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Ashleigh Albrechtsen (U of U- Environmental Humanities) led an Art-Science workshop with the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Ashleigh presented on the ecology and abiotic factors of the Great Salt Lake and Annie Burbidge-Ream (UMFA) provided information on land art, including the Spiral Jetty, which sits on the shore of the Great Salt Lake. Annie and Ashleigh focused in change and the way that both the lake and the Spiral Jetty can depict changes in the environment. Students mixed salt into water to recreate the salinity of the Great Salt Lake before participating in an art project in which they explored entropy by putting ordered dots of paint on a piece of paper before putting the paper in a box with bouncy balls and shaking it up to disorder the paint into new designs.
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Sara Grineski, Roger Renteria, and Camden Alexander (University of Utah Department of Sociology and the Center for Natural & Technological Hazards) study environmental injustice and environmental health disparities. They led an interactive workshop on environmental justice, citizen science, and air pollution monitoring through Mission STEMCAP in 2021. Their workshop included background information on environmental injustice, an introduction to the EPA’s EJ SCREEN tool for mapping environmental injustices at the community level, and building air pollution sensors using Legos.
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Autumn Amici is a plant ecologist who studies the effects of isolation on tree-dwelling plants (“epiphytes”) in the tropical rainforests of Costa Rica. She is also interested in the “art behind the science” and gave a plant science/art workshop in 2019 in which students learned about botanical illustrations and were able to draw their own.
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Dr. Anderegg studies forest responses to climate change. As a part of Mission STEMCAP he gave a presentation about climate change’s impact on Utah ecosystems and food webs. His presentation included an interactive activity in which students portrayed different species within a forest ecosystem, connected by string, and explored how movement or loss of one species affected the rest of the food web.
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Former STEMCAP program manager Allison Anholt has presented with STEMCAP multiple times. Most recently, she gave a Science Right Now presentation as part of Mission STEMCAP: Extinction. She discussed her time working as a field researcher in the Florida Everglades where she focused on a near-extinct species of bird called the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow.
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Danny Bae, a graduate student from the University of Utah, presented a Science Right Now! workshop about his research on Parkinson’s disease. Following his presentation, he talked with students about graduate school and pathways for getting involved in research.
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Donna led an Art-Science workshop focused on Graphic Medicine – using comics to impact health sciences information. Her workshop focuses on encouraging students to use art as an information medium, while showcasing that anyone is an artist who can tell a story using comics. Students drew three pages of depicting the past, present, and imagined future of healthcare and the health sciences – with emphasis placed on the contributions these students, and their imagination, could have on medical innovation.
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Cindy Barba, virologist and Ph.D. Candidate, and Joshua Graham, Adjunct Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Utah, co-led a virtual “Art Science” workshop at Farmington Bay Youth Center. With the aid of several agar plates and colorful cultured bacteria, they walked students through the process of drawing with virtually invisible streaks of bacteria — only able to be seen once the bacteria had a chance to grow.
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Amanda Barrios is the Program Manager at the Office of Translation and Interpretation for Clinical Research at the University of Utah. She gave a presentation about the power of language and pursing your passion at all costs.
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Gaëlle Batot from the University of Utah led a Science Right Now! workshop in which she presented about her research studying epilepsy and the use of mice in studying treatments and provided information about what to do if someone has a seizure and how to react if someone tells you they have epilepsy.
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Patty Becnel from the Sierra Club partnered with STEMCAP to help guide students through a letter writing workshop as part of Mission STEMCAP: Climate Change. She gave students writing prompts and helped teach the class about non-profit organizations and the role of letter writing campaigns in the fight against climate change and other environmental issues.
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Rebecca is a graduate student who gave a Science Right Now presentation about pigeon genetics and domesticated pigeon diversity and her own research studying pigeon genomes.
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Annie Burbidge Ream (UMFA) led an Art-Science workshop as a component of Mission STEMCAP: Overconsumption in which students observed and learned about various works of art that upcycle or reuse materials before creating their own collages out of a variety of materials.
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Professor Krista Carlson worked with students at a Youth-In-Custody center to learn about the field of material science engineering in a series of multi-day workshops. Students learned about glass, and what makes glass different from other solid materials. They also explored magnetism and the ways glass is used in fields including manufacturing, medical supplies, and art.
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Ashley Cass, as a member of the Center for Organic Electrochemistry (CSOE), visited multiple Youth-In-Custody centers for multi-part workshops exploring the field of electrochemistry and the ways it differs from traditional chemistry. She and her co-presenters used a combination of slides, demonstrations and hands-on activities to show how a circuit is made, how hydrogen atoms are exchanged between molecules, and how chemical properties affect physical appearance.
