STEAM Ambassadors Give Schoolkids an Extended DNA Day

STEAM Ambassadors Give Schoolkids an Extended DNA Day

By Brian Hiro

April 25 was DNA Day, when the world commemorates the date in 1953 when scientists including James Watson and Francis Crick published papers in the journal Nature on one of the building blocks of life.

The day is celebrated annually by biologists, science teachers and anyone who's interested in genetics. This year, the occasion has been made more memorable at elementary schools across the region thanks to a group of students at Cal State San Marcos.

About two weeks before DNA Day, more than two dozen students gathered in a classroom on the fourth floor of Academic Hall for the culmination of months of work to prepare a creative and thought-provoking lesson on DNA for local K-6 classrooms. Six STEAM ambassadors - arts and liberal studies majors who also have a passion for STEM disciplines - presented the kits they have been compiling to a class, taught by Ingrid Flores, of pre-service teachers pursuing their multiple-subject credential.

The ambassadors showed the student teachers how to extract DNA from a strawberry. They engaged them in an activity that involves a paint-covered marble creating twisted lines on paper to resemble strands of DNA. They read the children's book "The Smallest Spot of a Dot," which explains how genetics makes each person unique.

And they did all this so that the teachers, as well as the ambassadors themselves, would be equipped to turn around and give the same lesson to classes full of schoolchildren. The activity was expected to be presented in 70 classrooms during the ensuing month, reaching more than 2,000 kids.

"We think and hope that kids can see that science experiments can be done with simple ingredients that you can find at home," said Melanie Wollrabe, a third-year liberal studies major (with a focus in art) who's the coordinator of the other STEAM ambassadors. "Additionally, we hope it is evident that anyone can be a scientist, as well as an artist."

During the event at University Hall, the CSUSM students listened to a talk about genomics by Manuel Martinez, a scientist at Illumina, a San Diego-based biotech company that develops DNA sequencing technology to enable research and improve health. Illumina, along with the Coastal Community Foundation, provided funding this academic year to support the STEAM ambassadors program.

"I was impressed with the depth and engagement the students had regarding genetic topics," Martinez said. "I say I was impressed because when I was a student, these topics were not being discussed much outside of the scientific circles, so seeing this level of knowledge and awareness in just a decade was very pleasant."

The STEAM initiative started four years ago, when music professor Merryl Goldberg allowed several of her students to become arts ambassadors as part of an independent study assignment through her Art=Opportunity program. One day a week, the students would report to a school in Vista either to help teachers with their art classes or teach a lesson on their own. Goldberg recruited professors Lucy HG Solomon and Christiane Wood to incorporate STEM concepts into the arts curriculum, and the arts ambassadors became STEAM ambassadors.

The program was run then, and is still run now, by Solomon and Wood, who have developed a strong partnership as faculty from the School of Arts and the School of Education, respectively. Solomon has an expertise for fusing art with science. Wood not only has brought teaching credential students into the program (to implement the lessons that the ambassadors conjure up), but she also has incorporated the core concept of literacy.

In addition to funding the DNA activity that's central to its mission as a company, Illumina also is supporting the use of podcasting technology and audio storytelling to enhance student learning.

"Podcasting offers students a dynamic way to document and share their scientific discoveries," Wood said. "By using words, tone, pace and creative audio techniques, they can effectively communicate their ideas and findings."

Wollrabe has been a STEAM ambassador since the spring semester of her freshman year in 2022, when she learned about the opportunity in her art education course. She thought it would be the perfect job for her since it combines two things that she loves: being creative and organizing. She did both so well that last fall she was promoted to STEAM coordinator, which involves orchestrating meetings with the ambassadors and communicating with the faculty in charge.

When Wollrabe graduates in May 2025, she hopes to become an elementary school teacher, with an inclination toward art as her subject. She knows that her time as a STEAM ambassador will aid her cause considerably.

"I have gained extensive experience with creating projects that combine art, reading and STEM," she said. "So it has given me the proper tools to come up with ideas to carry out in the classroom."

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