Hawker Lab Outreach Blog
Our lab believes in the importance sharing our love of chemistry with the greater Fresno community!
We plan to update this blog frequently to share our outreach experiences.
Our lab believes in the importance sharing our love of chemistry with the greater Fresno community!
We plan to update this blog frequently to share our outreach experiences.
By: Sannad Jawad On March 14th, Sannad participated in a scientific outreach event at Reedley College organized by Dr. Kalyani Maitra. Sannad and several other students and faculty from the chemistry and biology departments presented current research to the Reedley College students. The event began with Mr. Aldair and Ms. Brandy from CASA talking about the wonderful opportunities they have to support Fresno State students pursuing a career in STEM. Following that, students got to hear about several research projects going on at Fresno State along with a brief talk about how to get involved in scientific research at Fresno State by Sannad. The talks were followed by a poster session with several students including Sannad showcasing their current research endeavors. This was truly an event for the books. It was a day full of curiosity, fun, and excitement. We can't wait to do it again next year!
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By Sannad Jawad and Anoshka Choudhury On Saturday, October 14th, 2023, the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools hosted the annual STEM for Girls conference at Fresno State. This event included numerous presentations on STEM careers, talks about relevant topics in STEM fields, and hands-on STEM activities and workshops. This was a great opportunity to motivate and encourage 5th-12th grade girls to learn and get involved in different STEM fields. Dr. Hawker and Anoshka spearheaded a kitchen chemistry workshop with exciting demonstrations and kitchen-friendly chemical experiments. The girls got to learn about different chemistry fundamentals such as the different states of matter through making oobleck, to cabbage pH indicators, to concentration gradients via Skittles and sugar, a basic breakdown of chromatography through markers and water, and finally, a grape plasma demonstration which was the star of the show! This event had profound joy and excitement, and we can't wait to participate in more workshops like this in the future!
By Sannad Jawad On Friday, September 8th, 2023, the College of the Sequoias hosted an open house for STEM major students to come together and gain helpful information and connect with academic institutions like Fresno State. Sannad and Haylee traveled to Visalia with our colleagues from the CASA office and the BEST Club (Black Excelence in Science & Technology) to participate in this great outreach event. They met with aspiring STEM major high school students and current STEM major college students. They talked about the opportunities and services Fresno State offers, and most importantly, the incredible research they are conducting in the Hawker lab. Sannad and Haylee also presented their posters at the featured “Friday Night Labs” poster session included in the event. Students and families got to ask questions and engage in meaningful conversations. It was a night full of great talks, awesome laughs, and heartfelt memories.
By Mia-Rose Kayaian
On March 7th, Dr. Hawker, Ashley, and Mia-Rose participated in a scientific outreach event at Reedley College organized by Dr. Kalyani Maitra. We, along with many of the Fresno State students and faculty, presented our current research to the Reedley College community. The presentations began with an overview of the various programs offered at Fresno State by Ms. Lilia De La Cerda and Ms. Brandy White. Dr. Hawker then gave a talk discussing plasma and material science alongside other Fresno State Chemistry and Biochemistry department faculty (Dr. Kalyani Maitra, Dr. Santanu Maitra, and Dr. Qiao-Hong Chen). The faculty presentations were followed by Mia Rose’s, Ashley’s, and the department's student poster presentations. Everyone had a wonderful time discussing their experiences at Fresno State and their current research with other students at Reedley College! By: Dr. Hawker On April 22nd, I had the pleasure of working with some awesome local kindergarten-6th grade students - and their parents - to talk about slime and biomaterials! We made slime, ate jello, and talked about how material properties relate to function. This was very similar to the workshop Alyssa and I designed for "Expanding your Horizons" except this time it was virtual via Zoom! The participants had a fun time making homemade slime using DIY kits prepared by our helpful department staff, and making observations about their slime creations.
By Dr. Hawker On March 16th, Dr. Hawker participated in judging the Senior Division Chemistry and Biochemistry posters at the 2020 Fresno County Science Fair. She worked alongside 3 other Fresno State Chemistry department faculty (Drs. Kristi Closser, Kalyani Maitra, and Laurent Dejean) to carefully review and score each poster, It was different than usual because of the start of social distancing measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant that students were not in attendance. The projects in the Division covered a variety of interesting topics, including water treatment, nutrients in fruit/vegetables, and even some collaborative work with the Fresno State Biology department! It was great to see everyone's hard work, but the conversations with students were certainly missed by all.
For more details, check out this year's program and the Science Fair website: http://sciencefair.fcoe.org/sites/sciencefair.fcoe.org/files/Science%20Fair%202020.pdf http://sciencefair.fcoe.org/ By: Alyssa Morelli On Saturday November 2nd, Dr. Hawker and Alyssa Morelli joined Tulare County Office of Education on their 20th annual Expanding Your Horizons conference at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA. The day was spent attending workshops presented by women whose careers involve mathematics, science, engineering or technology. These hands-on seminars provide an opportunity for young women to experiment in specific areas of interest, such as engineering or chemistry. In the seminar we conducted, the question we posed was, "What does slime have to do with biomaterials?" We did several activities where the girls made observations of several different materials, and compared the properties with each other and the class to see the differences and similarities with materials found in our body. There were three stations set up around the room including a tendon station, bone station, and brain station. We used materials like wood, jello, and rubber bands to represent each of the materials. We also had slime to play with and take home and jello to eat!
By Dr. Hawker On Saturday October 5th, Dr. Hawker joined the Fresno State Chemistry Club at Feria de Educación - an event to assist primarily Spanish-speaking parents and their students access resources and information to prepare for college success. Many departments from across campus came together to support this fantastic event. At the Chemistry Club booth, we made fun "tie-dye" filter paper medallions, yummy liquid nitrogen ice cream, and experimented with pressure using balloons. We also had plenty of fun give-aways including temporary tattoos and chemistry activity books!
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