STEM Teacher Intern Blog
Summer 2022- Marie Murphy
The STEM Teacher Internship Programme (STInt) is a Dublin City University initiative to inspire innovative learning by facilitating collaborative STEM partnership between educators, companies and researchers. 115 STInt internships have been completed since it's inception in 2016. As of 2021 there are 25 host organisations taking part in the programme. CÚRAM is proud to be part of this innovative initiative and welcomes our first Intern for the Summer of 2022.
Marie Murphy, is the first STEM Teacher Intern to spend a summer at CÚRAM. A mature student, she has recently completed a Bachelors in Mathematics and Education with NUI Galway, a course primarily aimed at training secondary level Mathematics and Applied Mathematics teachers. To add to her knowledge and experience, she applied to and was accepted on the STint programme. This blog will summarise her experiences at CÚRAM over the coming weeks.
Week 1
My name is Marie Murphy, I am a mature student and I have just completed my Bachelors in Mathematics and Education with NUI Galway, a course primarily aimed at training secondary level Mathematics and Applied Mathematics teachers. To add to my knowledge and experience I applied to and was accepted on the STint programme. This is the STEM Teacher Internship. The STint programme places pre-services STEM subject teachers into industries involving science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This gives teachers real world experience of the subjects that they will teach, taking STEM out of the textbook and into reality and gives solid connections from the classroom to industry.
For five years I have walked past the walls and windows of the Cúram laboratories between where I park my car and the university and apart from the Biomedical Sciences sign, I had no idea what was going on in there! However, it was my number one choice when I applied to STint as I believed this is where the real action is happening. This was the place that employed engineers, mathematicians and scientists from every discipline. Little did I realise until I began my internship this week that the scope of their knowledge base was much broader than I could have imagined.
Over the coming weeks I plan to keep a blog diary of my experience.
This week the most important thing I learned was what an Education and Public Engagement Department is. I have been primarily placed in with the Education and Public Engagement Office. I had no idea that a Medical Research and Development Centre had such altruistic goals. The primary focus of Cúram is to benefit people through medical and scientific means, they take their community outreach and teaching very seriously. Although I am only days in the door, I can see that working with schools, teachers, disadvantaged communities and improving the knowledge and health of the community is at the heart of what they do. From the people I have met the goal to improve the lives of those around them is not a task but a passion. I am already so thrilled to be a part of this. It is a dream come true to be in a position that allows me to connect with people and be the change in the world that I want to see.
On a different note, the most fascinating thing I learned this week is about the laboratory research into recovering tendon injuries. (Now I’m no scientist so this is a very basic understanding). Cúram are developing a living substitute tissue based on the knowledge learned from the tendons of horses. As horses are athletes with very large tendons, there’s a lot to learn from them. And tendon injuries in humans and horses are tricky business. Those who know me personally can expect me to be talking about this all week. It is really cool!
Week 2
One of the goals within the Education and Public Engagement department is to go out into the communities and put into action their goals of education and health. On Friday Sarah had planned to visit one of the Galway primary schools to educate the students on healthy bodies and activity. These sessions get the children to participate in exercise and have fun. Keeping our bodies healthy through exercise is encouraged during the activity.
On this occasion I offered to incorporate karate into the lesson. I have taught children’s’ karate for over ten years and run my own dojo. The team were happy to get me involved and gave me the opportunity to get into my karate dogi and bring in the kick shields and focus mitts. We arrived in the school before the start of classes and the students were excited as they watched us arrive. Sarah and I worked as a team with the students bringing a combination of warm up games, karate drills and escapes. By the end of the session all of us were buzzing. There were some great questions from the students too. The final one was how to say goodbye in Japanese, which is Sayonara.
The most fascinating thing I learned this week is that CÚRAM study blood clots. They collect, dissect, and store the clots. Around 2000 people die every year from a stroke, which is a clot in the brain. My husbands mother died from a stroke a few years ago, so the topic is close to home. The documentary ‘A Tiny Spark’ , which is on the CÚRAM webpage focuses on research being led by Dr Karen Doyle, which involves analysis of removed blood clots to see what information they may yield. This is the first study of its kind in the world and is an international collaborative study between NUI Galway, hospital partners in Beaumont Hospital and throughout Europe and the Mayo Clinic, USA.
