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Now, more than ever, we need a more scientifically literate society. What the future looks like depends on training tomorrow’s leaders to solve complex problems that impact society as a whole. Today’s youth need to practice using inquiry, analysis, and critical thinking in order to learn how to make informed, independent decisions. These skills are acquired through doing and learning about scientific research. There is an urgent and pervasive need for an increased pipeline valuing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) in post-secondary education. Only 60% of Americans have a basic understanding of the scientific process and only 52% understand hypotheses. This is likely because many students aren’t taught about research in their science classes.
Headwaters is working to overcome this problem through our numerous programs. One program is Lunch with a Scientist. Each week, Headwaters hosts an online presentation by a professional scientist highlighting their scientific research, lessons from their career, and answering the audience’s questions. This is an excellent way for students to learn about various science careers, different areas of scientific research, and the research process. Exposing students to real scientists and research are skills featured in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) used nationwide. This task has proved difficult for teachers; it can be time-consuming to find and connect with scientists and research. Through the power of technology, we’ve made it easy for students to connect with brilliant STEM professionals and relieved teachers of the difficult task of tracking them down. Presenters so far have reported that they are glad to take the time to prepare and do the talk because of the significant and long-lasting impact of the outreach.
This program, initially inspired by the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic, will now have a long term impact; both through our extensive digital library of talks which teachers can draw on for years to come, and through the student-scientist interactions which are inspiring kids to believe that science careers are accessible to them. We also record and preserve each presentation so that teachers can easily search through and use these talks in class at any time, even if they can’t watch live. If their students have questions after watching a recorded presentation, we offer to facilitate an email or video conversation between the class and the scientist.
Our staff works with scientists to individually tailor their talks for student comprehension and to develop an NGSS-based assignment for teachers to use with each presentation. The assignment allows teachers to improve their students’ understanding of the content topics and the data and graphs presented in the scientists’ presentation. Because there is no one else that is doing anything like this, we are working to create a stand-alone video library on its own website. We need to raise $15,000 to build a new website. Our vision for a dedicated Lunch with a Scientist website is to have presentations categorized and searchable based on each characteristic of each talk (speaker’s name, appropriate grade level, subject, topics, date, etc.). You can help us get to this future by supporting the growth of this program.