The Clackamas print., January 27, 2016, Page 2, Image 2

STEM takes root
Campus talks preach gospel about science, technology, engineering and mathematics
BY CASSIDY WHITE
Clackam as Com m unity College is now
offering STEM talks to students who are
interested in learning more about w hat’s
going on in the world of applied sciences.
STEM is an acronym for science, tech­
nology, engineering and m athem atics.
Therefore, STEM talks are presented by
instructors who are involved in any one
of those fields.
According to Tory Blackwell, a science
instructor at the college, STEM talks are
essentially an opportunity for students
on campus to be exposed to a wide vari­
ety of different research topics in STEM
fields. Although STEM talks are tailored
to stu d e n ts in terested in th e sciences,
Blackwell argues th a t these talks are ap­
plicable to students of various disciplines.
“A lm ost everything th a t people are
doing on campus probably has some STEM
connection,” he said. He explained th at
students interested in art and mix paint,
for exam ple, are doing chem istry, and
students who are interested in graphic Boise State University, got connected to
design are, in fact, using technology.
the college through Blackwell himself.
“We have a lot of stu d en ts who prob­
Estrada’s STEM talk on Friday, Jan. 15,
ably are STEM students, and they don’t was focused on em erging nanom aterials,
realize they’re STEM students, so hope­ m ore specifically, graphene.
fully this will give them an opportunity to
In his talk, he presented research h e’d
self-identify,” said Blackwell. Blackwell p erso n ally d o n e w ith g rap h en e, th e
also m entioned an additional purpose for “wonder m aterial.”
STEM talks.
Estrada said, “I like to reach students
“We wanted to try and remove th at stig­ with the kind of research that we’re doing.
m a people have w hen they see science I think the topics that we’re covering, the
classes like, *Oh, science classes these new m aterial I’m going to talk about, is
are hard and th ey ’re crazy.’ Hopefully kind of a material of the future, so I think
these STEM talks will allow some of those it’s im portant to get out and show w hat
students to realize th a t people in STEM w e’re doing w ith it and expose the next
are just like everybody else in all of the generation of STEM students and work
other areas of education,” said Blackwell. force to new materials, new research.”
When asked about the selection process
W hen asked about th e value of STEM
for the speakers of these talks, Blackwell talks, Estrada said, “ I think this kind of
said, “At this point, m ost of the instruc­ sem inar brings two things to a communi­
tors on cam pus are relying on our n e t­ ty like Clackamas. First, it’s going to ex­
working skills.” In fact, the guest speaker pose non-traditional students to speakers
of the last STEM talk, David Estrada from who may have a sim ilar background and
how they were able to get into STEM and
STEM careers. The other part is th at a lot
of w hat’s in the STEM textbooks is dated;
it’s, you know, like 10 years old, so this
offers th e opportunity to show cutting
edge, sta te -o f-th e art results and really
show what different universities are doing
and w hat kind of new ideas are em erging
in the STEM fields.”
Jeff Takahashi, a student at Clackamas
majoring in com puter science, has been
to both STEM talks this year and said “It’s
interesting stuff regardless of w hat it is.”
He also stated th at STEM talks are “ some­
thing applied from all of the book work. ”
STEM talks are open to th e public w ith
no cost to attend. There will be at least
one more talk scheduled for the end of
May, w hich will featu re a s tu d e n t-s e ­
lected speaker. Those who are interested
in attending an upcoming talk can watch
for notifications and flyers when definite
dates are available.
CORRECTIONS: In Issue 9 of the Clackamas Print, Phil Reid’s and Mary Hutchins’ names were printed wrong. We apologize for the error.
ON THE COVER:
English department chair Sue Mach is staging two plays in Portland metro this winter. Photo by Victoria Tinker. Cover design by Brandon Chorum.
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