Biomedical Sciences club brings STEM activities to elementary students
Friday, March 22, 2024
Media Contact: Sara Plummer | Communications Coordinator | 918-561-1282 | sara.plummer@okstate.edu
Lianna Marilao always liked science, but it wasn’t until she was in college that she realized scientific research was something she could do as a career.
“I’d never met a scientist who looked like me,” said Marilao, an Anatomy and Cell Biology doctoral student at OSU Center for Health Sciences and president of the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Student Association.
She and other members of BSGSA are hoping to spark and nurture an interest in science in elementary-age students through a new outreach program funded through the Full STEM Ahead grant from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
Lindsay Owens, shared resource officer with the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at OSU-CHS, said the grant money is being used to purchase equipment and materials that are put together in STEM lab kits that BSGSA then takes to schools and afterschool programs.
In February, the BSGSA brought Microscopy Lab Kits to the Salvation Army’s North Mabee Boys & Girls Club afterschool program. About 25 kindergarten through 5th graders rotated through six stations looking through microscopes trying to identify the magnified items including the wing of a honeybee, a canary feather, a strand of cat hair and the scale of a goldfish.
“We spend so much time in the lab that it can be hard to get excited about things.
The kids get so excited when they discover something they didn’t know before.”
“It’s so much fun to see how much the students like it,” said Shilpa Dange, a Biochemistry and Microbiology doctoral student and BSGSA secretary. “I love kids, but there’s so little we get to do with the youngest ones, usually. If we can generate interest now, they’re more likely to consider a career in science as they grow up.”
Owens said other kits are being developed including Nutrition Lab Kits and Gel Electrophoresis Lab Kits. And they would like to offer kits for middle and high school-age students as well.
“Eventually we would like to offer to rent the kits out to high school teachers,” she said.
Right now, BSGSA members are enjoying getting out of their labs and bringing science to young school children.
“This way kids can meet scientists who are women or are people of color,” Marilao said, and it’s fun for the graduate students too. “We spend so much time in the lab that it can be hard to get excited about things. The kids get so excited when they discover something they didn’t know before.”
