing and booth materials (signage, tablecloths, giveaways, hand-outs, etc). I developed, designed, and implement half of the exhibit’s educational content, while the other half was content delivered by a rotation of scientists from our local labs. I also managed all volunteer and event logistics as described above. It was an incredibly successful and exciting event. 

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Public Science Days

For almost 30 years, Public Science Day (PSD, now referred to as “Classroom Science Day”) has been the opening event for the AAAS Annual Meeting. PSD engages local students in science through interactive and hands-on experiences. The program inspires students in grades K – 12, primarily from under-served neighborhoods, to understand the increasing importance of science and technology in their lives. Through tailored collaboration between AAAS, sponsors, and partners in the local communities, the event brings together resources from across the city to promote engaging, out-of-classroom learning experiences. The goal is to create sustainable connections and partnerships between the students and the community. PSD participation includes transportation, lunch and/or snacks, admission, and souvenirs at no cost to the attendees.

MY ROLE:

In 2013, I teamed with a colleague to host PSD at Harvard University in partnership with the Harvard Museum of Natural History and Harvard's Life Sciences Outreach program. In the morning, over 80 middle-school students from the city of Chelsea attended the "STEM Careers Fair," an event lead by graduate student scientists. In the afternoon, 170 K-5 students from after-school programs, primary local Boys and Girls Clubs, attended the "Science Activity Fair" in which university students led engaging science activities set up within the exhibits of the museum. 
In 2014, I took over complete coordination of PSD, this time in Chicago. Over 800 students from local elementary schools visited The Field Museum where scientists were on hand to share their research and explore the artifacts and specimens from the Museum’s collection. Concurrently, the Nature Museum provided an environmental education program ​for 200 students.
In addition, I planned a new PSD initiative, the “Teen Press Pass”, in which 10 teens from the Chicago Area shadowed journalists as they attended scientific sessions and press events, learning first-hand about science journalism as a career. ​
PSD 2015 was held in my hometown of San Jose, Ca! I partnered with The Lawrence Hall of Science, serving 1000 students from schools and after-school programs around San Jose. The event was held at the San Jose Convention Center and consisted of two hands-on festivals and a science show for all participants. I also partnered with the Tech Museum of Innovation, treating 1000 participating students to a full day of admission and special activities set up around the museum. In addition to organizing the events and coordination of participants, I also recruited and managed over 50 volunteers from around the Bay Area to help run the event.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Public Science Day grew every year that I was involved. Between my first and second year, PSD grew from serving 250 students to 1000. In 2014, I worked with the Development staff to secure twice the event budget in outside contributions (from $20,000 to $40,000) and as a result, over 2000 K-12 students were served. In addition, the number of partnering organizations that came together to make these all-day events a reality was astounding; I alone worked with over 10 organizations in the short two years I independently ran PSD.

Learn more about my work in partnered programs or more about my PSD giveaways.

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

White House Easter Egg Roll

In 2009, AAAS began partnering with the White House during its annual Easter Egg Roll. In addition to the egg rolling, hunting, and dyeing, the event has evolved since its inception in 1878 to include cooking demonstrations, storytelling, and live music for its now nearly 35,000 attendees. Luckily for all of us, the Obama administration made a big push to booster U.S. competitiveness, making science and technology a key component of its campaign, and creating a push to develop outreach initiatives that cultivated future STEM leaders. As a result, the "Eggsperiment Zone" was added to the more traditional Easter Egg Roll Eggactivities to serve as a place of inquiry and discovery. AAAS hosted booths with an array of exciting, hands-on activities.

MY ROLE:

In my first year at AAAS, I teamed up with a colleague to host "The Science Inside You" a series of educational activities showing the relationship between calories and exercise, complementing the Easter Egg Roll’s “Be Healthy, Be Active, Be You!” theme and encouraging children to lead healthy, active lives as part of Michelle Obama's “Let’s Move!” initiative. In addition to helping with content logistics, I was in charge of all volunteer coordination, including recruitment, training, and scheduling.

​Watch me describe our 2013 exhibit in this fun video!
I took over coordination for the White House Easter Egg Roll in 2014 and continued to manage the event in 2015, expanding the program from 30 volunteers to 50 as attendance for the event grew. Both years our booth was themed "Sink or Float". Children learned about concepts like buoyancy and density, made predictions about whether common items would sink or float, and then made boats with household items like straws, styrofoam plates, and popsicle sticks. Booth visitors would then test the boat’s durability by adding beans as "cargo” and then redesign their boats as needed.
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In addition to the development and design of the day’s activities, I independently managed all event logistics, including materials, contracts, shipping, volunteer recruitment, scheduling, and management.

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