Week 3
This week I was fortunate to attend the CÚRAM annual Summit. The Summit assembled researchers and scientists for a three day event. Although I was a little apprehensive about what to expect, within minutes I was walking around like a wide eyed child. My role was in a meet and greet administration position which gave me the advantage of meeting all the attendees. My informal chats with participants introduced me to subjects that I had never considered. A CÚRAM scientist told me about growing brain cells which could have an impact on treating degenerative brain diseases like Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease. I met two scientists at dinner who recently moved over from India there was great fun and banter learning about the how cultural differences resulted in quite different pandemic experiences. And after Jessamyn Fairfield introduced us to her hometown Las Alamos, New Mexico I discovered that there was a secret town populated solely by scientists and engineers. In my imagination this looks like the sci-fi tv show Eureka!
During the presentations, the reception was quiet, so I sat and attended several of the talks.
It would be impossible to cover the scope of all the talks and topics and my brain is still trying to unjumble some of it. But I do have favourite moments.
On Monday Claire and Lindsay presented “Communications Training.” This workshop focused on how to communicate scientific research to non-scientists. One of the most impactful things I realized was how vital it is to bridge communication between scientists, their research, and the public. Scientific knowledge is continuously progressing but if the general public are hesitant to believe how can progress and change happen?
Dr Bharat Tripathi, spoke about his research “Shear Shock Waves in Brain in Context of Traumatic Brain Injury”. This was one of the talks that I was really looking forward to. Last semester I was in Dr Tripathi’s Mathematics lectures on Non-Linear Systems and this talk was the applications of those incredibly complex formulas in action. As a maths nerd, I loved this talk. My son plays rugby and impact injuries studied from the perspective of Applied Maths is a dinner time hot topic in our home.
Dr Manu Platt from Georgia institute of Technology’s talk “Technology for Me, but not for Thee”, highlighted racial, social, and other forms of discrimination. In advance of hearing him speak I felt that I knew about these issues already. This experience was different. Hearing someone talk who walks in the shoes of a black well educated American and how the world is for him and the social groups that he is involved with made me sit up and pay attention. Although I can’t remember all the words he said, I do remember my emotions and the feelings brought to the surface. Being in that room during his talk has changed me, I will aim to do better in this world.
Week 4
I began this week finishing a Curious Young Minds poster that I’d been helping design. Lindsay, from the Education and Public Engagement team, is a creator of The Curious Young Minds project. The project aimed to provide an opportunity for children and their parents living in Direct Provision in Galway City to engage in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) subjects through accessible, fun, hands-on workshops. I have discovered that there are more than 7,000 people living in Direct Provision centres across Ireland and children make up almost 30% of Direct Provision residents. The Curious Young Minds project directly engaged with children and families living in this residence. Teaching them about science through art and other fun activities. CÚRAM developed a toolkit about Cardiovascular research for the children with art and science activities to enhance learning. This Toolkit is a bit like a card game with science information on one side of the cards and art-science activities on the other side. It is a super idea and the children who participated had a direct input in creating the Toolkit cards. Later in the week I had some input in the finishing touches to the Toolkit cards. It is heart-warming to think of the children living in Direct Provision participating in science games and activities.
Later in the Summer there will be a Summer Camp run by CÚRAM for these children and some other local children. They plan to have fun and games and also learn about science.
I have also had the pleasure this week of working with a new intern from Boston. Sarah arrived this week and is the same age as my own children. Being the inquisitive person that I am I have really enjoyed exchanging questions and knowledge with Sarah about the similarities and differences in the life of a Boston student and a Galway student.
Week 5
I am feeling very lucky this week. Some of my work has involved excursions to places that I have never been before. Early in the week I visited the National Aquarium in Salthill. I have lived in Galway for over twenty years, and I have never taken the time to go to the Aquarium. I suppose with a local attraction there is the feeling that you can go anytime and then you just don’t get around to it!
Sarah Ling our Boston student who is interning at CÚRAM and myself went out to see the Marine Meets MedTech exhibit located on the first floor of the Aquarium. I will be doing some research there in August. I wanted to see the exhibit so that I could better plan my research. I was delighted to go to the Aquarium and see the sea creatures. In advance of visiting the CÚRAM Marine Meets MedTech exhibit, Sarah and I smiled and marvelled at the stingrays, sharks, jellyfish, starfish, spider crab and lots of other fish. After the spider crab and past the shallow tank with river fish there is the marine-inspired CÚRAM display. The display shows how scientists are studying sponge slime to fight cancer and harmful microbes. Algae from the Ocean can be used for controlled release of medicine. And scientists are copying the sticky quality of barnacle glue to create surgical glue.
