ESS Graduate student Tamara Aranguiz had the opportunity to mentor high school students during the UW GEAR UP Space Camp in July 2023.
UW GEAR Up Space Camp is a week-long on-campus summer camp that hosts rising 11th graders from South King County. The goal of the program is to expose students of color, low-income, and/or first generation students to planetary sciences to increase the accessibility of STEM careers at UW for marginalized students. This year, the lessons were planned by the Riverways Education Partnerships Program and taught by a diverse team of six members of the UW community, including Tamara, an undergraduate, a recently graduated student, and three staff members of Riverways.
The week started by visiting two ESS Department Laboratories: the Planetary Sciences Lab with a tour by ESS Postdoc Dr. Ardith Bravenec and the Geomicrobiology Lab with a tour from ESS graduate students Autum Downey and Andrea Nodal. All three did a fantastic job and got the students excited about all that geoscientists can work on.
Centered on the Artemis NASA Mission, the program curriculum was mainly focused on the Moon’s surface and landing. Through teamwork, students built Lego-rovers, programmed movements, launched rockets, and more. The program was demanding yet thrilling, fostering growth for both students and mentors.
On Saturday, the last day of camp, the students showcased their work at a science fair where their families were able to see all they had accomplished for the last six days. For the mentors, seeing the students explaining their work to their families was a pleasure.
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- Students working on building a lego-rover in the classroom.
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- Group of students and their poster during the closing of the program.
Tamara reflected on her own experiences after the camp was over. “When you come from a background where no one has a college degree, science is never talked about at home, and you face multiple barriers to higher education, programs like this are transformative. My own journey, catalyzed by a scholarship-funded summer camp, resonated deeply and that is why teaching this camp was so important to me. In 2008, I was doing a physics summer camp thanks to a scholarship for low-income students, 4 years later I started a degree in Geology on the same campus.
Now, 14 years later as a grad student pursuing a Ph.D., I recognize the power of equitable STEM programs. Joining hands with diversity and equity initiatives in science is an investment in a brighter, more inclusive future.”
