Freshwater Colloquium: Encouraging Student Interest in STEM in Elementary, Middle and High School Classrooms

Bart Adrian will present “Encouraging Student Interest in STEM in Elementary, Middle and High School Classrooms” as part of the School of Freshwater Sciences Fall colloquium Series.

Bart Adrian is a Senior lecturer in Atmospheric Science and Mathematics at UWM. He received his Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University and completed a Master of Science degree in Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His career has included working as a Meteorologist for WITI-TV FOX 6 and as a STEM outreach coordinator. We are honored to host him for an engaging talk that will help scientists with encouraging participation in STEM fields and promote scientific literacy to address challenges in Freshwater Sciences and other fields.

Freshwater and Atmospheric science provide excellent opportunities for encouraging student interest in all fields of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). In this talk, a model outreach program (“Chasing the Wind: Tools for Understanding the Weather”) will be presented for use in elementary, middle and high school classrooms. Key elements of the presentation will be highlighted: sharing of personal career background; story-telling about scientists and scientific concepts; utilization of physical props and humor; messaging on the importance of fluency in mathematics, the language of STEM; and direct involvement of the audience.

This presentation is open to students, faculty, staff, alumni and the public.