Scientists-at-Large
A multipurpose program used as a teaching and recruitment tool.
- Brookings School District
- Sioux Falls School District
- Kiewit Luminarium (Omaha, Nebraska) in collaboration with Greg Heiberger
- Washington Pavilion
- Certain tribal colleges (in collaboration with Derek Brandis)
- Community colleges (in neighboring states)
What is the benefit of the Scientists-at-Large program?
Scientists-at-Large aim to demystify science, harnessing the inherent curiosity and interest in learning about how things work through hands-on experiments.
Why participate and how does Scientists-at-Large benefit society?
The program does the following:
- Teaches future educators how to teach simple science experiments.
- A recruitment tool for future undergraduates and graduate students by partnering industry and academic partners.
Rachel Willand-Charnley鈥檚 prior experience
Rachel Willand-Charnley is an applied interdisciplinary organic glyco-cancer immunologist. They received their B.S. at Creighton University and their Ph.D. (in chemistry) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln under the direction of professor Patrick Dassault. They went on to become a National Institutes of Health National Institute of General Medical Sciences Institutional Research and Academic Career Award fellow at Stanford University, under the direction of Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi. Part of the goal, in addition to their postdoctoral research training, was to communicate science and increase recruitment. Additionally, they were also a South Dakota Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research "Communicating Science to the Public" fellow in which they further refined their skills to communicate complex science.
In addition, during their time at both the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University, they were a Bay Area Scientist in Schools, where scientists visited classrooms and performed hands on experiments in K-5 classrooms throughout the Bay area. They also spearheaded the initial development of the K-5 outreach program that became integrated into Stanford University鈥檚 Inspiring Future Scientist program. They worked with Schwartz Poehlmann to implement this component of the program.
