March 2017 Update
November 2017 Update
Languages Without Barriers
This program was initiated to promote cultural awareness and language interests for younger generations through free afterschool programs that take place at the YMCA of Greater Birmingham. This program hopes to help students learn by providing a fun and safe educational environment where they can immerse themselves in the enjoyment of learning new languages and experiencing cultures with their fellow students. To keep the learning process engaging and interesting, the instructors often provide fun and interactive activities for the students to participate in, such as playing rock, paper, scissors in Japanese. The program takes place at the YMCA from 4 to 5pm on Thursdays and Fridays. Please spread the word about this program to inform those who are interested in their child learning languages for free in the Birmingham area!
Building Bridges
This organization was founded with the mission of ending social isolation that many elderly face when living in nursing homes or assisted living communities. There are two programs that are currently active: The Buddy System and the Technology Tutor. Both programs take place at the Highland Manor Assisted Living Facility in Five Points, Birmingham. The Buddy System pairs volunteers with residents in order to allow the residents to feel more connected with the rest of the community by offering companionship and communication opportunities. The Technology Tutor program provides educational services regarding the general use of internet based devices to the residents in order for them to better utilize technology to connect with family and friends. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, please check out their official Facebook page to fill out an interest form and for additional information!
Books Without Borders
As education is often taken for granted in the United States, people at times forget the fact that many children in less-developed countries lack the necessary educational materials to help them learn and build crucial knowledge about the world. With the hope to increase the global literacy rate, Books Without Borders organizes events to help raise book and money donations to provide essential learning materials for children in areas that lack the access to them. The organization is currently preparing a Talent Show for their cause where students and professors like Dr. March perform on stage! This event is open to everyone and will take place on November 15th at 7pm in the Hill Center Ballrooms A and B. Books and money donations for the cause will be accepted at the event and will be greatly appreciated! If you are interested in performing at the show, please email bwbtalent@gmail.com for more information!
March 2017 Update
Dare to Diagnose
by Tanya Correya
Dare to Diagnose is a new competition open to all UAB undergraduates that is being organized by UAB SciTech students. There is a fear that many undergraduates are too caught up with courses and research in their undergraduate education bubble to consider that there is much more to being a doctor than just academic knowledge. The project’s overall goal is to improve undergraduates' understanding of the medical profession by challenging undergraduates to interweave the science of medicine with the art of empathy. In the early stages of the project, the group is working on designing the competition so that the competitors can reflect on the event when they apply for medical school. To do this, the group is working with Dr. Kvale, a doctor in palliative care, and others at the UAB School of Medicine to ensure that the competition will best reflect what being a doctor truly means. Gradually, the competition will be expanded to include undergraduates from other universities as well. The competition aims to test the non-academic capabilities of the competitors by building two facets to the competition. The first part will evaluate the competitor’s ability to come up with potential diagnoses of a patient. Currently, the plan is to use a virtual simulation that will allow the competitor to act in a virtual scenario functioning as a real doctor. Dr. Kvale will be assisting in obtaining the software for these virtual simulations that Medical Schools use to test their students. The second part will evaluate how well the students can implement empathy while communicating with patients. The competitors must tell volunteers who act as patients that they have an unfortunate diagnosis and help them cope with the news. The group will provide a study guide for the students to help prepare for both facets of the competition, so no prior knowledge is necessary to compete. The group is planning to hold an interest meeting sometime this semester for people who would be interested in competing during the fall semester of 2017.
