Our STEM Stories by Beatrice Dias

Stefanie is a Nuclear Physics Nerd

stefanig1 — 2025-02-17 20:49:10 UTC

My narrative is that I am a lover of nuclear physics, and above is my favorite App ever!!! Super useful for anyone working in health physics, medical physics, or oncology... I used this friend daily back when I was working in physics/engineering ;) -> For my story: I've been focusing on education for about 6 years now, so IAEA is not too useful anymore, but I still keep it easily accessible on my phone just in case I randomly need to look up a radioisotope decay chain in my day to day... (jk, its for nostalgia).

stefanig1 — 2025-02-17 21:05:05 UTC

Haoyong as a STEM librarian

2025-02-18 04:31:32 UTC

My experience in STEM librarianship has been exciting and exploratory. STEM librarianship involves problem-solving-based library instruction and collection development. STEM librarians also teach critical thinking skills in information search, evaluation, and use. Since the rapid advancement of generative AI, I have been building and promoting critical AI literacy initiatives to teach students the necessary AI literacy skills so that they can ethically and effectively interact with generative AI tools.

STEM Ambitions

evanzuzik — 2025-02-20 17:34:57 UTC

Working with current Bio majors, every day I talk to young adults who are on the path to being a doctor, dentist, or researcher. For students who truly want to pursue these careers, I am happy to help them follow their dreams! But I think many young people face tremendous cultural, familial, and internalized pressure ("Smart people become doctors, so if I don't become a doctor I am not living up to my potential and letting the world down!")

I am so glad that I was empowered to follow my genuine STEM interests of zoology, education, and now advising. Especially as I am now seeing my former peers, who went to medical school, step away from being physicians/being burnt out by a career they maybe never wanted.

I loved working with animals and (hopefully) inspiring a love of nature and conservation. I enjoyed getting to share that passion with my classroom students, and I really appreciate my current position as an advisor and the role I get to play in current students' paths.

Bio Babe #1

2025-02-21 03:46:40 UTC

I am proud to work as a public school teacher, helping my students learn to appreciate the natural world and all its amazing things! I was the first female biology teacher in my school district but now 6 of the 8 Biology teachers are females (where we are often lovingly referred to as the Bio babes).

I was encouraged and empowered by my parents to explore nature from a very young age - I loved worms, bugs, toads, and fish as a child and then grew up to love lots more. I take advantage of all types of opportunities for animal encounters. I have licked slugs (did you know their slime has numbing properties), swum with dolphins and sea lions, ridden elephants, held a giant sea star, fed lemurs and played with a baby tiger! I also worked at an environmental center and summer camp for many summers before my teaching career started.

I hope to inspire my students to explore, experience, and become educated about the natural world, from the tiniest critters to our complex bodies and everything in between.

Maureen believes science education is for everyone

2025-02-22 19:36:32 UTC

I am an unapologetic tree hugger and have been this way since I can remember. My earliest memories are of animals and nature, and it is where I drive my strength. I love to share my passion and curiosity for the natural world with everyone-and I mean everyone. From the grocery store checkout line to the park when I walk my dogs to the classroom. I believe that understanding the natural world can positively impact individual lives and society as a whole. Encouraging and developing scientific literacy in others has been a life-long mission. I see educating the public and improving scientific literacy more important than ever. I have included the image above of the measles virus to highlight the impact of disinformation. Measles is one of the most infectious human diseases, readily controlled via childhood vaccination, yet we are amid a multi-state outbreak due to reduced vaccination rates fueled by disinformation. Although the world may be ripe with misinformation and disinformation about science, I believe education is the vaccine.

Robotics - Make room for Females

jessicadrayer — 2025-02-23 14:20:15 UTC

Look at the picture above. My narrative is I fight for the underdog. I have always been one of the youngest in my realm. I have also usually been one of the only girls in my realm. Notice the youngest one in the picture. Notice the only girl. Notice the only African American. I am here in STEM for her. I am her advocate. Her name is Deona. She is a 4th grader competing in a middle school robotics competition. She is the only girl on my team. She is the youngest on my team. She is also incredibly intelligent, strong-willing, fiesty and innovative. My STEM story and my experience is expanding the STEM world to include her story, and all the stories of talented, driven and intelligent BIPOC females whose stories for far too long have not been heard in STEM stories! by Jessica Drayer

mcs285 — 2025-02-23 17:13:36 UTC

Seafood mislabeling occurs in a wide range of seafood products worldwide, resulting in public

distrust, economic fraud, and health risks for consumers. When I was in my senior year of college as a Biology major at the University of North Carolina, labmates and I quantified the extent of shrimp

mislabeling in coastal and inland North Carolina. We traveled to every corner of the state to collect shrimp from fishmongers, farmer's markets, grocery stores, and bait shops. We used standard DNA barcoding procedures to determine the species identity of 106 shrimp sold by 60 vendors across North Carolina as “local” shrimp. Thirty-four percent of the purchased shrimp was mislabeled, and surprisingly the percentage did not differ significantly between coastal and inland counties. Roughly one third of product fraudulently marketed as “local” was in fact whiteleg shrimp: an imported, and very

likely farmed, species from the eastern Pacific. This was my first experience with my work in biology having "real-world" consequences. In addition to the negative ecosystem consequences of shrimp farming and seafood importation, North Carolina fishers as with local fishers elsewhere are negatively impacted when vendors label farmed, frozen, and

imported shrimp as local, fresh, and wild-caught. The lab I was working with eventually published our findings after a few years of data collection. I felt as if my work in STEM had contributed to a positive outcome and it was profoundly satisfying to participate in such a venture.

The (not so great) equalizer

2025-02-24 01:34:41 UTC

I remember when I selected Biology as something I wanted to pursue in high school; I'd initially chosen English because I had a lot more fun reading than I did in my really rote, boring science classes and I come from a family that encourages reading but hated and discouraged formal education on religious grounds. I ended up shifting away from English and writing because I'd heard you couldn't really make a living there and given I was completely on my own as soon as I'd opted into pursuing further education, I knew I'd have to pick something comfortable. I grew up with little in a place where most people had little; science education was the way out. I think a lot of people choose STEM-related fields for this reason. It's almost comical the way the field was sold to young people in the 90s. "If you work at it and you commit yourself to it, you'll be successful." I even told my students that, but in working with and in the field, it has become clearer and clearer that many of the practices in the field only exacerbate these gaps. Even applying for a PhD program or EdD program is frustratingly opaque if you don't have access to institutional or external help. The worst part sometimes is realizing that people don't even mean for this to happen, it's not malicious, and the people doing the work are lovely; it is just hard to think about what you're not doing and to recognize it may not be enough.