On a cold Saturday morning over the weekend, thirteen brave graduate students went to Camp Tongawood in Tonganoxie KS to teach over 60 Girl Scouts about some crazy cool science!
We had modules on fungi, marine biology, plant fossils and plant pollinators, sea turtles, birding, model organisms, and famous women in biology. We also had STEM archery run by Camp Tongawood as a practical lesson in math and physics.
The goal of the expo is to expose Girl Scouts to different fields of STEM disciplines as well as introduce them to real, living scientists. The Expo was started last year and organized by two graduate students, Kaila Colyott and Andrew Mongue. All of the activities prioritize interactive activities over lecturing, which includes looking at real specimens, using microscopes, making pollen presses, and even peeling their own plant fossil!
Checking in after braving the morning rain!Camp Tongawood is a beautiful woody area and perfect for indoor and outdoor activities!All of the modules have a “Continuing the Conversation” sheet, so the girl can take home a cheat sheet of what they learned and additional resources to keep exploring.Fruit flies at the Think Like a Scientist: Models Organisms stationLooks like the models organisms were a hit! Thank you to Cindy in Molecular Biosciences for participating.Life of a Sea Turtle seems like a fun time with Amanda and special guest Jacob!Fungi are all around us, so says JacobTheo showing off the wonders of fungiPlant pollinators = ripping up plants to learn more about how they work!Taryn showing off some fossil plants for the girls to make their own peels!
Taking a peek under the scope.Girls got to learn about being a birder with Emily and Devon.So many marine organisms, so many specimens to learn about with Kaylee and Matt!Putting our new collection of teaching specimens to good use as Amanda and Anna talk about female scientists and the amazing work they have done to describe species!How do you name a species when there are so many different rule to consider!Congrats to all the graduate students and organizers of the Expo!
KU-EEB Outreach 