Our lab member, Claire Kunkle, just finished up a second semester of outreach, working with 7th graders at JFK Middle School. The program, dubbed “Be a Scientist”, brings graduate students from various science and engineering majors from UC Berkeley and pairs them with small groups of 7th graders to guide the students through their own path of discovery in a 6-week science project. Claire worked with 3 students to help them develop testable questions, hypothesis, materials lists, and procedures before they actually got to perform their experiments and analyze results.
“I really enjoyed the chance to get to know the students personally and help them through developing their own unique ideas to investigate phenomena that they found fascinating”
This was her second time doing this program since starting in our lab in the Fall. Claire says that continuing to do outreach keeps her grounded and allows her to really focus on how her research and efforts can impact the greater community.
For more information about “Be A Scientist” you can visit their website.