I believe that we are all scientists.
I’ve been digging into science from the first June bug I found in my sandbox to the recent conversation I had with a high school teacher about the practices of design thinking vs scientific method and every day in between. After working as a full-time researcher and part-time educator for more than a decade I flipped the relationship. Now I spend my days developing projects and curriculum that reflects contemporary science and its relationship to the changing world and coaching educators to bring the practices of lifelong learners and engaged citizens to themselves, their students and their communities.
My path took me from neuroscience and endocrinology at the National Primate Center at Oregon Heath and Sciences University in Portland, Oregon to The Rockefeller University in New York, New York. Teaching stints at Weill-Cornell Medical School, Hunter College and Stern Women’s College and The Rockefeller University Science Outreach Program along with mentoring high school, undergraduate and graduate student research projects deepened my understanding of the immediate and long term impact that educators make on their community.
I have a passion for making complicated subjects transparent and sharing ownership of knowledge with all the users, not just the person that recognized the idea first. Through Brain Awareness Week science outreach I have worked together with more than 5000 students, educators and parents to understand how the brains works and how to use that information to make healthy choices. These experiences led to my founding Science Sit Down to help schools and organization offer science education that advances their larger missions. And share my belief that we are all scientists as a TED Resident in the fall of 2016.
More recently I write curriculum and coach educators to use design thinking to solve engineering and science problems through my work on the Curiosity Machine program at Iridescent Learning. I joined the board of Inquiring Minds USA at the beginning of 2017 to build their Learning Walls program that provides opportunities for student to document the growth of their ideas and knowledge as a class and offer workshops on “Hacking your brain” for students and parents.
Through Science Sit Down, I am working to share ownership of both the creation and maintenance of the knowledge and reinforce the pathways that make these opportunities equitable and meaningful for all learners or scientists and their communities.
Want to try it? Let's have a science sit down.