CWDD Leads Virtual "Real Scientist" Meetings with Vermont Students
BREE post-doc Takis Oikonomou, PhD answers a question during his virtual meeting with St. Johnsbury students.
Vermont students heard, first-hand, from VT EPSCoR graduate students and post-doctoral associates, about what it is like to be a scientist. The “Real Scientist Series” places graduate research assistants or post-doctoral associates with students to discuss their career paths as researchers and answer their questions. A few recent visits included the following:
- On May 19th, CWDD Operations Manager Janel Roberge paid a virtual visit to Long Trail School in Dorset, VT to lead 30 sixth-graders through a land use comparison and mapping activity. On the following day, post-doctoral candidate Dustin Kincaid, PhD joined the same group of students to talk about the BREE research he does, discuss how he became a scientist, and answer questions the students had about science in their classroom curriculum.
- Janel was joined by graduate research assistant Caitlin Crossett to meet with 31 seventh-grade science students at Northfield Middle High School in Washington County, VT on May 20th. Caitlin shared a presentation about her climate work and storm chasing adventures and answered questions from students about how weather patterns can impact human life, as well the impacts of climate change in Vermont.
- On May 26th, graduate research assistant Charlotte Cockburn met virtually with a tenth-grade science classroom at Hartford High School in White River Junction, VT. The visit allowed Meghan Wilson, a former CWDD high school research team teacher, to connect Charlotte's BREE research with hands-on activity in her classroom. Prior to the classroom visit, Charlotte downloaded data from a meteorological station near Hartford High School while Meghan took her students on a field trip to see said station. Students were then assigned with using this real, locally-sourced data to create and interpret graphs, drawing conclusions about the types of correlations they can expect to see between different atmosphere- and temperature-related data sets.
- Finally, on May 28th, post-doctoral candidate Takis Oikonomou, PhD and CWDD Operations Manager Janel Roberge led 57 seventh-grade students at St. Johnsbury School through a land use comparison and mapping activity. The students had already completed a developmentally-appropriate version of some of the field assessments that the CWDD's High School Program researchers conduct. The activity delved deeper into issues surrounding a landscape's impacts on water quality. Following this session, Dr. Oikonomou joined the students in a discussion about the BREE research he does, how he became a scientist, and answered students' questions about their own research.