K-12 & Community Education

With an interdisciplinary team, Maya organized Research Education and Activities for Community Teachers (REACT), a workshop for science and engineering educators that was held virtually in summer 2020 (one day) and summer 2021 (two days). Maya and Rachael organized a hybrid two-day REACT workshop—one in-person and one virtual day—in summer 2022, and Rachael organized it in summer 2023.

Rachael and Maya presented the educational kit Computer Simulation: Packing Candy, which they created for the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) Lending Library of Experiments, at a virtual STEM Teacher Workshop organized by the MRSECs at Cornell University, Columbia University, and Pennsylvania State University in April 2022.

Rachael volunteers for Vaccination Conversations with Scientists (VaCS) (highlighted by the Cornell Chronicle in February 2022).

Maya and Rachael presented the activity “Simulating Humans vs. Zombies” at the New York State 4–H Career Explorations conference in June 2021.

Maya taught the two-week course “Simulations in Physics” at the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies in Yerevan, Armenia in September 2021.

Julia presented the Materials Science and Engineering field session at the virtual CURIE Academy in July 2020 and 2021, as well as at the in-person CURIE Academy in July 2022.

In her role as CNF Ambassador, Maya volunteered through the Cornell NanoScale Facility (CNF) K-12 Outreach Program and presented her research via Zoom Outreach to Ithaca High School in June 2020.

Rachael represented the Black Sheep Handspinners Guild at Ag Day on October 18, 2019.

Maya volunteered with through the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) K-12 Programs at Big Red STEM Day 2019 in NYC.

Higher education

Maya volunteered through the Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP) and taught MATH 112 at Cayuga Correctional Facility in spring 2022, and subsequently co-taught the same course with Julia at Auburn Correctional Facility in summer 2022, as well as a workshop for coding in Python at Cayuga Correctional Facility in summer 2023. Previously, she volunteered as a teaching assistant and supported incarcerated students at Auburn Correctional Facility with their math and physics studies in fall 2019 and spring 2020.

Rachael co-taught the 7th i-CoMSE Workshop: Molecular Dynamics Summer School 2024 at Boise State University with members of the Institute of Computational Molecular Science Education.

Julia presented a “Hot Materials Talk” to the students participating at REU programs at Cornell in July 2021.

Science advocacy

Julia co-organized Expanding Space in Astrophysics: A Wiki Edit-a-thon with the American Physical Society (APS) on April 10, 2022 at the APS April Meeting 2022. (The event was also highlighted by Astrobites.)

Julia co-organized Women Make the World Go Round: A Pi Day Wiki Editathon with the American Physical Society (APS) on March 14, 2021 at the APS March Meeting 2021.

Julia organized editWikipedia4BlackLives in observance of the A Strike For Black Lives (also termed ShutDownSTEM).
The community of Wikipedians came together, volunteered to give three live online tutorials for new editors, and held all-day drop-in Zoom office hours on June 10, 2020.

Over the course of 24 hours, over 200 volunteer editors created over 50 articles, edited over 480 Wikipedia pages, and added over 100,000 words to Wikipedia. Most of the editors were located in the US, with others joining from Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and other parts of the Americas. (The event was mentioned on WIRED and APS News.)

Julia published the Wiki Scientist testimonial Shining a light on hidden figures with Wikipedia—a collaboration with Anna Lappala on the Wiki Education blog in July 2020.