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Cynthia an undergraduate at the U of U studying Biology (environmental and organismal emphasis) and minoring in English. Cynthia colleagues from the Clark Planetarium led a 4-part weekly robotics workshops at Girls Transition Center in which students used computer coding skills to program simple tasks into their robots in order to get them to accomplish certain tasks, such as hitting a ping pong ball into a cup.
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Dr. Chynoweth is a professor in the University of Utah School of Biological Science who focuses on wildlife populations and monitoring animals’ behavioral changes in response to human disturbance. He gave a Science Right Now presentation on his trap camera research and the role of monitoring animals in understanding and protecting wildlife species.
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Bob Cieri is a University of Utah Biology graduate student and independent artist Brian is independent artist who partnered with book author, and yoga instructor, Brian Russo to deliver an Art-Science workshop. Bob Cieri spoke about lung capacity and development of breathing, and Brian spoke about the importance of breathing in yoga and about careers in the art sector.
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Dale is a chemistry PhD student at the University of Utah. He gave a career presentation about his path into science and the ways that he overcame obstacles as a formerly incarcerated individual. He presented on the wide range of science subjects and the different opportunities science can offer to different people.
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Dr. Davies is a physicist from Utah State University who specializes in climate change. He partnered with Rebecca McFaul of the Fry Street Quartet to lead a presentation about the power of integrating science and music and the role that this integration can play in opening people’s eyes up to the crisis of climate change. This presentation was a part of Mission STEMCAP: Climate Change.
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Julia led a Science Right Now! workshop for YIC, sharing her research and encouraging the students to think like scientists by building a model of a finger using household items and critically thinking about the limitations of the model they just made. She related this exercise to the research conducted in the Orthopedic Research Laboratory, using fluoroscopy and robotics to replicate human motion.
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Melissa Early from American Conservation Experience led a career workshop as a component of Mission STEMCAP: Extinction and taught students how they can get involved in conservation corps type jobs.
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Helena Hopson and Paige Eberle (UU Biology) presented a Science Right Now! workshop about malaria parasites and their hosts. They shared their research on coevolution between hosts and parasites. Students assembled puzzles depicting a map of
where malaria parasites and hosts are typically found.
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Dr. Fanslow presented a Science Right Now workshop about her research on genetic disorders. Following the presentation, she helped the students through a lab in which they extracted DNA from strawberries.
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Tianli Feng presented for the first time with STEMCAP in the Fall of 2021 at Mill Creek Youth Center in Ogden. He gave an introduction to his research in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah. After detailing to students the “problem” of heat in material development, he shared the ways that his lab attempts to solve those problems by developing new materials and devising synthesized solutions to growing technological advancement.
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Erin Gaffney, as a member of the Center for Organic Electrochemistry (CSOE), visited multiple Youth-In-Custody centers for multi-part workshops exploring the field of electrochemistry and the ways it differs from traditional chemistry. She and her co-presenters used a combination of slides, demonstrations and hands-on activities to show how a circuit is made, how hydrogen atoms are exchanged between molecules, and how chemical properties affect physical appearance.
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Dr. Andrew George (Field Museum of Natural History) led an Objects from Nature workshop and provided information about the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago as well as his research on fishes in French Polynesia. He focused on classification of organisms and the various ways scientists’ study natural history. Students had the opportunity to sort marine species into categories before designing their own marine species through drawing and the creation of a field guide entry.
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Brenna joined us to present for our “Mission STEMCAP: Pollution” series, sharing with students her work in the field of Solar Energy. She described the various roles that are available in the industry and talked about the current rapid advancements in solar technology. The students did an activity where they built their own small solar-powered cars and tested them with varying angles and concentrations of sunlight.
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STEMCAP Program Manager Laura George has presented with STEMCAP several times. Most recently, she presented from the perspective of a former Student Conservation Association Intern, on various opportunities to get a start in the field of conservation through internships and corps programs. She then led students through a Junior Ranger activity that she designed and led as part of her internship with the Student Conservation Association at Lake Clark National Park and asked students to think about what they would want in a job and how that could fit into a conservation position.
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Sheri helped Suzanne Montgomery, of Montgomery Media Arts Institute led podcasting workshops at three of our five centers as a component of Mission STEMCAP. In these workshops, students respond verbally to the environmental problems that they have learned about throughout Mission STEMCAP and work in teams to create informative podcasts designed to teach the public about their grand challenge and share with the public the working they have done throughout the programming series.
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Graham is a biologist with a focus on parasite ecology. He gave a Science Right Now presentation about his research on domestic pigeon lice and the role that parasites play in their host species’ behaviors.
