Scientist Engages Campbell MS Students with STEM Presentation

Dr. Wolfgang Fink, and accomplished scientist, spent the day with Campbell Middle School sixth-grade students on March 19 to help spark their interest in STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Dr. Fink shared several of his areas of research expertise with the students, including astrobiology, autonomy, biomedicine, computational field geology, evolutionary computation and robotics, and discussed some of his current research projects.

“I think it is extremely important to encourage STEM, which are important fields for the nation,” Dr. Fink said. “You have to get the next line of scientists and engineers prepared. You have to encourage it, especially in middle schools. In elementary school, everyone is all about science, but in middle school, for some reason the interest fades away. Once you hit high school, the damage is done, and on the university side I get students who are not really interested in science. You have to keep the fire burning in middle school in particular to carry them into high school and potentially college.”

Dr. Fink was impressed with the level of questions he was asked by the students, and their knowledge of space, geology and robotics.