STEM – Lightsources.org

Synchrotron science through board games!

2022/07/012022/07/21

Learning how to communicate your science is an essential part of any scientist’s career. Whether for an interview, a presentation or for sharing your latest research with family and friends, there are many routes to explore. However, have you ever considered a board game…?

It is definitely an unusual form of public engagement, but it is one that has been an incredibly rewarding experience for us all. The ‘we’ here is Mark Basham, Claire Murray (both from Diamond Light Source) and Matthew Dunstan (University of Cambridge), who had never worked together before this project. However, we quickly became good friends and collaborators in the process of creating our board game to engage teenagers in the life of a scientist and in STEM careers. The game is based on the floor plan of Diamond Light Source and every experiment is one that has been carried out there. We playtested our game with lots of family and friends before taking it to our target audience – teenagers between 12-18 who may not be aware of the full variety of careers in STEM available to them. We learned so much that we have actually just published a paper sharing the design process, evaluation and results and our approach to inclusive design. Check out the Diamond website to learn more about it!

Innovative educational programs at Canadian Light Source

2018/09/172018/09/20

NSERC PromoScience awards $125K to innovative educational programs at Canadian Light Source.

The Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan has been awarded $125,000 by NSERC’s PromoScience program, to deliver innovative educational programs expected to reach students in over 100 schools across Canada.
PromoScience funding will enable teachers and students to perform hands-on research addressing real-world issues, through existing and new programs.

A new initiative, the Trans-Canadian Research & Environmental Education (TREE) project, will allow students from even the most remote communities across Canada to participate in a national research program in partnership with the Mistik Askiwin Dendrochronology (MAD) Lab at the University of Saskatchewan, using tree cores to study the environmental history of their community.

In an unprecedented collaboration between research and education, students will gather tree core samples and mail them to the CLS, where scientists will examine their chemical signatures while live streaming with the students who collected each sample. Teaching resources will help students to make sense of the data and to compare with other student samples from across the country, in order to understand how chemical changes in different tree cores correlate to their community’s environmental history.

“Students will learn about the life and nutrient cycles of trees, the trees’ ability to capture information in rings, and the nutrients in soil by working through modules and activities designed to engage students in the areas of STEM and traditional knowledge,” said Tracy Walker, Education Programs Lead at the CLS.

Promoting gender equality in Science and Technology

2017/12/132018/01/15

More than 150 high school students from Barcelona have visited the ALBA Synchrotron

The event aimed at fighting against stereotypes and prejudices linked to research environments. The event, which had the support of the Barcelona City Council, has been open by the first Deputy Mayor of Barcelona, Mr. Gerardo Pisarello.

The near future will demand more professionals with skills in science and technology. However, women in STEM careers (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) only represent 15% of all the university undergraduates, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport for the period 2015-2016.

With the aim of stimulating scientific vocations, guaranteeing gender equality and opportunities and avoiding clichés that separate women from scientific and technological environments, the ALBA Synchrotron has launched the STEM Preparades project. It consisted of a series of workshops where women scientists and engineers from ALBA came to the classrooms, complemented by a visit where students had the opportunity to know in first-hand the job and workspace of the ALBA staff, as well as doing hands-on activities related to synchrotron light

>Read more on the ALBA website

A gem of an activity

2017/11/142017/12/07

The girl scouts build their radios under the guidance and tutelage of the Cornell students.

“Who wants to see if they are a Zombie?” asks Professor Carl Franck, causing all twelve Girl Scouts in the room to look up from their work and stare in bewilderment. “Let’s go outside and see if you are really alive by using a TV satellite dish to measure your body heat!” Still doubtful, a handful of girls get out of their seats and walk excitedly towards the door, following Professor Franck outside. The dish, which picks up microwave frequencies around 12GHz, will be used to measure the amount of thermal radiation being emitted from a girl standing in front of it against the cold sky. This amounts to a microwave thermometer test that allow the girls to see if their bodies radiate heat in the way that a Zombie’s cannot. Happily, all the scouts who try pass this test and the program moves along without fear except that they now know that at least some of them are a source of microwave radiation.

>Read more on the CHESS website

Image: Betul Pamuk oversees two girl scouts soldering the taps to their coil.