The force is strong at Knight Campus.
More than a dozen PhD students from the Department of Bioengineering went to River Road El Camino Del Rio Elementary School, a Spanish-immersion school in the local 4J public school system, for a science outreach event on May 4.
The “May the Fourth Be With You” event was Star Wars-themed with many elementary students and teachers dressed in costume to participate in several science modules developed by and taught by Knight Campus students. Themes of the science modules included seeing “the force” with salt on a vibration plate, understanding soil erosion, building paper rockets, melt-writing with playdough, heat transfer, and learning about composting.
The event was organized by Karly Fear of the Hosseinzadeh Lab and Justin Svendsen of the Hettiaratchi Lab.
“Outreach is an important aspect of our mission to advance society through science,” said Fear, a Bioengineering grad student. “It empowers students to be curious and observant and to see themselves as our next generation of scientists and engineers.”