Want your students to meet a practicing scientist? Here’s your chance! Invite a Harvard Science Education Partner into your classroom!
Virtual Scientist in a Classroom
Recommended for grades 6-9
Reservations are open for programs through June 2024.
Virtual Scientist in a Classroom
Program Description
What does it mean to be a scientist? What are scientists studying today? How do you become a scientist? How can science help us understand the world? Harvard Science Education Partners can answer these questions and more!
Science Education Partners are Harvard graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who study a variety of STEM topics including biology, paleontology, botany, Earth science, and genetics. Invite a Science Education Partner into your class to discuss their research and their passion for science. Each Science Education Partner will share a short video in advance about their work and respond to student questions via video conference.
How to Set Up a Virtual Scientist in a Classroom Visit with a Harvard Science Education Partner:
- Teacher reviews Science Education Partner presenters (see below)
- Teacher completes this form with a choice of dates and times
- The museum contacts the teacher to discuss details
- The museum sends a confirmation email and an introductory video for advance classroom viewing
- Approximately one week in advance, the teacher contacts the Science Education Partner to confirm details
- Teacher sends video conferencing link to the Science Education Partner
- On the reserved day and time, the Science Education Partner joins classroom video conference
Harvard Science Education Partners and Their Topics
Dan Crocker: Space Rocks and the Origin of Life
Join me as we discuss one of science’s greatest mysteries: how did life originate on Earth? We will discuss the chemical ingredients that are necessary for life, and will travel back in time to explore how these ingredients may have formed on early Earth. We will discuss whether rocks from outer space may have contributed to the development of life on Earth and how scientists have progressed toward answering this question.Melissa Mai: Sweaty Shrubs
How do plants deal with too much salt? From the world's driest desert and tropical coastlines to your own neighborhood, plants get exposed to more salt than they’d like. Some plants have developed unique adaptations to handle extra salt, including a shrub that sweats! I explain how multiple branches of science come together to help us unearth this shrub’s secrets.
Sophie Everbach: Reach for the Sky: How trees grow towards light
How does a tree “move” to get the resources it needs to grow and survive? Join me in investigating the tree “muscle,” a special kind of wood that allows the tree to keep its body strong as it forages for light. Get a peek inside my greenhouse and lab and all the tools I use to study trees!Marc Mapalo: Tiny Tardigrades, Wonderful Water Bears
Indestructible! Mighty! Immortal! Have you heard about tardigrades, considered one of the toughest animals in the world? In this video, you will learn what tardigrades are, what they look like, and their incredible diversity. We will consider where to find them, how to collect them, and how to identify new species. Maybe someday you’ll discover a new tardigrade!
Carlos Rivera-Lopez: How to Grow a New Head/Cómo Crecer una Cabeza Nueva
Many animals can regrow tissues, such as skin, when injury happens. However, some animals can regenerate entire parts of their body if they lose them, even a brand new head with a mouth and a brain! How does this happen? Join me as we explore how some animals, like the three-banded panther worm, Hofstenia miamia, can offer us a way of understanding how this regeneration happens.Cómo Crecer una Cabeza Nueva
Muchos animales tienen la capacidad de regenerar tejidos en su cuerpo, como la piel, cuando las heridas ocurren en esas áreas. Sin embargo, algunos animales pueden regenerar partes enteras de su cuerpo cuando heridas grandes ocurren, ¡así como volver a regenerar una cabeza con su boca y cerebro! ¿Cómo ocurre esto? Acompáñame a explorar cómo algunos animales, como el gusano pantera de tres bandas, Hofstenia miamia, nos ofrece la oportunidad de entender cómo este tipo de regeneración ocurre.Collin Cherubim: How to Find an Exoplanet
Join me on a journey through the galaxy to explore the tantalizing field of exoplanets. You’ll learn how scientists in this exciting new branch of astronomy discover and characterize other worlds and even look for alien life! Along the way, I offer a glimpse into the real-world scientific method and invite viewers to think like a scientist.
Grace Burgin: Among the Wildflowers
We live in an incredibly diverse world among many different kinds of plants, animals, and other living creatures. But how did it become this way? Join me on a journey — from collecting wildflowers in Texas to studying genetics in the lab — with the goal of answering one small piece of this big question.Souvik Mandal: Learning from Ants' Behavior to Make Better Robots
Ants live in societies like us and face many of the same basic challenges that we do. These include finding or growing food, building complex structures, transporting small and big items, and defending their home from diseases and invaders. Interestingly, they work on these challenges using simple rules. I study tiny details of the behavior of ants to understand these rules and convert them into algorithms. My collaborators and I then use the algorithms to make smart robots that can work together to do different jobs with little human instruction.
Yangfan Zhang: Fish Athletes
How much energy do fish use as they swim through the ocean? How does that change if the environment changes? Answering these questions not only helps me understand the basic biology of fish but also helps guide us as we make policy decisions about climate change and human food supply.
Victoria DiTomasso: Exploring Other Worlds
Discover a distant planet outside of the Solar System. We will retrace the steps to the discovery of the first so-called exoplanet, and I will explain how astronomers (like me!) use the movement of stars to learn about the exoplanets that revolve around them.
Fee
The program is free to all groups of ten or more at schools nationwide through June 2024. You will be asked to complete a brief online evaluation after your program.
Scout troops, after-school programs, camps, and extracurricular learning pods may book a program for a $25 fee for 10–50 youths. Payment in full is required one week before the program.
Duration
Harvard Scientist in a Classroom videos are approximately ten minutes long and should be screened before the live virtual discussion. Live virtual classroom visits are thirty minutes long.
About the Harvard Science Education Partners
Scientist in a Classroom presenters have completed our Science Education Partners program, which prepares scientists to talk about their research with public audiences in a way that is engaging, understandable, relevant, and inspires curiosity. They are graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who are passionate about sharing their love of science and inspiring others to see themselves as scientists and make science a part of their daily lives. Each has their own story of how they became interested in and have progressed in their chosen field and most are advanced in their studies with several years of lab or fieldwork experience.
Benefit for Presenters
Speaking to your students is also an opportunity for Science Education Partners. Many teach college classes using college-level language. But in the field, to the media, and in grant proposals, they need to use everyday language to explain what they are trying to learn, how they will undertake their work, and how it may help the community. Developing these professional skills with your students improves their own career prospects.