ScienceHow

Biology Alumna hosts and produces popular science show for middle school students nationwide

Small wonder Benson, [Biology Alumna] is now the host and pro­ducer of Smith­sonian Sci­ence How, a live, half-​​hour web­cast aimed at intro­ducing middle school stu­dents to the research and per­son­al­i­ties of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Nat­ural His­tory. And while Benson long believed that she would grow up to become a med­ical doctor or research sci­en­tist, she says, “I always thought I’d be con­tributing to sci­ence in a mean­ingful way, and now I get to help kids under­stand and appre­ciate the nat­ural world.”
Benson’s prepa­ra­tion for each episode—which dove­tails with national sci­ence stan­dards and includes a com­pre­hen­sive array of teaching resources—is exten­sive. First, she and a fellow con­tent devel­oper meet with the fea­tured sci­en­tist, teasing out his or her most exciting research and dis­cov­eries. Then she reads up on the given topic, whether it’s bird extinc­tions, early human diets, or deep reef bio­di­ver­sity, paying par­tic­ular atten­tion to the expert’s pub­lished books and peer-​​reviewed papers. Finally, she helps to pen the script, which includes poll ques­tions for the fledg­ling sci­en­tists watching from the com­fort of their class­rooms. A sample ques­tion from the season three pre­miere: What major event hap­pened on Earth 200 mil­lion years ago? A) Mas­sive flooding, B) Huge vol­canic erup­tions, C) Asteroid hit, D) Dra­matic cli­mate change.–COS News Article by Jason Kornwitz

Biology