ESS PhD Student Madeleine Lucas is honored as a 2023 Homecoming Scholar. She is one of six extraordinary students across the UW campus whose stories exemplify Husky adaptability, tenacity, and resolve.
Rockin’ Out! Department Outreach
Madeleine believes we must take action in our K-12 communities to increase diversity in STEM. As a PhD student in ESS, Madeleine aims to inspire and empower underserved students to pursue STEM pathways.
As a coordinator for Rockin’ Out, a Department-run K-12 outreach program, she has shared her love of Earth Science with 1,500 students throughout Washington. If you are interested in working with the Rockin’ Out Coordinators this year (Anna Ledeczi and Sabrina Kainz) to plan an outreach event, volunteer, or lead lab tours for student groups that visit the department, please reach out at . All ESS community members — undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff — are welcome to join the department-wide effort.
Building STEM Identities and Resilience
Partnering with UW Riverways, Madeleine led a team to teach Earth Science at the Quileute Tribal School over spring break, emphasizing culturally-sustaining and place-based learning. Driven by a passion for both teaching and research, Madeleine aspires to merge these interests in her future career.
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- Field trip with QTS students to the beach to do a geology scavenger hunt.
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- Rocks collected during a scavenger hunt with QTS students.
Engagement and outreach with the Quileute Tribal School will continue this year through a project titled “Building STEM Identities and Resilience: Community-Driven Earthquake Monitoring at the Quileute Tribal School”, with funding from the NSF Cascadia CoPes Hazards Research Hub.
Led by Hub member and UW graduate student Madeleine Lucas, in collaboration with Quileute Tribal School and UW Riverways, a team will establish a community-driven earthquake monitoring program. Team members and K-12 students will work together to design, install, and monitor a seismometer and present results. The project aims to foster STEM identities of QTS high school students and build community resilience to coastal earthquake hazards from the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
The project will empower QTS students to take an active role in coastal earthquake monitoring by collaborating with them to establish an open-access Raspberry Shake seismometer in their school. The students will design the seismic deployment in fall quarter, collect and analyze seismic data during winter quarter, and present their results on UW campus during the spring quarter.
Many people in the department are involved in the effort including Harold Tobin, Erin Wirth, Audrey Dunham, and Anna Ledeczi. This spring break, Madeleine will lead a team of students, including ESS graduate students Veronica Elgueta and Julia Grossman, and CS undergraduate Mya Baker, to teach at QTS.
UW Riverways
It is through UW Riverways that Madeleine first started working with the Quileute Tribe last spring break. Rockin’ Out has been working closely with Riverways beyond the STEM ASB/CASE programs to teach Earth science to underserved/tribal students around Washington (Chief Leschi, Seattle World School, Rainier Beach High School, and the UW Summer Camp for Kids with Autism). You can read more about these volunteer efforts here.
If you are a student (undergrad or grad) interested in participating in a Riverways Program, applications are open until November.