Building Bridges
by Janaki Kher
Building Bridges was started three years ago by Anisha Das, a current SciTech senior, eager to make a change in the generational divide that is present between the youth and elderly. The organization was started with the aim to end social isolation in nursing homes and assisted living facilities by building relationships between the youth and elderly. Two programs that Building Bridges have implemented thus far in facilities include either communicating with residents and aiding with personal tasks or providing personalized technology classes where volunteers teach the elderly how to use Safe Link phones, their personal devices and other functions such as the internet, email, and Skype that could be useful for daily life and keep them connected with their family. The group is currently volunteering at Highland Manor, an assisted living facility at Five Points. One of the original members of the program Surabhi Rao, a current SciTech senior, commented, “This organization has really taught me how important the little things are.” Surabhi encourages anyone that has an interest in noble work to join the organization, because not only does it provide those who volunteer with opportunity to make a personal connection with an elder, but also the ability to observe the positive effect you are making individually firsthand. Recently, a group of SciTech freshmen, including Juhee Agrawal, EJ Aloria, Maniyah Dale, and Victoria Miller, have taken the continuation of the project up as their own and are looking forward to making changes and implementing new ideas that will aid in the growth of the organization. In choosing this project, the group of students is ensuring that the source of community service will continue in the future and have a positive domino effect. Currently, the group is planning on expanding to a new facility to increase the extent of people they reach with their cause.
Foreign Language Education Program
by Ryan Murphy
One project group in the STH 151 class, consisting of current SciTech freshmen Kenneth Davis, Omar Jones, Karly Casey, and Austin Walker, has taken on a project to promote and encourage the education of foreign languages and cultures in younger generations of students. Currently, the group’s most influential stakeholder is the YMCA of Greater Birmingham, as the group aims to assist primarily elementary and middle school age children. When questioned about the goals of the project, group member Karly Casey commented, “Education of foreign languages and cultures, especially at a young age, is beneficial to both cognitive and social health, and our goal is to help provide education to those who might not recognize the immediate benefits nor have the programs available within their school systems.” As a new idea and project to implement, the group has several different expectations and goals, and ever since the start, the project has really hit the ground running. The group has been engaging in weekly meetings since January with a local after school program (YMCA) and has set up a plan to begin working with children at the YMCA following spring break. Additionally, throughout the rest of the year, the group plans to expand the program with more languages to offer by bringing in additional volunteers. Currently, the group has the experience and resources to teach American Sign Language, Japanese, and Spanish to interested students, though the group is hoping to expand this list in the coming years.
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January 2017 Update
Books Without Borders
by Shannon Lukens
Books without Borders is an organization founded by UAB SciTech students that focuses on improving education in underprivileged regions through events promoting and increasing awareness for educational improvement. This semester, the group focused on improving education in an underprivileged area of Vietnam. In efforts to work towards this goal, the group organized and implemented two events this past year, including a book drive and a literacy lecture. The purpose of the book drive was to collect children’s books from around UAB campus and the student dorms, as well as other locations such as apartments, other schools, and churches. The book drive was immensely successful, with a total of 274 books being collected and sent to Vietnam. The literacy lecture, presented by Dr. Grace Jepkimboi, was held to discuss education in impoverished locations within Kenya and raise awareness for illiteracy. Approximately fifty people attended the literacy lecture, and 57 books were donated at the event. Janaki Rajput, a sophomore member of the organization, commented, “A common trend that is seen in areas with low literacy is the lack of public libraries. We are an organization that focuses
on improving education in underprivileged areas by providing resources in the form of books and money for books in order to fill libraries. Through our efforts this year, we have collected a total of approximately 300 books!”
SciTech Video Project
by Tanya Correya
Monima Anam, David Glover, and Caleb Osborn are three SciTech sophomores passionate about filmmaking and design. Seeking a creative outlet earlier in the year, these students have undertaken a project focused on creating a short animated video series introducing the three different pathways for completion of the Science and Technology Honors Program as well as an additional series to showcase student research in the program. This past semester, the group focused primarily on creating the videos they had planned for in the STH 151 class. However, as the videos have not been uploaded to the UABSTHonors YouTube page yet, there are no measurable outcomes for the project’s success yet. Therefore, the group has reported that they plan on extending the project and uploading the videos at the beginning of the spring semester to gather viewership data. When asked about what the group learned throughout execution of the project, Monima reported, “We learned to manage our time, as it was difficult to gather all the members and cohesively plan the videos. We also learned to have realistic goals within a limited timeframe. Initially, we planned to create about ten videos, though we’ve reduced this count to eight, with four per video series.” In the future, the group anticipates using the skills they’ve developed to organize future school projects that could be benefitted by visual aids, including a possible future “SciTech FAQ” series.
