Month: July 2013

Pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau has been involved in numerous outreach events during the past year. Lindsay particularly enjoys introducing STEM education to k-12 students. Here are some of the outreach events Lindsay has participated in. 

December 17^th, 2012 Recruiting Visit – Pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau visited her undergraduate institution, the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, RI, to recruit students to apply for the WPI IGERT program in Biofabrication. Here she gave information booklets about the IGERT program and spoke to undergraduate students in the chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, and biology and biotechnology departments about being a fellow. Future recruiting efforts may take place at URI and other schools around New England, as well as the Tau Beta Pi National Convention in September.

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day – Members of the Camesano lab, IGERT fellow Todd Alexander, pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau and graduate student Kathleen Wang volunteered on February 19^th for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, held at WPI as a part of National Engineers Week. Here, they taught a group of over 60 girls from local elementary and middle schools about the states of matter using liquid nitrogen. Following a short presentation by Professor Camesano about women in engineering and medicine, liquid nitrogen-frozen hot dog smashing was among the favorite demonstrations, and the students could leave with freshly made liquid-nitrogen ice cream and a frozen flower.

4^th Grade Science Demonstration – On Tuesday, June 4^th, Professor Terri Camesano and pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau visited the Midland St. Middle School in Worcester to teach 42 fourth-grade students about pH. Lindsay and the students had a short integrative discussion about chemical reactions, hydrogen and hydroxide ions found in acids and bases, and the scientific method. Then, the students learned how to use pH paper, their newly-understood concept of pH, and the scientific method to determine the identity of 6 mystery household products.

 

Part of the worksheet that Lindsay handed out to students.

 

 

TouchTomorrow@WPI – On Saturday, June 8^th, with help from NASA and quite a few other vendors, companies and individuals, the WPI campus turned into a giant interactive air, space, science, and engineering museum, free for all ages to attend. Over 10,000 people walked through the campus that day participating in a number of exhibits and demonstrations, and even attending a talk given by an astronaut. Pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau volunteered at this event all day greeting and helping guests find their favorite exhibits, one of over 160 volunteers for the entire event.

  2013 Midland St. 4^th Grade Science Fair – Over 40 fourth-grade students gathered on Friday, June 14^th at the Midland St. School in Worcester to present science and engineering projects to a panel of judges from industry and academia, two of which were Professor Terri Camesano and pre-IGERT fellow Lindsay Lozeau. Projects ranged from veterinary science to aerospace, to inventing new devices, physics and biotechnology. After judging 20 projects each, certificates were given to the top projects. The results were a tie for 1^st place, 2^nd place and a “Judges’ Choice”.  Top posters covered topics like evaporation of liquids, friction in car tires, and the filtration/separation of dirty water to drinking water using activated carbon.    

 

IGERT fellow Heather Cirka is completing a summer internship at Harvard Apparatus. Heather will be working for the Director of Regulatory Affairs to help set up testing guidelines and protocols.  She will also assist in writing them.  She will interact with scientific groups and engineers using her cell culture and engineering knowledge.  Heather is glad to have this experience and thinks the internship is the perfect complement to the IGERT class related work.