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Natalie is a dance instructor at the University of Utah University of Utah. She partnered with Clark Planetarium and biology graduate student Amanda Cooper to present a couple of Art-Science Workshops. Amanda spoke about her research on the extreme physiology of human athletes, and Natalie had the students explore their own physical abilities through a series of activities and movements.
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Cindy Barba, virologist and Ph.D. Candidate, and Joshua Graham, Adjunct Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Utah, co-led a virtual “Art Science” workshop at Farmington Bay Youth Center. With the aid of several agar plates and colorful cultured bacteria, they walked students through the process of drawing with virtually invisible streaks of bacteria — only able to be seen once the bacteria had a chance to grow.
Notes
Austin, PhD candidate in wildlife biology, has presented multiple times with STEMCAP. He also led a citizen scientist teacher development training. He presented on his study of wildlife in the Wasatch Mountain Range and the importance of and threats to biodiversity as part of Mission STEMCAP.
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Sara Grineski, Roger Renteria and Camden Alexander (University of Utah Department of Sociology and the Center for Natural & Technological Hazards) study environmental injustice and environmental health disparities. They led an interactive workshop on environmental justice, citizen science, and air pollution monitoring through Mission STEMCAP in 2021. Their workshop included background information on environmental injustice, an introduction to the EPA’s EJ SCREEN tool for mapping environmental injustices at the community level, and building air pollution sensors using Legos.
Notes
Jordan Herman (UU Biology) led an Objects From Nature workshop about ornithology and the role of the observation in understanding other species. Students then had the opportunity to observe two quails (over Zoom) and form hypotheses about how they might react to different stimuli. Students then observed feathers from the quails (in person).
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Josh is a PhD student in the department of Geography at the University of Utah. He presented on his path into science, the obstacles he overcame, and where his scientific study has taken him.
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Jake talked about his research and engineering experiences at NASA and as a professor of Mechanical Engineering. We discussed machine learning applications in the context of our everyday experiences and some important aspects that arise in its application to engineering and science. Then, we completed the classical falling-ball experiment, initially used by Galileo to study object trajectory. We acquired data, observed variability, and discussed model formulations both from the context of Galileo’s time and modern machine learning approach.
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Danny Horns joined STEMCAP at Salt Lake Valley Youth Center in the Fall of 2021 to present on his career as a field geologist and earthquake researcher – especially as they exist on the Wasatch Fault.
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Scientists Jerry Howard and Dr. Krista Carlson (UU) led a Portal to Science workshop. Jerry presented on the different properties and uses of glass and demonstrate the creation and manipulation of glass using a furnace and torch in the Carlson lab. Krista and Jerry answered students’ questions and participated in a discussion with students.
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Dr. Steven Kannenberg (UU Scientist) led a Science Right Now! workshop as a component of Mission STEMCAP: Climate Change. Dr. Kannenberg presented his research on Juniper trees in Southern Utah and the effects of climate related drought on juniper health. Students then used tree rings to estimate precipitation levels in the Bear’s Ears area from their birth year until 2019.
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Tamrika is a linguistic scholar who studies the impacts of language loss on culture. She presented on the diversity of languages across the world and the knowledge that different languages preserve and pass on. She explained the threats to linguistic diversity and the ways those threats overlap with threats to biological diversity as part of Mission STEMCAP: Biodiversity Loss at Girls Transition Center, and also presented several Science Right Now! workshops at both Slate Canyon and Oak Springs State Hospital.
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As part of STEMCAP, Carrie Levitt-Bussian gave a presentation showing dinosaur bones under a microscope and had the students count vascular canals in bone tissues of 75 million-year-old dinosaurs to determine whether that dinosaur was warm blooded or cold-blooded.
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Kasha is currently working towards her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Utah. Kasha co-presented with Erin Gaffney about the field of chemistry and the electrolysis of water.
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Rikki Longino (SLC Public Library), helped to present the Conservation and Ecological Restoration project workshops. They led students through a hands-on exercise in which they observed the seeds they will be planting and drew the plants that the seeds will grow into. Decker Lake staff and students then planted the seeds throughout the week following the workshop.
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Sara LoTemplio (UU Psychology) led a Science Right Now! workshop about human attention and her research about nature’s positive effects on attention.
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Kyphuong is a Ph.D. candidate in biology at the University of Utah studying the neurological basis of behavior. He presented on his research on the Bluehead Wrasse, as sex-changing fish species and the effects of various brain stiumaltion on the fish’s sex.
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Pablo is a neuroscience graduate student who presented on nematode mutations and how the process of studying mutations in nematodes mirrors the study of mutations in neurons.