Then on Thursday we went to the Galway Film Fleadh. I am sorry to say that I have never been to this event before either. I am certainly going to have to holiday at home and appreciate the wonders that Galway has to offer much more. I watched seven documentaries, and I although I thoroughly enjoyed them all, my favourite was the CÚRAM documentary. CÚRAM in conjunction with Ardán, the non-profit organisation within the audio-visual industry have created a short documentary called “The People There to Catch Us”.
“The People There to Catch Us’ tells the story of Tom Hope and Rachel O’ Mahony, two cancer survivors who work alongside researchers at Precision Oncology Ireland (POI), to help improve the lives of others living with the disease. Tom explained how he is on number of committees with oncologists, radiologists, urologists, and scientists. Tom explained how talking about his experience as a patient has affected medics opinions on treatments. The most insightful thing that I learned from the documentary was that sometimes the best treatment for a cancer patient can be no medical intervention beyond monitoring. Cancer doesn’t always grow. Doctors take the quality of the patients life and the patient as an individual into consideration when recommending treatments.
Week 6
This week I have been connecting with the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) students. The UROP program is designed to support underrepresented undergraduate (UG) students development by providing 20 fully paid summer internships in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) laboratories across NUI Galway for six weeks between May and August 2022. This project is a collaboration between CÚRAM, the SFI Research Centre for Medical Devices, the Women in Science (WiSTEM) student society, the College of Science and Engineering and the University of Sanctuary Initiative at NUI Galway.
The projects that the students are working on are incredibly interesting and varied. It is just mind boggling to get a snapshot of the research going in the world of science, it is so vast! The research covers topics like: Exploring drivers of deep-sea species diversity; The role of green hydrogen in Ireland's energy transition; An implanted device to improve heart function in heart failure; Artificial Intelligence for Medical Image Segmentation. To fully appreciate the research work done by the UG students there will a poster exhibit in August. This way everyone can better understand all the research covered. My initial role to assist the UROP interns was to run a poster designing workshop. In my first meeting of the UROP interns I covered how to prepare a poster for the occasion of the exhibit. We discussed planning, design, presenting and how to be cautious around intellectual property. It was really great to meet the students. Over the next few weeks, I hope to be in contact with the group much more and get to better understand the work that they are doing.
Week 7
I am in the movies! Well, I am almost in the movies. This week I have been working with film maker David. David will be onsite to film two projects, and I have been very lucky to be his liaison and assistant. Next week I will be with him for his video recording, and I get to peek behind the camera and watch how it all happens.
CÚRAM have a great selection of short films that help give insight into the work that they do. When I first joined the Education and Public Engagement team, I watched the videos on the CÚRAM website to learn about what was going on around me. Here I discovered
· Parkinsons and the scientists working to find a cure.
· The impact of tendon injury on sports people and research to create the world’s first 3D cell-assembled tendon prototype.
· The work that CÚRAM have been doing in treating diabetes
· The effect of cerebrovascular illness and stroke on people’s lives and specifically at research into the blood clots that cause stroke.
The short films are amazing at showing the scientific research behind illness and at the same time the real people who live with these conditions.
The first of the two short films will involve interviews with two professors and interviews with two patients. The subject matter is wound odour, how this impacts patients’ lives and the research taking place around the condition. I am starting to see how medical research is much more than just lab work. Lifestyle and the quality of a person’s life are taken into account when researching and developing treatment and cures.
The second film will highlight the work of some of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) students. I am really looking forward to hearing their stories. We will be recording that one in a couple of weeks.
Week 8
This week I was out in Salthill overlooking the sea from Galway Atlantaquaria, Irelands National Aquarium. I sat over beside a big Spider Crab whom I watch walked around his tank. It looks like he (or she) observes the visitors with as much curiosity as they observe him!
It has been one of my favourite tasks, working from the National Aquarium.
