Inspiring the Next Generation: Tour of the Illinois’ Materials Research Laboratory
At left, Dr. Roddel Remy explains how the dynamical mechanical analysis tool works. (Photo by Heather Coit).
May 1, 2024
"I love doing outreach and showing students cool things about the world. The reason why I got into science was because I wanted to understand why cool things happened, and now here I am, getting a PhD."
These words from Autumn Cook, a third-year Ph.D. student in chemistry, encapsulate the essence of an excursion by middle school students from Franklin STEAM Academy in Champaign to the Materials Research Lab (MRL) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on Friday, April 9.
The tour builds upon a collaboration between I-MRSEC, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), aimed at fostering middle school students' interest in science, engineering, and mathematics through direct engagement with Illinois faculty, graduate, and post-doctoral students. The initiative particularly targets students from marginalized and previously excluded populations who often lose interest in STEM fields after middle school.
SOLIDarity EXperiences (SOLIDEX) through the Eyes of Children
- Fulbright Alumni Collaboration -
Feb 14, 2024
From left to right SOLIDEX team members: Elena Ungureanu, Luisa-Maria Rosu, Catalina Ulrich Hygum, Madalina Coza.
What do children aged 11-13 in two countries think about solidarity? The SOLIDEX project is a research initiative funded through the Fulbright Romania examining how children in Romania and the United States understand the evolving contexts of solidarity.
Building upon their Fulbright experiences, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Bucharest, respectively, Catalina Ulrich Hygum and Luisa-Maria Rosu, were granted, in May 2023, a Fulbright Alumni Institutional Development Grant with a team including Dr. Leyla Safta-Zecheria from the West University of Timisoara, Dr. Marcela Slusarciuc (also a Fulbright scholar) from the University of Suceava Stefan cel Mare, Dr. Elena Ungureanu, and Madalina Coza, PhD student from the University of Bucharest.
Ulrich Hygum’s work belongs to the Sociology of Education, while Rosu is a Mathematics major and a STEM programs’ evaluator. What brought them and a consortium of four different institutional perspectives together is the way they think about how participative methods of teaching and doing research inform active citizenship. They collaborated on several papers over the last 15 years and co-advised students. They found common interests, proving once more that STEM and Humanities are not parts of a dichotomy but address common issues of our civic responsibilities.
Our vision for Illinois as a land-grant institution is to foster accessible, effective STEM teaching and learning—from preschool through graduate education—at local, state, and national levels, thereby preparing a highly able citizenry and diverse STEM workforce to tackle pressing global challenges.
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