We’re sharing real STEM professional letters to pre-scientists annotated by LPS teachers and staff to provide STEM pen pals with inspiration and ideas for their own letters. We asked our 2022-23 LPS teachers and staff to pick letters that stood out to them and tell us why. We hope this series serves as a resource for pen pals to make letters accessible and engaging for pre-scientists.
This letter was written by STEM pen pal, Jessika De Jesus, to a 8th grade pre-scientist for round 1. The theme this round was: your STEM career journey.
The letter was annotated and reviewed by LPS teacher Lisa Balazs, and here’s what she had to say:
This letter is very encouraging. This STEM pen pal related non-science topics from their pre-scientist’s most recent letter to science. In the letter the STEM pen pal encourages their pre-scientist to be curious and to not give up when faced with adversity.
It would be lovely to include some websites for the Smithsonian Institution and for invasive species examples. Also, my students loved having a map that showed where they are and where their scientist is!
Check out the letter below with Lisa’s annotations in green handwriting throughout the letter. Thanks to Jessika for not only being a great pen pal, but also allowing us to annotate and publish her letter so others can benefit!