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As a PhD student in Mathematics at the University of Utah, Chris gave a Science Right Now presentation on his research at the intersection of math and biology. He used the spread of a Zombie infection as an example of a mathematical biology study and demonstrated his research process through a zombie activity.
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Suzanne Montgomery, of Montgomery Media Arts Institute has led podcasting workshops at three of our five centers as a component of Mission STEMCAP. In these workshops, students respond verbally to the environmental problems that they have learned about throughout Mission STEMCAP and work in teams to create informative podcasts designed to teach the public about their grand challenge and share with the public the working they have done throughout the programming series.
Notes
Scientist Travis Morrison (UU Scientist) partnered with Annie Burbidge-Ream from the Utah Museum of Fine Arts to lead a collaborative Art-Science workshop. Travis presented the science of clouds, while Annie demonstrated how clouds are depicted in art and why artists might include clouds in their artwork. Then students learned watercolor techniques and created landscape watercolor pieces that incorporated clouds.
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Nalini is the STEMCAP Program Director. She is also a forest ecologist who focuses on canopy research. Her most recent presentation shared her tropical tree canopy field experience and research with students.
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Sam Nelson (UU Environmental Humanities) led a plant-centered storytelling workshop as a component of the Conservation and Ecological Restoration Project. Sam first had students imagine what it would be like to be a plant – or a butterfly – and
brainstorm conflicts that would arise in the lives of plants or butterflies. Students then wrote stories and/or created comic book strips from the perspective of a plant or a butterfly. He did this workshop again with STEMCAP in the Fall of 2021, focusing instead on the agency of trees.
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Jason was a post- doctoral researcher in Randy Peterson’s lab in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Utah and now works at BioFire Defense helping to develop in vitro diagnostic tools for the detection of human pathogens. He gave a presentation on genetic engineering and mitochondrial DNA.
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Marina is a biology student at the University of Utah. She gave a presentation about the biology of pollination, including why and how plants are pollinated and how pollination drives relationships between pollinators and plants, as part of the Monarch Project.
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During their two-day visit to Salt Lake Valley Youth Center, Amira and Riley were able to teach kids about conservation biology, including the pros and cons of this field of study. The activities that were brought to the students showed them the inner workings of food chains as well as predator-prey connections. On the second day, students were introduced to the difficulties of conservation work when dealing with multiple areas of distress. This allowed them to understand how difficult it is to create funding for conservation work and how to pick these areas for conversation.
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Rodolfo studies ants in the School of Biological Science at the University of Utah. He gave a Science Right Now presentation about ant and insect diversity and gave comparisons of many species of ants.
He has also given students a chance to find their own backyard critters, leading a bug collection and observation activity.
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Cheenu is a University of Utah Biology graduate student. He spoke about his research with cone snail venom, including the diversity of snails and their implications for medical research and human health. He brought a hands-on activity observing cone snails through microscopes.
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Sara Grineski, Roger Renteria, and Camden Alexander (University of Utah Department of Sociology and the Center for Natural & Technological Hazards) study environmental injustice and environmental health disparities. They led an interactive workshop on environmental justice, citizen science, and air pollution monitoring through Mission STEMCAP in 2021. Their workshop included background information on environmental injustice, an introduction to the EPA’s EJ SCREEN tool for mapping environmental injustices at the community level, and building air pollution sensors using Legos.
Notes
Dr. Sally Rocks (Utah Valley University) led a Science Right Now! workshop as a component of Mission STEMCAP: Overconsumption, and as a standalone presentation. She presented her research on the prevalence of microplastics in Utah Valley’s air, water, and soil. Students then used orange glasses and blue lights to search for dyed plastic in bins of rice and beans.
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Victoria has presented multiple times with STEMCAP. She has collaborated both with Dominic Caputo and staff at the UMFA to lead students through an Art-Science workshop in which they created photosensitive “cyanotype” paper by painting a chemical wash onto watercolor paper. They then made works of art by placing various stencils on their cyanotype paper and exposing them to the sun.
She has also led students through hands-on workshops exploring electrochemistry! Using batteries, she helped students investigate circuit construction and atomic reactivity!
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Brian is independent artist, book author, and yoga instructor, who partnered with Bob Cieri, a University of Utah Biology graduate student and independent artist to deliver an Art-Science workshop. Bob Cieri spoke about lung capacity and development of breathing, and Brian spoke about the importance of breathing in yoga and about careers in the art sector.
