Education

My work in science education

I work with the Watersmith Guild, a non-profit in Western PA focused on environmental justice through transformative outdoor educational experiences. In 2024, I led their newest program, Aqua Lab Adventures. Learn more about the program below:

Aqua Lab Adventures

Classroom Lesson

We designed a lesson for students to learn about the human and environmental health effects of microplastics in their own classroom. During the classroom, the students used the scientific method to plan an experiment to measure microplastics in a local lake.

Field Trip

The students then deployed homemade microplastics trawls (designed by the CLEAR lab). As they learned to paddle board (many for the first time) they pulled the trawl behind their board and collected microplastics in the water.

Then, we dried and emptied the trawls out to collect the sample that we collected over the course of about 30 minutes of paddle boarding. Our student analyzed the samples they collected using scientific tools to see if they found any microplastics.