Kansas State University

K-Staters assist with KAWSE three-day STEM summer camp

Submitted by Chardie Baird

Several K-Staters are helping with the Office for the Advancement of Women in Science and Engineering summer camps for middle school and high school students through June 5.

The office sponsors outreach programs to foster the interest and professional development of girls and women in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields, and thereby enhancing the diversity and efficacy of the fields universally. During the summer camps, the middle and high school students participate in hands-on STEM activities designed and facilitated by the university's faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students in STEM disciplines.

K-Staters helping with the Girls Researching Our World, or GROW camp, which hosts middle school students, will present a wide variety of STEM disciplines:

• Kendra McLauchlan, geography, will present "Discovering the Past with Tree Rings."
• Mary Knapp, agronomy, will present "Measuring the Weather."
• Kevin Donnelly, agronomy, will present "Examining Flowering and Reproduction in Plants."
• Russell Feldhausen, computing and information science, will present "Computer Algorithms Unplugged!"
• Annelise Nguyen, Leigh Ann Feuerbacher and Rachel Palinski, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, will present "Concepts of Toxicology."
• Bin Liu, chemical engineering, will present "Magic Genie Experiment."
• Jianhan Chen, biochemistry and molecular biophysics, will present "Folding Proteins."
• Janet Paper and Matthew Kirk, geology; and Lydia Zeglin, biology, will present "Constructing a Microbial Habitat."
• Kathrin Schrick, biology, will present "Making Glue from Seeds."
• Michael Kanost, biochemistry and molecular biophysics, will present "Melanin: How Nature Uses Chemistry to Make the Color Black."
• Katie Loughmiller, architectural engineering and construction science, will present "Building Value: The Cost of Designing Buildings."
• Megan Kennelly and Anna Whitfield, plant pathology, will present "Plants Get Sick, Too!"

K-Staters helping with the Exploring Science, Technology, and Engineering, or EXCITE camp, which hosts high school students, will provide participants with focused and in-depth experiences in several STEM fields:

• Kevin Donnelly, agronomy, will present "Managing Flowering and Reproduction for Crop Improvement."
• Russell Feldhausen, computing and information science, will present "Computer Algorithms Unplugged!"
• Raman Chandrasekar, biochemistry and molecular biophysics, will present "Let's Build the Proteins."
• Kim Hiller, Barbara Anderson and Melody LeHew, apparel, textiles, and interior design, will present "Dyeing for Fashion."
• Gurpreet Singh, mechanical and nuclear engineering, will present "Nanoengineering."
• Bin Liu, chemical engineering, will present "Magic Genie Experiment."
• Nicole Green, biochemistry, will present "Drosophi-what? Using Fruit Flies as a Biological Model Organism."
• Timothy Durrett, biochemistry and molecular biophysics, will present "Making a Better Vegetable Oil."
• Andrew Marshall, Catherine Hill, Jen Peterson and Kim Kirkpatrick, psychology; and Sarah Stuebing, veterinary medicine, will present "How Beatrice chose Dauntless over Abnegation: The Mechanisms of Decision Making in Our Daily Lives."
• Travis Redecker, recreation services, will assist with the K-State Challenge Course.
• Vinod Kumarappan, physics, will present "Very Bright and Extremely Short: How lasers illuminate the quantum physics of atoms and molecules."