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“With the increasing complexity in problems that STEAM fields are
trying to answer, this lack of diversity presents a serious problem,”
according to Project Brain Light’s website. “Forwarding scientific and
STEAM discoveries requires individuals from many different backgrounds,
demographics and cultures.”
At this year’s STEAM Day, about 65 students from A.I. du Pont Middle
School in Wilmington made the rounds of the exhibits in Clayton Hall.
Each stop featured a hands-on activity such as examining fruit flies and
water fleas under a microscope while hearing about their life cycles;
creating designs with drips of colorful liquids while learning how
scientists use pipettes, a basic lab tool; and extracting visible DNA
from strawberries using dish soap and other common products.
One popular exhibit, staffed by neuroscience doctoral student
Devashish Pande, asked the question: Can you use your muscles to control
someone else? By connecting his own muscles to a student’s via
electrodes placed on both of their arms, Pande demonstrated how this
could be accomplished; contracting his forearm muscle caused the
student’s fingers to twitch.
“We want to show kids that we can study how the brain works,” Pande
said. “Even if they didn’t know the term ‘neuroscience’ before, they’re
interested in this.”