What’s more, the participating classrooms aren’t just in metropolitan areas. “And we've had 500 sign up so far for the fall,” she says. Last semester alone, McAnulty says the program connected scientists to 800 classrooms in 28 countries and nearly every US state.

McAnulty says the program also tries to match classrooms with scientists from underrepresented groups or from the same ethnic or socioeconomic groups “so that the students can interact with a scientist that they can really easily relate to.” Teachers can choose what kinds of scientists they want to talk to - bringing a chemist into a chemistry class, for example. “And these sessions can cover the scientist’s area of study, or it can be a general discussion of what it's like to be a scientist.” “So effectively, I match scientists with K-12 classrooms for question-and-answer sessions with the scientist,” she explains. She’s a PhD candidate studying the microbiomes of squid at the University of Connecticut, but she’s also the founder of Skype a Scientist, a program that uses video conferencing to connect volunteer scientists with classrooms around the world. If the first image that popped into your head was an older man with frizzy hair and a white lab coat, surrounded by bubbling test tubes, you’re not wrong - the Einsteinlike “mad scientist” is still a prevailing image in popular culture.īut in the real world, scientists are so much more: Just this summer, Science Friday has featured researchers who are developing a bandagelike flu vaccine studying polar bears from helicopters and investigating why living in space gives flatworms an extra head.īiologist Sarah McAnulty is on a mission to introduce kids to these kinds of actual working scientists.

Skype a scientist program