I am so lucky! Life is good right now. This is the last day of my second week at my new job. I've been entrusted with the care of a program that creates biology curriculum through a small liberal arts college inspired by PhD faculty research for elementary school children. College students take this curriculum into local Title I schools and teach an hour-long lesson once a week for eight weeks. I've been involved with the program for several years as a college student, so it feels great to be taking the reigns. I'm having a blast putting the finishing touches on a neuroscience unit for this semester. It turns out this job combines 3 of my passions: Science, Education, and, the new one, Graphic Design.

Science means a variety of things to people in the world, and there are so many misconceptions of what science actually is. My goal is to teach scientific inquiry, the process by which humans have learned so much about the world, and to show kids that they are capable of doing it if they want to.

A unique aspect of this position is that I get to teach elementary school students, but I also get to work with excited college students, many of whom are working with elementary students for the first time. The overwhelming feeling in these situations, as well as in my tutoring gigs, is empowerment. I think it's one of the best feelings in the world to watch someone come to the realization they they understand something they didn't think they could. Of course, it's just as cool to watch others discover this joy this as well.

One might not expect graphic design to come up much in this area, but I find myself thinking about it a lot. Part of this is because I'm taking an evening graphic design course at a local community college, but I do think it's inherently a part of teaching and obviously very much a part of science. It never gets old to me how design can drastically complicate or simplify a thing and even influence the way people think and feel about something. So, if we can present the visual material in a way that conveys the excitement and awe we feel about science along with some graphical clarity, then the kids are going to get lot more out of it.

I found a bunch of good figures on commons.wikimedia.org, including this one, that's perfect for my neuroscience unit.

I'm so excited. I can't wait until we start teaching!