Last year when I spoke with Nadya Mason, Director of Beckman Institute, she emphasized the educational outreach component of the center:
I think of science as more than just being in a lab all of the time. It’s for everyone — creating a community where we help educate broad swaths of people, and use our research to engage any way that we can, with everyone having an opportunity to bring their strengths. It’s been super exciting to lead and to foster that sort of community.
During the month of May, students at Garden Hills Math and Science Leadership Academy and Booker T. Washington STEM Academy got to be a part of some of that outreach. Mason herself visited Garden Hills, and did experiments with liquid nitrogen. Schools that attended the Beckman Open House were entered into a drawing for a visit from Mason, and Garden Hills was the winner.
A group of Beckman students and faculty visited BTW for their “Fab Friday” event, and encouraged them to “solve science mysteries.”
Beckman researchers had a FABulous time solving science mysteries with students during Booker T. Washington STEM Academy's "Fab Friday" last week.
— Beckman Institute (@BeckmanInst) May 9, 2023
🔎 🩻 🥼 pic.twitter.com/ziEnd05n7X
Mason also spoke last year about the overall number of women, particularly Black and Brown women, in STEM fields, and how it’s still woefully small. But she sees opportunities like this as key to planting the seeds of possibility: “I try to think locally — getting people involved in research and getting families engaged. Even things on a broader scale, like mentoring. Let’s do the things that we know make a difference, then keep plugging away until we find that bigger answer.”