Seeding Your Future Workshops open to middle and high school-age students

ISSUED: 18 January 2023
MEDIA CONTACT: Dana Costa

SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV - Shepherd University's 2022-2023 Seeding Your Future Workshop Series (SYFWS) continues with monthly events offered through April 18 that will explore eye optics, minerals, and the world under a microscope. SYFWS is a series of free science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workshops for local middle and high school students. All workshops take place on Tuesday evenings from 5:30-7 p.m. in various classrooms and labs in the Robert C. Byrd Science and Technology Center.

The Seeding Your Future Workshop Series aims to increase students' interest in STEM areas. The workshops include a fantastic series of hands-on activities led by STEM professionals and Shepherd University student groups, with take-home goodies as souvenirs.

Registration opens on the first of each month for the following workshops:

• February 21-"Optics and Sight," will explore the optics associated with sight, including how images are formed and how eyeglasses work for common vision problems.
• March 21-"Mineral, Mineral, Rock!," delving into the fascinating science of geology and exploring the methods used to describe the most common rock-forming minerals. Hands-on activities will include testing a variety of properties and characteristics used to identify minerals.
• April 18-"Leuwenhoek's Little Beasties." In 1674, a Dutch tailor named Leuwenhoek was the first to see organisms so small they weren't visible to the human eye. His curiosity led him to develop the first microscope, allowing him to see those little "beasts" in pond water, raindrops, and even saliva. This workshop will follow that curious spirit, and participants will look for little beasties in pond water and other samples using modern microscopes.

For more information and to register, visit the SYF Workshop Series webpage.

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