CÚRAM have a Marine Meets MedTech Exhibit in the Aquarium which demonstrates how marine resources are used in medical devices. The display shows how scientists are studying sponge slime to fight cancer and harmful microbes. Algae from the Ocean can be used for controlled release of medicine. And scientists are copying the sticky quality of barnacle glue to create surgical glue.
I got to spend a week surveying the public interaction with the exhibit. My role was to discover if the Marine Meets MedTech Exhibit is effective as a science communication tool. My original impression was that it would be difficult for the exhibit to compete with live sea creatures for attention. However, this was not the case. The public have a great interest in how marine resources can be used to heal and treat illness. People commented to me about how they now believe we need to take better care of the ocean and how amazing it is that cures for illnesses like cancer could be found using marine resources.
Week 9
This week I have been working with filmmaker David. CÚRAM are making a mini film that explains what the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) was about. The UROP program is designed to support underrepresented undergraduate students development by providing 20 fully paid summer internships in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) laboratories across NUI Galway for six weeks between May and August 2022.
We selected three of the students whom we thought demonstrated the diversity of the research projects. On Monday we met with David. David’s’ research project was “Homophobia/Transphobia Detection in social media comments” and required him to study Linguistic data. He is currently studying Physics and is head of the Astronomy society.
On Tuesday we met Kate. Kate’s project is under the Earth & Ocean Sciences department. The research conducted from NUIG’s Carna Research Station is “Evaluating the climate change impact has on European lobster robustness”. The research at Carna is focused on the conservation of sea life and Kate’s project was to look at how an increase in sea temperature will affect the European lobster. I am sorry to say I have never been to that side of Connemara, and I have not been to Connemara in a very long time. The drive out was incredible. Although those who work out there say it can be a rough daily trip on a vehicle, for a visitor like me it was a great experience.
On Wednesday we met Noel. Noel has been based in CÚRAM, so I have spoken to him a few times before. Noel’s project is the “Identification of sub-phenotypes of intervertebral disc degeneration in human disease”. Noel is a busy guy and we started filming on the family farm where they have cattle and sheep. It was a beautiful morning and about a kilometre off the N17 it felt like the hills of Donegal. The sun was beaming through the break in the trees, the calves were running around waiting on Noel to bring over their feed and the backdrop was fields as far as the eye could see.
Each of the students that I met could fill their own movies with the story of who they are and what they do in their day to day lives. I was buzzing after the days of filming and interviews. Meeting people and getting to know them really is the highlight of life.
Summer 2023 - Orla Daly
The STEM Teacher Internship Programme (STInt) is a Dublin City University initiative to inspire innovative learning by facilitating collaborative STEM partnership between educators, companies and researchers. 115 STInt internships have been completed since it's inception in 2016. As of 2021 there are 25 host organisations taking part in the programme. CÚRAM is proud to be part of this innovative initiative and welcomes our second Intern for the Summer of 2023.
My name is Orla Daly. I am a student teacher in the Professional Master of Education programme in University of Galway. With an undergraduate degree in Animal Science and an avid interest in science in general, I decided to apply to become a Science, Biology and Agricultural Science secondary school teacher. This summer, I applied to the STEM Teacher Internship Programme. Ran by DCU in partnership with other universities, this programme pairs student teachers with host organisations in the STEM (Science, Technology, Maths and Engineering) field with the aim of enhancing teachers’ knowledge and experience in the STEM industry. This will give us teachers valuable insights into the industry to bring back to the classroom, develop our skills and be able to better inform students of the range of STEM opportunities out there.
I will be in CÚRAM for 12 weeks over the summer. When applying to the internship programme, we were given a long list of host companies to choose from. I had CÚRAM as my first preference, hoping that I would secure the spot here for summer. I was delighted when I succeeded. I had researched CÚRAM before applying and felt that I knew a fair amount about what work is done here. However, within my first week I realised that there was so much I had yet to learn. In this blog, I will document my experiences in CÚRAM over the course of the summer.
Week 1
In my first week, I met many of the people that work here and had a tour of the different offices and labs. In the lab tour I was shown machines, 3D printers and many other things I could not even begin to explain. The facilities are impressive to say the least and the research going on is even more so. I was introduced to the Education and Public Engagement (EPE) team with whom I will be mainly working. The team gave me a presentation outlining the different programmes they work on. These included the Teachers in Residence programme, Curious Young Minds, their Murals Residency, Filmmakers Residency, and public exhibits. Prior to this, I had never really heard of science communication. I was aware that public engagement would be an important part of running a research centre like this, but it has been eye opening to see the scope of the projects that this team run. It really is an industry of its own, an area that I think a lot of people in future will be curious to get into. The creativity and work that goes into forming novel ideas and then executing these projects is vital to promoting science, its value and encouraging public interest in science. This is becoming more and more important in the industry.
