Kristen Seim: A Glowing Presence in Science Education
April 2013
BASIS volunteer Kristen Seim explains how she has turned a lifetime of science learning into a wide array of service to the next generation of young scientists.
Kristen Seim, a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley in the Department of Chemistry, has turned a lifetime of science learning into a wide array of service to the next generation of young scientists. Kristen has been volunteering with BASIS for 5 years, the majority of her time in graduate school. She also currently serves on the CRS Steering Committee and is a BASIS Campus Coordinator, helping to engage more Berkeley scientists to do outreach every year.
As the daughter of two scientists (an ecologist and a biomedical engineer), Kristen was actively involved in many science camps and outreach programs starting at an early age. This early immersion in the world of science established a strong interest in the natural world as well as a propensity for independent discovery. Kristen is very aware of how her experiences as a young girl contributed to her interest and successes in science and as a result she has put much of her time and energy into providing similar opportunities for science exposure to young kids. In addition to her work with BASIS, Kristen has participated in a variety of volunteer outreach programs such as Expanding Your Horizons (EYH), outreach as a member of the Women in Science at Cornell (WISC) and time volunteering at the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca New York. Additionally, Kristen spent two summers working as a naturalist park ranger in Grand Teton National Park, and a year volunteering for the Cal Academy of Sciences as a docent. Through these diverse experiences Kristen learned how to engage an audience and prompt kids and adults to connect with the world around them.
Kristen has taught a couple of lessons through BASIS and currently teaches a lesson to 5th graders with her two lab mates, Allie and Katherine, called Glow in the Dark Science. This lesson is all about chemiluminescence and phosphorescence (two very big words for 11-year-olds!) and includes many fascinating activities including goo that glows in the dark and color changing chemilumiescent reactions. Kristen says that she is often surprised by how much the kids already know at this young age. In fact, her funniest classroom experience consists of having a student knowledgeably refer to “something she had read in the economist”. Kristen enjoys teaching the Glow in the Dark Science lesson because it is both highly engaging and almost always something that the kids haven’t seen before.
The time that Kristen has spent in the classroom has not only benefited the students, but also provided a unique perspective to her own relationship with science. According to Kristen, it is refreshing to take a step back from the highly specialized and specific communities that she became a part of in Graduate School and be reminded of her general curiosity toward the natural world that drives her interest in science. This same curiosity can often be identified in elementary school students and Kristen enjoys seeing this passion manifest itself through thoughtful questions and analysis when she visits Berkeley and Oakland schools.
When asked how her experience with BASIS compared to other science education outreach she participated in, Kristen replied that the large scope of outreach and high level of organization of BASIS stood out in her mind:
“(…) the difference with BASIS is its scope of outreach (so many schools, lessons for all grades, and the type of science presented), as well as the amazing organization that goes into training team leaders and placing new and existing teams into classrooms- it makes volunteering less of a hassle for graduate students and provides a great opportunity for us to engage the surrounding community.”
In addition, Kristen lauded the fact that the BASIS program encourages graduate students to design their own lessons. She feels that this high level of freedom and involvement facilitates effective and exciting teaching because the BASIS volunteers are given the opportunity to teach about the subjects they are truly passionate about. Providing the opportunity for elementary school age kids to see young Scientists like Kristen and her team truly in their element is a great way to inspire the same passion for discovery and inquiry that Kristen has fortified throughout her life.
CRS is grateful to Kristen for paying her passion for inquiry forward to a new generation of budding scientists. Thank you Kristen!