Graduate students who participate in MRSEC research also engage in a variety of professional development, outreach, education, and community building activities in order to develop and improve their communication, leadership, presentation, networking and demonstration skills. All MRSEC funded grads select to participate on one of the following teams each year:
OUTREACH TEAMS FOR FALL 2024 - SUMMER 2025
K-12 Outreach & Education Team
Mission: to engage, inspire, and educate youth audiences, parents, and teachers about materials science through active involvement by researchers in public events and STEM programs hosted by outreach partners while also building important and transferrable communication, presentation, facilitation, demonstration, leadership, and professional soft skills.
To accomplish this, team members focus on utilizing, developing, and implementing hands-on interactive demonstrations and short activities. Currently, their efforts include:
- Utilizing, updating/improving, and promoting the Mission: Materials Science activities and platform to virtual (and eventually "live") audiences.
- Partnering with Discovery Space of Central Pennsylvania to bring materials science focused outreach programs to K-8 students.
- Coordinating the Arts Festival Kids Day science event on Old Main Lawn (during the annual Central PA Festival of the Arts event each July).
- Developing new activity ideas and learning how to test and adapt them for different ages and venue situations.
- Presenting activities at many additional local public outreach events (e.g. Exploration U, Grange Fair), STEM programs on campus (e.g, Science U summer camps, Envision) and classrooms with teachers (e.g. Milton Hershey School, local RET educator partners) to gain experience, get inspired by kid's curiosity, and build those important transferrable skills.
Sustainability Team
Mission: To creatively pursue projects that will build awareness and educate Center members, the Penn State materials research community, and youth audiences about sustainability-focused topics, challenges, and solutions. Example activities include:
- Presenting "Sustainability Minutes" at Monday MRSEC Seminars.
- Creating and presenting an educational "Cell Phone Production" workshop for high school and college students that describes the global supply chain $ costs and carbon emission impact of building a cell phone.
- Identifying opportunities for improvements and positive impact regarding the daily behaviors, decisions, conscious awareness and general mindset of researchers in a laboratory setting.
- Exploring connections between the academic research lab and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
- Exploring topics of sustainability in the local State College and University Park community by taking tours of facilities (CCRRA, PSU compost facility, etc.) to learn more and share information with Center members.
- Hosting a "Rags to Bags" event at The Rivet in partnership with Discovery Space of Central PA.
- Creating an annual "Olympic Event" for the MRI Safety Olympics that focuses upon sustainability in addition to safety.
- Conducting Informational Interviews with industry to learn about how companies address sustainability in their research, operational, manufacturing, and product development spaces.
- Conducting an E-waste collection drive and Electronic Extravaganza Art Show to educate the community about electronic recycling and waste.
- Creating a Waste Sorting program to teach audiences of all ages about local waste guidelines and recycling opportunities, while also informing them about the science and sorting challenges related to recycling plastics.
For more about Sustainability - we recommend exploring the many programs and resources available through Penn State Sustainability.
