Encouraging self-driven curiosity for learning in all students
Blog
Written by Scott Heimlich, Vice President, Amgen Foundation
“Why do those mountains look so different?” So said a young girl to her grandfather. She was used to the saguaro cactus of Tucson Arizona, but here they were hiking in the Teton National Forest past a mountain covered with lodgepole pine trees.
Her grandfather was about to tell her the answer when he stopped himself – Should I answer as her grandfather, or should I answer as a science teacher? He decided to respond to her question with a question:
In this video, Amgen Scholars at the U.S. symposium at the University of California, Los Angeles, and at the Europe symposium at the University of Cambridge talk about the many and varied new experiences they had with the program. From new collaborative environments to becoming more independent as scientists, hear students share their stories.
We asked Amgen Scholars attending the U.S. symposium at the University of California, Los Angeles, and at the Europe symposium at the University of Cambridge to tell us something cool about their labs this summer. In this video, the scholars answered: the science. Hear students discuss their experiences exploring new areas of science, from bioinformatics and spores to exoskeletons and clinical neuroscience.
December 7, 2018 -The Reclamation and Biodiversity Research Center at PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) was established in 1995 as a way to restore the ecological function of the area near the operations known as the tailings deposition area. Tailings are the finely ground mineral rock that remain from the mining process after the economically valuable minerals have been removed from the ore.
Over the past 12 years, Patty Phelps has mentored more than 250 students in her role as faculty advisor for the Amgen Scholars Program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Among those students is: a young woman who came from the University of Washington in bioengineering and is now pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego; a hard-working young man who returned to UCLA for graduate school in neuroscience; and the wonderful UCLA students who each year welcomed those from out-of-town and developed long-term friendships.
The core of the Amgen Biotech Experience (ABE) is a unique partnership between scientists and teachers. Amgen scientists contribute their expertise in cutting-edge research and desire to empower students in STEM, while teachers contribute their expertise in how to interest and motivate students and their desire to connect STEM to the real-world.
From an early age, Suzanne Rohrback had a unique insight into the need for science to bridge gaps in medical care. Her big brother is autistic and growing up, Rohrback remembers thinking there were no good options for him – unmedicated, he could be unpredictably violent and medicated, he would be zombie-like. “But we don’t understand enough about what goes wrong in this condition to have created a better solution,” she says.
