TEDxJHU hosted its first Salon event on Sunday featuring Margaret Hart, STEM Program manager at Hopkins, and Charm City Science League (CCSL) Co-Presidents Arush Tripathy and Surekha Mullangi. They spoke about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in a community context.
The hour-long event in Charles Commons Salon B also featured TEDxBaltimore videos of Keimie Booth and Sara Hemmingers, leaders in their respective communities.
Hart, who works with the Centre for Educational Outreach at the Whiting School of Engineering, recalled her experience of education and mentorship. She holds a bachelor’s degree in astronomy and a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.
Her current work focuses on promoting STEM subjects for elementary, middle school and high school students, and she has worked at the Youth Astronomy Apprenticeship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“I loved the passion the kids had for science outside of school,” Hart said. “We were mentoring the kids and changing their lives.”
She is collaborating with the Center for Social Concern to provide Hopkins students and professors with opportunities and incentives to be involved in the community as mentors.
Additionally, Hart works closely with two student-run groups at Hopkins: CCSL and the Baltimore Robotics Institute (BRI). Both organizations focus not only on STEM education but also on mentorship and personal growth.
“A lot of research has shown what positive mentoring has on youth,” Hart said. “At CCSL and BRI, we don’t ‘accidentally’ mentor kids. Undergrads don’t call themselves volunteers. They are mentors.”
Booth, a sophomore at the University of Baltimore, described her experience with education as transformative, and he challenged the audience and viewers to find and pursue their passions.
“Robotics has changed the way I thought about school,” Booth said.
The theme was echoed by the video from Hemminger’s TEDxBaltimore appearance. Hemminger founded the Incentive Mentoring Program, now known as Thread.
Tripathy and Mullangi shared their experiences leading CCSL and exploring mentorship and education.
After positive personal experiences participating in Science Olympiad, both co-presidents wanted to ensure an immersive learning experience with the kids at CCSL. Tripathy talked about making music with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes while Mullangi, who was interested in anatomy from her Science Olympiad experiences, created an anatomy-based jeopardy game and flash cards.
“We needed to think teaching from a kid’s point of view,” Mullangi said. “The tricky part is that every student learns differently. For some, PowerPoints work best; [for] others, games; and others, reading.”
Mullangi and Tripathy’s students in CCSL won second place in a Science Olympiad competition and advanced to a statewide competition.
They also said their aspirations for the educational future remained optimistic and that they hoped that Baltimore schools someday will be able to integrate STEM in multiple facets of education, particularly in elementary school.
“Not just bio and chem [but] the more practical aspects such as [biomedical engineering] and mechanical engineering [are important]” Tripathy said.
The next Salon event on Nov. 15 will focus on the ongoing violence in Gaza.
According to lead organizer and sophomore Dylan Pulver, the Salon events were created in addition to the main conference events. There are currently three confirmed Salon events.
The organization may schedule more events for the fall as the semester continues.
“When we came up for the themes for the salon events, we wanted it to relate to our main event theme,” Pulver said. “We wanted to focus on the news, so Gaza, education.”