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NASA scientist Daniella Scalice visited three YIC facilities with STEMCAP and spoke about NASA’s mission to find evidence of life on other planets. She then led the students through a board game that incorporated logistics, budget, cost/benefit analysis, the features of planets and moons, and life-finding technology NASA employs in their missions.
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Emily Scott is a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at the University of Utah. She gave a presentation on her research regarding the benefits of nature on attention along with other mindfulness activities. She related her research to the students’ current work with the Monarch Project.
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Katie Seastrand along with Annie Burbidge Ream (Utah Museum of Fine Art, UMFA), Brooke Smart (local artist), and Andy Sposato (UU scientist) provided an overview of the Better Days 2020 project, described their work, and answered questions about the life of artists and scientists. As a part of the series she also led a virtual tour of the UMFA in which students examined the work of female artists and learned about the historical barriers faced by women in the field of fine art.
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Bhawika is a pharmacology graduate student at the University of Utah. She presented a Science-Right-Now talk on her research on Zerbra Fish and the immune system.
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Bonnie Shaw (independent) frequently leads writing workshops. She is a huge part in most Mission STEMCAP series and leads students to effective science communication through writing such as poetry.
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Allison is a dance professor from Westminster College. She partnered with Allison Anholt to deliver an Art-Science workshop in which Allison Anholt spoke about the birds of the Great Salt Lake and Allison Shir translated these principles to a discussion and demonstration of how cooperation, fitting in, and creating niches translates to the functioning of famous dance troupes.
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Abrianna is a faculty member in the Biology Department at the University of Utah who focuses on the relationships and interactions between plants and herbivores and the role of plant chemical defenses. As part of the Monarch Project, she gave a presentation on Monarch migration.
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Andy Sposato (UU Biology) led a Science Right Now! workshop about her studies of stem cells in zebra fish and the role of stem cells in our bodies. She discussed the use of CRISPR in her own research as a tool for to track stem cell development. Students used “DNA barcodes” to learn how cell lineage is traced cell.
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Sydney Stephens (UU Biology) led a Science Right Now! workshop as a component of Mission STEMCAP: Biodiversity Loss. She presented her research on the bear behavior and bear-human interactions. Students then played a game in which they each portrayed a bear, starting at different locations around Glacier National Park and were tasked with gaining enough “health points” and “food points” to begin hibernation. Once they had enough points, students were to find a den and begin hibernation. Each turn students rolled dice to see if they were successful at various tasks.
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Pratiti is a PhD candidate in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. She presented on human water use and the importance of water sustainability to ensure a positive water future.
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Claire Taylor is a local artist whose work centers around the human-nature interface and urban ecologies. Claire has led multiple art-science workshops in which students engaged with watercolor in various ways. One workshop tasked students with relating the scientific concept of turbulence to the artistic process of watercolor and another had students paint abstract habitats, a creature to live in the habitat, and the positive and negative aspects of that ecosystem (including pollution, wild fires, etc.).
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Southwest Monarch Study Research Associate Rachel Taylor worked with students as part of the Monarch Project. She gave an introduction to monarch biology, the threats that monarchs face, and led the effort to disseminate milkweed once it was large enough to be transplanted around the Salt Lake Valley.
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Anna is a University of Utah Biology graduate student. She presented on pigeon genetics and how they relate to understanding bird anatomy and diversity. She also brought live pigeons and pigeon embryos, and provided access to a citizen science online game and factual information about viewing pigeons in Farmington.
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Nikki Wayment from HawkWatch International worked with STEMCAP to teach students about birds of prey and the role that monitoring raptor populations plays in monitoring ecosystem health. Nikki also taught students about ways to get involved in conservation efforts.
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Sara is a re-med student at University of Utah and classically-trained opera singer. She conducted an Art-Science workshop about vocal performance and physiology of the vocal cords. She had the students create their own “voice boxes” with straws and balloons, demonstrating the functionality of the vocal cords in the human body.
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Emmett Wilson is an independent dancer and artist. She partnered with Allison Anholt, a scientist from University of Utah to deliver an art-science workshop in which Allison spoke about the concepts of migration, movement, and flocking, including the unknown scientific principles behind “murmation”, or animals moving all together in many directions and Emmett translated these concepts into movement activities illustrating murmation and predator avoidance.
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James Young is a horticulturalist and farmer with the Grand Prismatic Seed. James partnered with STEMCAP to introduce students to horticulture and facilitated the care-taking of milkweed plants within the greenhouse at one of our YIC facilities throughout the 2019 Monarch Project.
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Michael is an Anthropology PhD student focusing on differences in the genes that control the structure of human brains and how these differences alter humans’ behaviors and thoughts. He gave a Science Right Now presentation on his research and the general field of Bioanthropology.