Outreach

Science communication

USA Science Festival

I helped the Buckley lab create and man a microbiome-themed booth for the USA Science & Engineering Festival in 2018. The booth featured live microscopy of protists from termite guts and freshwater algae, free cardboard microscopes for home use, and a microbiome puzzle game.

Check out this blog post that I co-wrote where we reflect on lessons learned from this event.

Whiterock Conservency Bioblitz

I lead soil sessions for the Whiterock Conservancy Bioblitz in the summers of 2015 and 2016. I designed hands-on activities to get people thinking about the importance of soil health and ecology. You can see various clips of me leading sessions starting around 6 minutes into this video made by Iowa PBS.

Edwards Elementary School Science Night

As part of the Microbiology Graduate Student Organization at Iowa State University, I organized and lead hands-on activities for the yearly Edwards Elementary Science Night. Activities included such hits as the “build-a-microbe” station, fluorescent hand washing, and live microscopy of pond water.

Science Art: “Soil Breathes”

As an undergraduate at Western Washington University, I took an inter-disciplinary art and ecology course. I partnered with two art students to create a piece that communicated a scientific concept to its viewers. We made casts of our own faces and used the mold to create clay and soil masks. The casts represent how soils breath carbon dioxide out (just like us) as part of the global carbon cycle. The art was displayed in the Western Gallery at Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA in 2014.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Intergroup Dialogue Project

The Intergroup Dialogue Project at Cornell aims to teach skills that promote human connection, recognition of social identities and power structures within society, and methods of communication that bridge social differences. I am a Fellow with IDP and facilitate workshops for graduate students, post docs, and staff at Cornell to help teach these skills.

Expanding Your Horizons

Expanding Your Horizons is a program hosted by Cornell that introduces middle-school girls to science by pairing them with a graduate student “buddy” and hosting fun science workshops to pique their interest in various fields. I’ve enjoyed spending a day each year buddying with a student and stoking her interest in STEM.

Diversity Preview Weekend

Diversity Preview Weekend is a graduate-student led program that helps underrepresented students learn about and prepare for graduate school. My involvement has included serving on advice panels, volunteering at events, and reviewing and discussing graduate school application materials with participants.

Science Bound

Science Bound is an initiative at Iowa State University that empower underrepresented students in Iowa to explore STEM degrees and careers. I organized and lead a variety of microbiology workshops for ages ranging from elementary to high school students. This included a workshop to teach students about bacteria living on plant leaves, and a multi-workshop event to introduce high schoolers to careers in microbiology and various topics therein, such as microbiology in human health and the environment.