Sandra Liss
Astronomy graduate student
I am currently an active member of Dark Skies, Bright Kids!, an outreach group based out of UVa's Department of Astronomy focused on promoting science education and literacy for underserved elementary and middle school students in central Virginia. In addition to volunteering at our outreach events, I am leading a team of graduate students focused on evaluating the impact we are having in our community.
Teaching DSBK students about galaxy classification using the Hubble Deep Field (Virginia, November 2014)
As an undergraduate at Swarthmore College, I was the coordinator and instructor of a student-run group called Science for Kids. We worked with students from the Chester Children's Chorus. We explored a wide range of introductory topics, including astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering.
Helping a student in the Science For Kids program extract DNA from a strawberry (Pennsylvania, April 2011)
I was also involved in Swarthmore’s chapter of Expanding Your Horizons. This student-led conference is part of a national effort to motivate middle school girls to enter fields in which women are typically underrepresented. For more information about the national program, click here.
Swarthmore's Expanding Your Horizons group leaders getting ready to facilitate the 2011 conference (Pennsylvania, March 2011)