Things are very exciting right now, down at Letters to a Pre-scientist Headquarters!
First, we want to say goodbye to all the students in Bertie County, and thank them for sending us their funny, honest, and inquisitive messages over the past two years. Macon has completed her stay in Teach for America and moved on to graduate school (good luck, Macon!). Luckily, she was able to find another teacher who is just as motivated to help students reach out to scientists all over the world.
Lucy Madden is a second year science teacher with TFA, and she has joined the team to make LPS bigger and better than ever before. As she puts it, “This is an excellent chance for my students to see enthusiasm about science first-hand, from someone other than their nerdy teacher!”
The past two years of this program have been such a success, we decided to expand it to include the entire 7th grade at Neal Middle School in Durham, NC. That means 315 pre-scientists who are curious and ready to learn about what science looks like in the real world! It’s going to be a lot of fun for all three teachers (Lucy, Wendy Geise, and Michael Whitley) to put this together, but they need your help. We just need a few more people to sign up so that every pre-scientist gets a pen pal.
All you have to do is write 4 letters. Sign up today and we will send you the name of your pen pal. Our only requirement is that you do something technical or science-related, and that you like inspiring kids. If you’ve already signed up, thank you! Don’t forget to invite your friends, classmates and co-workers.
One of our scientists, Andrew Wong from UC Berkeley, recently summed up the importance of the pen pal program. He said, “I read a news article about how when people are told to draw a scientist, they always draw a very serious looking man. If that is true, I would like to help dispel that.” The pre-scientists this year will discover that scientists are men and women, young and old, from all different places, and most importantly, real people.