SCIENCE OUTREACH

February 2024

Volume 14

Connecting and Enhancing Community Engagement

Science Outreach will facilitate mutually beneficial and sustainable relationships between Princeton University Science educators and researchers. Science Outreach serves as a nexus connecting faculty, students, and postdocs with youth, schoolteachers, nonprofit organizations, and the broader community with the goal of increasing engagement, participation, equity, and inclusion in STEM fields. Science Outreach supports Astrophysical Sciences, Center for Statistics and Machine Learning, Chemistry, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Geosciences, Mathematics, Molecular Biology, Physics, Princeton Neuroscience Institute, and Psychology.

It's time to

Spring Into Science 2024

Saturday, April 20, 2024

10 am - 1:00 pm

Science Outreach will host its second annual Spring Into Science outreach event on Saturday, April 20, 2024, in the Frick Atrium and PNI. Spring into Science is an event open to all academic departments and campus programs. Participants will include students (4th – 10th graders) from area schools, afterschool programs, and their families. Spring into Science is an outreach opportunity to share engaging and informative science with the community. Spring into Science activities can include small-group presentations, displays, and hands-on activities. Tables will be available for multiple groups in departments to participate. Last year, over 400 students and their families attended this event. You do not want to miss Spring Into Science this year!

Science Outreach Fellows Training

The Science Outreach Fellows had a Science Communication workshop with Dr. Jessica Monaghan, the Assistant Director of STEM for the Program in Teacher Preparation. The Fellows were introduced to universal design for learning and differentiation to create problem-based learning, assessment design, and how to scaffold discussions from the lens of working with K-12 students. The Fellows will be able to use curricular design frameworks to support their science outreach planning and understand the best practices to enhance the accessibility and engagement of all learners.

Young Scientist Roundtable Symposium

Undergraduate students from the Princeton Neuroscience Network and the Science Outreach Fellows hosted sixty high school students who participated in a Young Scientist Roundtable Symposium. The symposium was held at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute on Saturday, February 17 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. During the event, the high school students were provided the opportunity to hear how undergraduate students pursue a course of study, how they are integrated into research labs, conduct research, and formulate their research papers. The students were assigned journal club articles and participated in group discussions about PNI and Psychology research, and they toured the labs they discussed during the journal club sessions. Finally, they engaged in hands-on activities including dissecting a sheep’s brain. The high school students commented that the day was super impactful and gave a broader perspective of the different types of science to study and the practical applications of scientific research. Thank you to all who helped make the symposium a success.

HomeWorks Trenton

Visits the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and the Psychology Department

HomeWorks Trenton is a free, community-based, after-school residential program that provides academic and identity-driven leadership enrichment activities to marginalized high school girls. Princeton alum Natalie Tung, ‘18, is the co-founder and executive director of HomeWorks Trenton.

During a recent visit (Feb. 5) to the Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI), Kirsten Ziman took the scholars from the HomeWorks Trenton program on a dynamic journey through different stages of her research. The first stop was the PNI eye tracking facilities where they discussed how researchers collect and use eye tracking data. This led into a discussion about how her research uses eye tracking data to make the visual stimuli for her experiments. The next leg of the journey was a conference room where they viewed parts of those experiments together on a big screen and tested the eye tracking equipment. They also discussed what it looks like in the brain when people view an actual eye tracking experiment. Finally, the scholars toured the MRI facilities and talked about how researchers collect brain data to answer research questions. Kirsten and the Science Outreach Fellows enjoyed dinner with the thirteen scholars from the HomeWorks program in Yeh College. Thank you, Kirsten, for an impactful afternoon.

Casey Lew-Williams and his lab greeted the scholars for HomeWorks on a recent visit to the Baby Lab. During their visit on February 12, the young women found out that infants and children are the best learners on the planet, but they are also notoriously challenging to study in a scientific setting. The Princeton Baby Lab utilizes a variety of techniques to overcome this challenge. Students met postdoctoral researchers, the lab manager, several undergraduate research assistants, and the professor who directs the lab. They saw hands-on demonstrations of research methods including eye-tracking and baby-friendly neuroimaging. They learned about current studies that aim to capture how moments of surprise help illuminate what children know. Thank you to Steven Elmlinger, Alyssa Guillu, Stevie Custode, and the entire lab for sharing your research with the HomeWorks scholars. The visit ended with the Science Outreach Fellows having dinner with the HomeWorks scholars.

Science Outreach In the Community

Saturday Science

at the Library

Science Outreach volunteers in collaboration with the Trenton Public Library, the Ewing Library, and the Lawrence Library systems, host Saturday Science for students in K - 8th grades. Saturday Science take place once a month. Students engage in hands-on activities and learn innovative science.

Ewing Public Library

10 am - 11:00 am

Lawrence Public Library

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Trenton Free Public Library

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Contact Science Outreach for Saturday Science available volunteer dates.

Click Here to Sign Up

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities

A local high school wants to start a research club and seeks mentor support.

Summer Science Program for refugee kids, ages 7-17 in Jersey City.

Women and Girls Conference (March 23, 9 am - 1 pm) at the Boys and Girls Cub of Mercer County. Contact Science Outreach for more information.

Volunteer for PPPL's Young Women's Conference. Exhibitors can contact PPPL for additional information (March 15)

If you would like to volunteer for any upcoming Science Outreach opportunity, please click the volunteer box below. Volunteers are frequently needed for new outreach opportunities at area schools and community programs. Please indicate the outreach opportunity you are interested in and you will be contacted with additional information.

Community Outreach Events

Let's Track Your Community Outreach

If you, your lab, or your department facilitated an outreach opportunity, please complete the tracking form and upload a photo from your event. We will feature your opportunity in the next edition of the Science Outreach newsletter.