November 2016 Update
UAB Middle School Math Tournament
by Ayla Eberly
The day is quickly approaching for the unveiling of the culmination of the work done by SciTech students Joe Lucker, Joanna Schmidt, and Tina Tian. These students have worked tirelessly on a project to give back to the Birmingham community by spreading a joy for mathematics. For months, the team has been planning out a UAB Middle School Math Tournament, the goal of which is to encourage children to get more involved with
mathematics. Along the way, Lucker, Schmidt, and Tian have overcome a few obstacles while organizing the math tournament. First, they were faced with the issue of T-shirt sales being complicated by sales tax requirements that UAB is subject to. The group used their communication skills to partner with the STH Executive Council, who were able to facilitate the T-shirt sales as an independent student organization. In addition, by seeking out and finding a source of Scantron sheets to use during the tournament, the team was able to save a lot of money that otherwise would have come out of the group’s budget. With the saved funds, they discovered that they could afford to reward volunteers with free t-shirts, as well as provide plenty of food for the tournament. The team’s hard work has definitely paid off, as seven different middle schools are registered to contribute students to the tournament. With so many schools getting involved with the math tournament, it is unsurprising that there is a whopping number of 153 students registered to attend. The project group has also planned to award both the top ten students in each grade level and top three middle school teams with trophies. In case there still wasn’t enough incentive to attend the tournament, there will also be a drawing for several door prizes. The tournament will begin at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 12th.
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Community Health Summit Project
by Natalie Presedo
SciTech students Sidhanth Chandra, Jason Liu, Danielle Madsen, Imaan Mir, Hira Munir, Priya Shah, and Wynton Sims have been hard at work for the past few months working on their STH 250 project. The group was originally focused on creating a high school Bioethics Bowl tournament. Yet, when the need did not seem adequate from the high schools in the greater Birmingham community and Alabama as a whole, they quickly adjusted their project to instead focus on creating a community health summit focused on addiction. The group plans on putting together a panel of experts from a variety of different medical professions to discuss some of the problems of addiction and how addiction negatively affects the community. Since the group wants the summit to have a community focus, they expect many of their panelists will come from UAB, though the group does not have the potential panel restricted to UAB faculty and staff. They plan on using a combination of personal and professional connections to create a panel of qualified and esteemed experts on addiction. Currently, they are planning on
reaching out to a scientist whose research focus is addiction, a psychiatry resident, and possibly a representative from a counseling center. The first event, which is scheduled to occur before the end of the fall semester, will most likely be hosted on UAB campus in Heritage Hall. The summit will be targeting not just UAB students, but the broader Birmingham community as well.
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June 2016 Update
STH 151 Teaching Assistant Reflections
by Charlie Keith
This past spring semester, I had the honor of having a teaching assistant position for the STH 151 course. STH 151 is a one credit hour problem analysis and project-planning course in which students further develop and utilize their leadership and teamwork skills to identify a problem or need in the local community and develop a plan to address the issue. This year’s STH freshman class has been working hard on developing several wonderful and positive project plans that will continue to develop in the coming years with their STH 250 projects. We’ve featured a few projects in past newsletters, and for this issue, we take a look at some of the STH media related projects, as well as a large scale endeavor to bring a middle school math tournament to UAB. As the Science and Technology Honors community grows, the importance of social media and the sharing of ideas and knowledge grow as well. These STH 151 teams are working on benefitting the education of science and mathematics within the greater Birmingham community, as well as spreading awareness of SciTech as an honors program and a family. I am incredibly proud of this year’s STH 151 groups, and I eagerly anticipate observing their projects come to fruition in the coming years.
