My AAAS Annual Meeting Experience as an IF/THEN Ambassador

Hi! This past weekend, I attended the #AAASmtg for the first time with fellow #AAAS #IFTHEN ambassadors from across the country and thought that you might like to read about it! 

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting is a large conference that attracts thousands of national and international scientists, engineers, educators, policymakers, and scientific journalists to talk about recent developments in STEM. This year's focus was ‘Envisioning Tomorrow’s Earth.’

For me, it was an honor to attend and I especially enjoyed the opportunity to share with local Seattle kids #whatascientistlookslike. So, what did I do?

Learning from Bill Gates

On Friday, I got to listen to Bill Gates sharing what the Gates Foundation has been investing in for the past 20 years and what they are planning to invest in going forward.

For me as a Microsoft employee and as a philanthropic founder, it was amazing to see him speak and learn about all the investment in science and technology that the foundation is doing. I am still in shock! ?? #microsoftlife #nuevofoundation

Coding is fun!

On Saturday, the conference has a family science weekend or #FamSciDays where parents from the Puget Sound community and surrounding areas are encouraged to bring their children to learn about science at no cost!

I thought this was incredible. I got to teach kids to use #scratch with the Dash and Dot robot along with Gracie Ermi and Ashley Podhrasky! The kids had a ton of fun; some of them have only seen robots on TV so trying to tell the robot what to do for themselves was mind-blowing. One little girl wanted to make the robot dance, I showed her what she would need and within 10 min her robot ‘Michelle’ was making her favorite dance moves.

I thought it would be fun for the children to have to tell the robot to follow a certain set of steps, so I cut out a few pieces of color paper and made a maze on the floor. Some children wanted to code their way out and test their coding skills with a sequence of obstacles. They nailed it! ??

Science is for everyone

On Sunday, I was invited by Suzanne Thurston and Subaru reading lounge to read “Many: The diversity of life on earth” by Nicola Davis. For me, this was a challenge as I have never read a book to kids in English, given that I have an accent. I was super nervous that the children will not understand me, but I believe it was ok. At the beginning there were three children that were into the book, then more children started coming and enjoyed learning about animals. I asked them if they could share what they would like to be when they grow up, I was impressed that they all knew, some of their answers were: a superhero like Thor, a stylist, an astronaut, and a police officer. #ChallengedAccepted

Later that day, I volunteered at the IF/THEN booth to take selfies with children with an awesome space background and science props. I also got to play with Play-Doh with some of the children, they were having a blast. Lastly, I encouraged children to draw a scientist ?? and some of them drew themselves in the future, and that just melts my heart!

Thank you!

Thank you Lyda Hill Foundation and the AAAS IF/THEN program for such a great opportunity for all the ambassadors to come together, come up with proposals for potential new engagements, and to let us encourage the next generation of scientists!

P.S. A huge shoutout to Liz, Kristin, and Gemima for the great work you did organizing this event for us!