Over my first week, I learned a lot about CÚRAM. I completed science communication training and equity training. The equity training was particularly interesting to me. It gave me a lot of food for thought on how to critically assess my practice, as a teacher and while working on projects in CÚRAM, to create a more equitable environment. Simple things I would not have thought of before, I now realise could create barriers to students, preventing them from fully engaging with science as a subject or feeling that it is something they can, and should, access in future. Particularly as I have experience teaching in an all-girls school, I need to present more representation of prominent women in science, instead of just men. Even if I have to dig a little deeper to find these examples. I think this new way of thinking will help me to apply a more equitable approach to all aspects of work and will definitely inform my practice in CÚRAM this summer
Week 2
A concept I have been introduced to is Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in health and social care research. The PPI Ignite Network encourage the contribution of the public and patients in different stages of research, meaningfully involving them in the planning and implementation of research. The PPI Ignite Network have their headquarters in the University of Galway, and I was able to attend a PPI for Policy Impact workshop this week. In this workshop, we heard from different speakers introducing PPI, its importance and how it can be directly incorporated into research. We watched one of CÚRAM’s Science on Screen Films ‘The Patient Effect’ and heard from one of the PPI advocates from the film. This workshop really highlighted the benefits that can be gained from considering PPI – how patients’ experience can shape and enhance a project. It makes sense to consider the lived experience of these people and how this can help to inform investigations.
The EPE team were away for the rest of the week at the ECSITE conference for science engagement. They were presenting their very successful Science on Screen programme in partnership with Ardán. I was able to watch the films and was blown away by their effectiveness. It is such an excellent way of communicating science. By incorporating the voices of doctors, researchers, and, most effectively, patients, the science becomes very accessible. Learning about CÚRAM’s research through the lens of peoples’ stories is such a smart way to present the subject matter. I know from teaching it can be hard to promote students’ natural interest in science so seeing projects like this is very exciting. More projects like this to increase public engagement with science and creating opportunities for people to access science topics is so important, especially when this cutting-edge research is on our doorstep in Galway.
I met a lot of PhD students this week, all working in different research areas. Getting an insight into what they are doing has been fascinating. To describe their projects in layman’s terms, as I had to ask them to do for me, does not do them justice. From bioprinting a functioning heart outside the body to preparing hydrogels to target cardiac repair to developing devices to detect MS or help discover new treatments for it, the research going on is impressive to say the least. The opportunities and range of investigations has really opened my eyes to the extensive work being done in this building alone. Meeting the researchers has given me a lot of information to bring back to the classroom and (hopefully) inspire students in future.
Week 3
This week, I was asked to create some content for CÚRAM’s Instagram page. This was a fun project; I am not naturally very creative, so it was nice to engage with that side of myself. In partnership with Ardán and as part of the Science on Screen programme, CÚRAM have created four short animations. They partnered with researchers and animators to create the animations describing a few of the projects going on at the moment. To promote these, I created an Instagram post for each of them. I am finding it very interesting to get into the mindset of a scientific communicator and think of ways to translate science for wider audiences - even on this small scale with a few Instagram posts, and the work basically done for me as the animations explain the topics so well,
I sat in on a research support team meeting this week. I found it really brought the scale and reach of CÚRAM into context for me. It is interesting to see both the research side of the operation and then the perspectives of the people running the show behind the scenes. The amount of work that goes into planning, decision making, securing funding and everything else is remarkable. There are so many things I would never think of that have to be considered and it is valuable to get insight into the different roles and responsibilities of the people involved. I am enjoying getting a view into all aspects of running a huge enterprise like CÚRAM.
