{"id":19323,"date":"2021-01-25T15:41:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T15:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/?p=19323"},"modified":"2023-06-08T18:24:11","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T18:24:11","slug":"stem-outreach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/01\/25\/stem-outreach","title":{"rendered":"Ambassadors from the land of STEM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new cohort of student ambassadors from the University of Washington Bothell will be reaching out to community college students underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math to let them know they\u2019re welcome in the land of STEM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UW Bothell ambassadors known as the STEM Public Outreach Team or SPOT<\/a> have been operating since Dr. Joey Shapiro Key brought the idea to campus in 2016. Last year, the assistant professor in the School of STEM <\/a>received support for SPOT through a Scholarship, Research and Creative Practice seed grant. The year-long grant project will show how SPOT can recruit women, ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities, people with low-income backgrounds and those who will be the first in their immediate families to receive a four-year college degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal is to support diverse students in the School of STEM, which is not as diverse as UW Bothell as a whole, said Key, who primarily teaches physics and astronomy and is active in science outreach more generally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The $22,000 grant also engages UW Bothell mathematics faculty and colleagues at UW\u2019s Center for Evaluation & Research for STEM Equity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science shows<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A SPOT presentation. Courtesy of Joey Shapiro Key<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The grant project started last summer when the center surveyed SPOT ambassadors about their work. Ordinarily, they would go to K-12 schools, libraries and the Pacific Science Center in Seattle to present a visual \u201cshow\u201d called Tuning in to Einstein\u2019s Universe. It\u2019s about gravitational wave astronomy, an area of Key\u2019s expertise. Most of the SPOT ambassadors also have been members of Key\u2019s research group<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seed grant also brought in Dr. Linda Simonsen, professor, who helped write a new show with Drs. Jennifer McLoud-Mann and Casey Mann, professors, about their discovery that made math history in 2015. With undergraduate researcher David Von Derau, they discovered the 15th kind of pentagon shape that can cover a flat surface. The new SPOT show about that research is called Math Adventures: Tessellating with Polygons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ava Stockman, student manager of the grant project, helped develop the new show and presented it for the first time in a videoconference Jan. 11 with about a dozen students in the Upper School math team at Eastside Preparatory School in Kirkland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambassadors wanted<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Joey
Joey Shapiro Key<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This winter, faculty and advisers will recruit at least six new SPOT ambassadors, inviting students from groups underrepresented in STEM into the paid positions, Key said. After training from Stockman, the outreach emissaries will present shows during spring quarter to students in science and math courses at regional community colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As \u201cnear-peer role models,\u201d they\u2019ll be spreading excitement about STEM and, by extension, UW Bothell, Key said. \u201cCommunity college students can see in these SPOT ambassadors that UW Bothell is a good place for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy having UW Bothell ambassadors from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in STEM talking to them about math and physics, community college students will see this is a place where they can be successful,\u201d Key said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the final phase of the grant project later this year, the Center for Evaluation & Research for STEM Equity will survey the ambassadors about their experiences. That information will be shared with UW Bothell\u2019s Office of Sponsored Research to show how the ambassador model could be used by others to engage students and build a community network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SPOT-on ambassador<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Ava
Ava Stockman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stockman, a graduate of Bellevue College who plans to attend UW Bothell in the fall to major in Electrical Engineering, became a SPOT ambassador last summer. Although not yet a UW Bothell student, she was part of a research experience for undergraduates led by Key. Stockman researched software that will be needed by the planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stockman said presenting makes her nervous, but that wasn\u2019t apparent in the hour-long Math Adventures videoconference with the Eastside Prep math club. From defining polygons and tessellation with examples from honeycombs and floor tiles to sharing the art of M.C. Escher, Stockman built up to the pentagon puzzle that was solved by UW Bothell faculty. There\u2019s plenty of research left to do, she told the high school students. \u201cYou can really make a big difference, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Stockman began her research experience, she had doubts about how much of a difference someone who didn\u2019t even have a bachelor\u2019s degree could make. \u201cMy hope is that these students won\u2019t have that doubt, if any of them decide to go into undergraduate research,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less of a boys\u2019 club<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stockman likes math and became interested in electrical engineering after talking with an uncle who is a mechanical engineer. The makeup of her math and physics courses in community college has been mostly males who tend to form groups with other males, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople in my classes have been nice,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would be nice to see more girls in those classes and less of a boys\u2019 club type of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stockman hopes the SPOT ambassador program will cast a variety of people as representatives of STEM. \u201cWe definitely want to get women and underrepresented people in STEM out there, showing other people that they\u2019re doing this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The STEM ambassador\u2019s message: \u201cIt\u2019s not impossible, and you\u2019re welcome in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new cohort of student ambassadors from the University of Washington Bothell will be reaching out to community college students underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math to let them know they’re welcome in the land of STEM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_is_archived":false,"_archived_contact_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[202,218,204],"tags":[],"school":[421],"class_list":["post-19323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-news","category-community-engagement","category-students","school-school-of-stem"],"acf":{"related_links":{"toggle_visibility":false,"link_1":"","link_2":"","link_3":"","link_4":"","link_5":""},"highlight_box":{"toggle_visibility":false,"title":"","content":"","button":"","button_style":"angled-purple-button","button_screen_reader_text":""},"contact_type_1":{"toggle_visibility":true,"contact_title":"Contact Us","email":"test@uwb.edu","phone":"(206) 999-1234","box":"Box 358500","address_line_1":"18115 Campus Way NE","address_line_2":"Bothell, WA 98011-8246","location":""},"contact_type_2":{"toggle_visibility":false,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"social_media":{"toggle_visibility":false,"facebook_url":"","instagram_url":"","linkedin_url":"","twitter_url":"","youtube_url":""},"blog_archive_sidebar_visibility":false},"yoast_head":"\nAmbassadors from the land of STEM - 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