STH Video Group by Ryan Murphy
The UABSTHonors YouTube channel continues to grow with new video content released every month. Three new project groups, each with different target audiences and goals, will be working to produce additional video content over the following year. The STH Video Group, comprised of Monima Anam, David Glover, and Caleb Osborn, plans to create a series of short, info graphic videos to introduce specific aspects of the Science and Technology Honors Program to prospective students and parents. The group comments that their aim for this video series is to create content that is both informative and engaging by answering questions regarding advantages of the program and the specific pathways within the program and utilizing YouTube annotations at the end of each video to make the series semi-interactive.
The Sprout in Science Group, comprised of Paige Severino, Rebecca Slowinski, and Lindsay Jenkins, are working to create a series of four videos for elementary school children. The group plans to design videos that explain different science concepts by relating them to practical real-world applications simple enough for the targeted age group to understand. The group also hopes to work with elementary school teachers to design videos that can integrate into the local school curriculum and aid in teaching various science lessons for elementary school students.
Kristin Deneen, co-anchor for the monthly research newscast “This Month in Science,” has produced a new video series for her STH 250 project titled “Women in Science: Research from Every Angle.” The series aims to focus on women role models involved in groundbreaking research in the UAB community. Kristin hopes this series will help inspire young girls to pursue careers in science and engineering, as well as help inform the general public of some of the research currently underway at UAB.
Middle School Math Tournament by Tina Tian
After months of mental preparation and hours of training, the moment has finally arrived. A voice calmly says, “begin” as the silence is suddenly interrupted by the flurry of papers flipping over as competitors feverishly start the written portion of the math tournament. Math team was one of my most rewarding experiences in middle school and high school. The special type of knowledge acquired, the new ways of thinking, the satisfying feeling after solving a difficult problem, and the unique friendships associated with math team are unique and difficult to describe. My group and I set out with the goal of
giving back to this community by hosting a middle school level math tournament at UAB to foster a fun learning environment and celebrate innovative ways of thinking for the next generation of middle school students in the Birmingham metro area.
The UAB Middle School Math Tournament Group, comprised of Joanna Schmidt, Joe Lucker, and myself, has been working hard both inside and outside the classroom in preparation for the upcoming tournament. The tournament will take place on November 12th in Heritage Hall, and will cater to all interested middle school students in the Birmingham area. With the inclusion of non- math team students, we hope to be able to foster a greater appreciation for math across a broader range of students. We plan to make the experience rewarding and fun by writing questions referencing pop culture that still require different levels of thinking to solve. Over the past few months, our group has worked hard to contact schools, write tests and ciphering questions, organize the event schedule, enlist volunteers, design and order event T-shirts, and contact potential sponsors. So far, we have confirmed partnerships with Coca-Cola, Covenant Heating and Cooling, the Birmingham Math Academy, and the Honors College at UAB. We will continue to work hard throughout this summer and fall to ensure the best possible outcome for the tournament.
September 2016 Update
Hydro-Ponics Group Updates
by James Sexton
Despite having varying summer schedules for each member of our group, we have made great strides on our project this summer! Starting this fall semester, our group will begin the prototype build with the Engineering Design Lab Facilities. It has taken us the majority of this past year to secure that partnership, and this summer we were able to make great progress in that area.
The prototype is our group’s most exciting venture at the moment, and everyone is eager to begin the building phase. We have also made plans to house this prototype once it is built. Dr. William Grieco with Southern Research has agreed to help us store and monitor our system for future research purposes Our group would like to extend a special thanks to Dr. Tucker, Dr. Grieco of Southern Research, Dr. Eberhardt, and the Hydro-Ponics of Birmingham for their continued support in the early stages of our project.
