Blog Archives

Connecting scientists and students as old-fashioned pen pals

12/12/2018

By Meghan Parsley
Edited by Simon Bakke

Imagine getting to have personal conversations with a real scientist when you were in middle school. You could ask them as many questions as you could write and learn about what being a scientist is actually like. How would that change your idea of what opportunities were open to you? How would it shape your career path?

Learning that goes both ways

Letters to a Pre-Scientist is a program whose goal is to make these connections a reality. Their mission is to “demystify science careers by creating personal connections between students from high-poverty schools and real scientists”. To do this, they pair scientists and students as pen pals, and over the course of a school year, grade 6-8 students exchange letters with a scientist that specializes in a subject area they find interesting. Middle school students get a chance to hone their reading and writing skills and get exposure to STEM career paths. And scientists get to practice science communication to younger audiences in a one-on-one setting.

1 Comment

"Isn't this amazing?!"

12/11/2018

0 Comments

SNL writer Will Stephen captivates his audience with “absolutely nothing” at his TedX New York Talk
(Photo credit: Ethan Anderton)

Written by Bernardo Traversari
Edited by Simon Bakke

I recently saw a TedX Talk by Will Stephen, a writer for Saturday Night Live. The theme of his talk was... nothing. Absolutely nothing. His talk wasn’t about any topic in particular, it had no insightful data or quirky animations, he had no message to convey; yet he presented himself as this smart guy who was talking about something incredibly important.

And I agreed with him. I laughed at his jokes, was captivated by his performance, and closed out the video feeling that I had learned something new in the span of six short minutes.

Will’s talk, “How to sound smart in your TedX talk,” has been viewed 7.3 million times since it was first posted on Youtube three years ago. This says something powerful about the importance of how to deliver a message. According to Joyce Russell in her article “Career Coach: The wrong tone can spoil the message”, a quality delivery often comes down to one single aspect of communication: tone. “Our tone conveys our attitude,” says Joyce, who has spent more than 25 years coaching executives on everything from public speaking to interpersonal communication. “Sometimes our tone has a greater impact on our audience than our actual message.”

0 Comments

Connecting scientists and students as old-fashioned pen pals

"Isn't this amazing?!"

Categories

Pitch & Contribute

A Science Blog
Co-editors

Archives

Connecting scientists and students as old-fashioned pen pals

"Isn't this amazing?!"

Categories

Pitch & Contribute

A Science BlogCo-editors

Archives

A Science Blog
Co-editors