Department of Astronomy 2024-2025 DEI Series Presents:
Dr. Allison Matthews, Fellow, Carnegie Observatories
"Demystifying STEM through pen-pal relationships"
Letters to a Pre-Scientist (LPS) aims to humanize STEM professionals, demystify science career paths, and inspire students’ curiosity to explore a future in STEM. To achieve this, LPS pairs fifth-tenth grade students (“pre-scientists”) in low-income US communities with STEM professionals from around the world for a year-long, pen-pal relationship facilitated during science class. Through a highly personalized matching process, the students learn about different science careers and higher education pathways from an individual STEM professional who shares similar hobbies, interests, and/or life experiences. LPS opts for this “snail-mail” approach in order to maximize the program's accessibility for all students, reaching those that are not traditionally targeted by STEM extracurriculars. In this Conversions in Equity and Inclusion, I will introduce the program and its unique approach to cultivating meaningful relationships between scientists and students who have limited access to traditional outreach efforts.
Letters to a Pre-Scientist (LPS) aims to humanize STEM professionals, demystify science career paths, and inspire students’ curiosity to explore a future in STEM. To achieve this, LPS pairs fifth-tenth grade students (“pre-scientists”) in low-income US communities with STEM professionals from around the world for a year-long, pen-pal relationship facilitated during science class. Through a highly personalized matching process, the students learn about different science careers and higher education pathways from an individual STEM professional who shares similar hobbies, interests, and/or life experiences. LPS opts for this “snail-mail” approach in order to maximize the program's accessibility for all students, reaching those that are not traditionally targeted by STEM extracurriculars. In this Conversions in Equity and Inclusion, I will introduce the program and its unique approach to cultivating meaningful relationships between scientists and students who have limited access to traditional outreach efforts.
| Building: | West Hall |
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| Website: | |
| Event Type: | Lecture / Discussion |
| Tags: | astronomy, astrophysics |
| Source: | Happening @ Michigan from Department of Astronomy, Department of Physics, Michigan Institute for Research in Astrophysics |
