Dipa here-
This past December, I got the opportunity to share my research and interests in climate change with a group of curious middle schoolers at Amherst Regional Middle School in Amherst, Massachusetts!
The school partners with University of Massachusetts Amherst Graduate Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) organization to connect graduate researchers to middle school students through 20-minute Science SoundByte presentations. The 7th and 8th grade students get to enjoy the presentations during their lunch times and learn about a variety of STEM research. As for me, I get to practice explaining my research and sharing my interests to the next generation of researchers.
While I was planning my presentation I knew I wanted to get these students thinking about climate change, since it is a problem that affects them too. The students talked with each other and then shared out what they knew about climate change, sea level rise, and their impacts on the environment–they knew so much! To explain how I use fossils to study climate change in the past, I gave the students marine fossils (fossil shark teeth, mollusks, ammonites, and corals) and asked them to draw the organism and its habitat. Did it live in the reef, open ocean, at the seafloor, or in the water column? If these fossils were found in the same location, what does this say about sea level over time in that place?
The students had fun getting to touch and look at fossils, and they worked together to solve how much sea level rose over time for the activity! It was great to be back in front of a class and talk to students about their interests in STEM and how we can work together to understand modern climate change.