As part of the EPE team’s public exhibit programme, a new exhibit called ‘SUPERHUMAN’ will be opening in the Galway City Museum. This is a very exciting project, and I was lucky enough to get a first look at the exhibit, which is still being built, on Friday. It is already looking amazing with lots of interactive features. It will definitely be a place I hope to bring my students in the future. At the entrance to the exhibit, videos of some CÚRAM staff members will be projected as people enter. I helped out in timetabling the people to be filmed. They were all asked to be in a short welcome clip, explaining who they are and what they do at CÚRAM. It was cool to see the filming process for this. There are so many different things going on every week, I am really enjoying getting to experience such a variety of tasks and activities, seeing different stages of organising projects and what it takes to make them come to life.
Week 4
CÚRAM run a week-long summer camp for children living in Direct Provision as part of the Curious Young Minds programme. I am lucky that this camp is taking place while I am here this summer. This week I have been helping Lindsay with the organisation and preparation for the camp. A lot of work has already gone into organising the activities for the kids. Some of these include science, art, philosophy workshops, an escape room, Maker Space activities and a visit to the aquarium has also been planned. This camp is a fantastic initiative, it really aligns with the ideas I picked up from the equity training I completed. The team have thought of any barriers these children might have to attending the camp and preparations have been made to overcome these. The children and their parents do not have to worry about a single thing for the week. The thought and care that has gone into planning the week has really opened my eyes to equity in practice and the attention to detail it takes to plan and execute a programme like this. This experience will really help to inform my future practice as a teacher organising events for my students. I will be aware of the little things, such as transport or food, that need to be planned to ensure an activity is accessible to all students.
CÚRAM’s Marine Meets MedTech exhibit in the Galway Atlantaquaria is a science communication tool that aims to inform the public of the marine resources used in medical research. This exhibit has been open for the last few years and part of my job this summer will be to evaluate the exhibit. This week I started planning for my evaluation. There have been two previous evaluations, so I used their findings to make surveys for the museum visitors and staff and also key points to note while observing visitors at the aquarium. I will visit the aquarium multiple times over a few weeks to gather data and compile a report. This report will outline what the exhibit is doing well already and maybe some areas where we can improve it. Exhibits like this are a great way to communicate scientific research to the public. It makes information appealing and accessible to people of all ages that may not otherwise take interest in science topics. In my second week here, I visited the aquarium and was able to view the exhibit. The exhibit is unique in the way it presents information compared to the rest of the aquarium, but it also blends in seamlessly to the public with interactive elements and visuals to grab peoples’ attention. I am looking forward to spending a few days there in the coming weeks.
Week 5
This week, I spent two days in the aquarium and began my evaluation of the Marine Meets MedTech exhibit. Trying to take visitors’ attention away from all the fish to complete my survey was a hard task. However, I managed to wrangle a fair amount of people to give me some feedback. It is lovely to see families, school groups, tourists and others all enjoying the aquarium and our exhibit. The feedback I have gotten so far is very positive. It is great to see people interacting with nature, away from phones or TV. Even on wet and windy days, the aquarium offers people a chance to do something different and expand their knowledge in a fun and enjoyable way. Kids and adults alike are so excited by all the different animals to be seen. When it comes to our exhibit, it is interesting to see how people engage with it. All of the interactive elements occupy the kids and allow their parents or older kids to read the information in the displays. People spend a lot of time engaging with the exhibit and relay so much positive feedback. It offers people such a valuable insight into the scientific world in a non-intimidating and engaging way, you wouldn’t even realise how much you’re learning while going around the aquarium.
During the rest of the week, I have been busy assisting with various other projects. The planning for summer camp is coming along nicely and should be a very exciting week for the kids. I would have never realised the amount of planning it takes and continuous work to organise a project like this. It is also great to see the enthusiasm of people assisting with the camp whether they be leading an activity on the day, providing catering or even offering goodies to give the kids during the week. I have been working on many other tasks during the week, I like being kept busy and am really enjoying being involved with so many different projects during my internship. I feel like I’m getting great insight even if I am only helping someone with a minor task.
The EPE team facilitate the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP). This involves a 6-week internship for 5 University of Galway students, giving them invaluable hands-on experience in a research setting. I met the interns during my first week in CÚRAM and it was very interesting to hear the range of projects they would be working on this summer. This week, I attended a science communication training workshop for the UROP students. Lindsay and Claire led the workshop, and it was very informative, detailing the value of scientific communication. The workshop was aimed at the students in a research field, but I felt that the ideas were transferrable to me as a teacher. There were some activities during the workshop that really got me thinking and gave me some ideas to try out in the classroom.