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STH Peer Mentoring Program
by Matthew Strachan
Thanks to the Science and Technology Honors Program Executive Council and the STH Peer Mentoring Committee, another SciTech freshman retreat has concluded successfully. This year, the Peer Mentoring Committee was responsible for pairing 52 new incoming freshman STH students each with one of fourteen STH upperclassmen mentor pairs. Prior to the retreat, all upperclassmen mentor pairs were required to attend a mandatory training session hosted by STH Junior Emily Quarato, the current Peer Mentoring Chair for the Executive Council and the head of the Peer Mentoring Committee. During this training session, mentors were educated on the basic guidelines for being a peer mentor and asked to work through several sample scenarios that could possibly arise during their experience as mentors. At the retreat, freshmen were giving the opportunity to speak with each peer mentoring pair for a brief period of time in a “speed dating-like” scenario. Upon the conclusion of the retreat, each freshman was required to select their top three choices for mentor pairs. The Peer Mentoring Committee spent the following evening carefully reviewing everyone’s individual
choices and assigning each freshman to one of their top choices for mentor families. We were able to pair more than half of the freshman class with their first choice, and every freshman was paired with one of their top three mentor pair choices. The Peer Mentoring Committee will continue to work hard this semester to build a resource list with academic based events and facilitate positive interactions between mentors and mentees with a variety of fun activities and educational programs, the first of which will be our annual game night, Friday September 9th at 7:00pm in the Honors Space on the 5th floor of Heritage Hall. We hope to see you all there!
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October 2016 Updates
McWane Science Center: Building with Biology
by Andrew Cash
Our group partnered with the McWane Science Center and applied for the Building with
Biology Foundation’s Educational Synthetic Biology grant. Upon receiving the grant, we were given multiple educational kits focusing on topics related to the science behind synthetic biology, the impacts of synthetic biology, and the ethical implications faced by scientists. The kits were primarily used for a “Teens and Tech Night” hosted at McWane in September and organized and led by our project group. In addition to other activities conducted by our project group, including a personal DNA extraction experiment and a seminar educating students on the animals housed at McWane, teenagers ages 11-17 participated in a multitude of games and activities included in each science kit.
For example, my kit was comprised of an investment game where each player had a limited number of resources to invest in various synthetic biology research projects. Most of the students prioritized advancing biomedicine, biofuel, and cancer treatment. After a group discussion focusing on why each person chose the projects they did, each player was given a “character card” ranging from Canadian culinary student to President of the United States. Students were then asked to reassign their resources based on their new identity and perspective, pushing people to reassign their resources in a different manner and see things from another point of view. The focus of the night was to show teenagers the value of STEM, teach them about synthetic biology, and motivate them as
scientists and active members of the community, and preliminary data from pre- and
post-event surveys appears to indicate success on all fronts! After this event, we are planning to utilize additional kits by visiting local elementary schools to conduct similar
demonstrations in classrooms. We have been working with McWane and UABTeach to contact teachers in the Birmingham area and are excited about the prospect of taking the science activities to a wider audience.
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UAB’s 2017 Science Olympiad Tournament
by Amanda Lawrence
Science Olympiad at UAB is a longstanding tradition of the Science and
Technology Honors Program and will continue to prevail this year! What’s special about Science Olympiad at UAB? We are the only completely student run Science Olympiad tournament in the country. This year’s executive director board, composed of current STH sophomore students Amanda Lawrence, Katie Herron, Sureena Monteiro-Pai, Courtney Barkley, Angela Chieh, and Ian Thompson, has already begun working diligently to make this year’s tournament better than any previous tournament before.
The executive director board is still working with longstanding UAB Science Olympiad sponsors, including Coca-Cola, the McWane Foundation, Vulcan Materials, and the Alabama Section of the American Chemical Society. This year, we want to work to incorporate more of the UAB community and the city of Birmingham in the event planning and execution process, so we are forming a mentoring board for incoming students who are interested in becoming executive directors for next year’s tournament. Dionna Walker has been instrumental in the formation of this new group.
Our tournament date is February 18th, and we still have a great deal of planning to do before then! We are planning to host 16 high school teams and 14 middle school teams this year, which means we need a lot of volunteers. Our student volunteers are what makes our event successful each year; we need students who are able to write, proctor, and/or grade tests, as well as volunteers to run errands during the event. If you are interested in volunteering this year, please contact Katie Herron via email for more information.
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