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. Our LPS teachers and staff pick letters that stand 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, Malena, to a 8th grade pre-scientist for round #3. The theme this round was: Overcoming Obstacles.
The letter was annotated and reviewed by LPS teacher Sarah Malec, and here’s what they had to say:
This letter is great because it did a fantastic job of explaining concepts to the pre-scientist in kid-friendly language. Malena did not assume the penpal could not understand her work with Lambda particles, but made it easy to understand at an 8th grade level. Malena also included lots of pictures with captions and models to enhance her explanations. One thing that could make this letter even better is a little less cursive and more printed words. The spacing was great and it was obvious that time and care were taken when drafting this letter.
Please note, this letter is longer than the recommended length of 1-2 pages. By round 3, we suggest following your student’s lead and matching the length of their letters. In addition, we know that handwritten letters often turn out a bit longer because less words can fit on a page.
Check out the letter below with the teacher’s annotations in yellow boxes with red text throughout the letter. Thanks to Malena for not only being a great pen pal, but also allowing us to annotate and publish their letter so others can benefit!
Learn more about Malena and her work here:
Institutional web page:
https://malena-tejeda.blog.ucol.mx/p/home.html
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/malena.tejeday
