ASCB members can apply for up to $1,000 to fund outreach events that communicate cell biology to the public. Applications are solicited three times a year, typically in February, June, and September, and are reviewed by members of the Committee for Postdocs and Students (COMPASS). This year, we were delighted to fund 13 projects. Below are summaries of select projects that have been completed in 2024 so far. To learn more and apply, visit the COMPASS Outreach Grants webpage.
During Science Day at Dartmouth College, ASCB member Sarah Vandal teamed up with colleagues to coordinate volunteers from Dartmouth’s various STEM programs in leading hands-on science activities for area students. The event created an accessible, simplified, and fun space to learn about science and connect with the people who conduct it, and based on reviews from attendees, it was a huge success.
ASCB member Katriona Guthrie-Honea received support for STEM Starters at Columbia University, a series of free workshops with experiment stations for local kids and their families in West Harlem. This spring, the workshop theme was “Earth Through Time,” which included biology stations focused on selection and on explaining the evolution from single-celled life to multicellular life. More about this event can be found on ASCB’s The Post.
Diana Olivas, a graduate student at the University of Texas at El Paso, teamed up with local Society for Neuroscience and SACNAS chapters to put on two outreach events aimed at community college students and the public. Hands-on activities included a neuron-making station, a plasma and lymphatic system station, a respiratory system station, and more.
Babatunde Adebayo Kehinde, a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, organized an international project that visited schools in Ota, Nigeria to inform students about a public health challenge in the area, malaria. The lesson included informational and instructional discussions, along with a hands-on activity where the students used a microscope to view fixed samples of human red blood cells infected with the malaria parasite.
ASCB member Megan Radyk and her team organized BioMed Focus at the University of Michigan, an 8-week summer research program for high school students in the area. This year, COMPASS funding helped support the BioMed Focus Symposium, a capstone exercise at the end of the program where each scholar gave a 10-minute presentation. More about this event on The Post.
About the Author:
Ross Pedersen (Twitter: @RossTAPedersen) Is a postdoctoral fellow in Yixian Zheng’s lab in the Department of Embryology at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Baltimore, Maryland, where his research aims to elucidate the pathway governing nuclear lamin assembly following mitosis.
