Having the opportunity to share with a kid (or adult) something that I am passionate about is a wonderful thing.

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The Tech provided many ways to experience this. In high school classrooms, on the museum floor, or in an Ask a Geneticist answer, I had the chance to help people understand something they didn't before. This is an amazing thing. Helping a child go from not knowing what DNA is or does, to actually purifying it and seeing it with their own eyes, all within the space of 10 or 15 minutes, was an extremely valuable experience for both me and the people with whom I interacted. Biology can often be viewed as a very dry and detached subject for kids. I really enjoyed having the chance to share my enthusiasm and excitement about it, by showing people how cool genetics is and how it is such an important and relevant subject. It was very valuable for me as a scientist as well. Learning how to communicate on an appropriate level, both in writing and speech, is an essential skill for all scientists. The Tech program definitely helped improve my ability to do this.

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The Tech is a fun and inspiring way to make scientific research public knowledge Before the Tech, 

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I'd never had much of a chance to write for or communicate with non-scientists. I feel sorry for the people I tried to explain my research to, since I would get carried away in my jargon! Learning how to deconstruct questions and communicate with a general audience has been invaluable. I definitely think that it helped my overall mental organization for my own scientific writing and speaking. On the floor doing the demonstrations, I mostly interacted with younger children, which was incredibly fun. I also had a great time teaching high school students in a couple of the museum's lab classrooms. It was so exciting and fulfilling to get the older students (who might be closer to making career choices) enthusiastic about biology and the scientific method. I highly recommend volunteering at the Tech to anyone, especially those who would like to give some of their scientific knowledge back to the public.

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Teaching at The Tech was the best "communications course" I have taken.

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Trying to get a set of genetics concepts across to a group of 5th-12th graders is about the most difficult thing you could do. Even coming half-way to mastering that skill has set me up for successful interactions with non-scientists for the future. I am not always going to be in the lab with people who "speak the same language" as me, so learning how to concisely and clearly explain science was something very important to me before graduating. More importantly, I was often teaching to disadvantaged children in poor school districts, sometimes with non-existent science programs. Opening a door for them into science has been just as significant as any research that I have done.

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I'd do it again, if there weren't so many others who want to try it!

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 On the first day at the museum, one of the other students made the comment, "I can't believe it's already been two quarters!" I wondered whether my experience at The Techwould be similar. I can say now that it most certainly was. From running museum floor programs to teaching at a summer science camp, I was able to show to so many different people, a glimpse of the exciting world of genetics. Whether they were 6 or 60 years old, everyone seemed to be having fun learning about science. And in turn, I was excited watching them be excited about the work we do. When a program with such small time commitment over such a short period of time can accomplish all that, you know you have something worthwhile. This has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my graduate career so far and I would recommend this to just about everyone!

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The Tech is a unique educational experience- both for the visitors AND the volunteers!

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I didn’t fully realize just how educational volunteering at The Tech would be for me. I’ve had lots of previous experience tutoring high-school students but I’d never worked with younger students before. That all changed while volunteering at The Tech where the majority of the students we interact with are in middle school. Running our hands-on demonstrations each week challenged me to explain science to kids AND make it super interesting. Although it was difficult at first, as the weeks went by I saw how much more comfortable I became engaging the younger students. In addition to weekly demonstrations, answering questions online helped me improve my science writing while teaching me a lot about very diverse and interesting topics. But my favorite part about the experience was the few weeks when we went off-site and ran our demonstrations at Overfelt high school in San Jose. From freshman to seniors, it was a unique experience modifying my interaction with older students while still keeping it interesting and fun.

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The two quarters I spent at the Tech was by far one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had while in graduate school.

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The rewards were immediate. Personally, I saw myself become interested in science in a whole new way. It’s very encouraging to see kids and adults alike become engaged in topics I found so basic that my interest in them had disappeared. While in the lab, I felt like I was diving deeper and deeper into a very specific topic and forgot to come up for air and look at the big picture from time to time. The Tech allowed me to do this while reigniting that creative spark I lost long ago.
There is also nothing more rewarding than seeing an entire family; kids, parents and grandparents, learn about such important topics as genetics and molecular biology. And most importantly, it is gratifying to know that the 10-15 min they spent listening to us and performing experiments have enriched their lives in ways they didn’t imagine. You know you’re making a difference when people ask questions, and when the answers lead to other questions and ultimately, through the programs at The Tech, people get a better understanding and appreciation for science.
Working at The Tech also allowed me to get out of lab and do something that had an immediate and direct impact in society. As scientists, we are using a large amount of resources to make discoveries. Yet, the public still does not comprehend why we do what we do and, as a result, support for science is eroding. I strongly believe that as scientists we have the responsibility to educate the public about the importance of our work. The Stanford at The Tech program provided me with the opportunity to assume such responsibility.
I feel that my experience at The Tech was much more fun and much more rewarding and intellectually challenging than lab work. I hope this program and other programs like this become more widespread. It is our responsibility to ensure that this happens.

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After a morning at the Tech, I always had a good feeling whether it was teaching what seemed like

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hundreds of visitors about PTC or just talking to Barry about science education on a slow day. This program is a great chance to improve your writing skills and to learn how to engage visitors of all ages with the experiments at the Tech. One of the best parts is during your second quarter when you have a chance to create something new for the program. I also had fun meeting the other similar-minded Stanford at the Tech participants through training sessions and trips to Overfelt High School. I'll miss those mornings at the Tech!

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Stanford at the Tech is a great experience for the scientists that participate and the visitors of the Tech!

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Of course it is rewarding when you see that spark in a child's (or adult's) eye when they discover the magic of science through participation in some of our hands-on "science projects". But for me, the reward went far beyond that. Not only did I enjoy working with the visitors of the museum, but I also feel that I myself learned more than I had ever imagined- through answering the "Ask a Geneticist" questions, writing a Genetics in the News article, figuring out how to make science easier to understand, or just answering questions generated from our programs. It was also an awesome feeling when, for my final project, I got to work with a few San Jose high school classes to develop a program where they used actual DNA samples to solve a mock murder case and to free an innocent man from jail! This program further intensified my passion for science outreach programs and gave me some of the tools needed to better present science to the general public.

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Stanford at the Tech was one of the most fun things I've done in graduate school.

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It was a really challenging and rewarding experience to get a chance to convey basic concepts of biology to the public. It was great to be able to reach such a wide age-group of kids, and see how excited they got. Working in lab I take a lot of what I do for granted, and seeing the way the kids got excited reminded me about what excited me about biology in the first place. I became so much more confident at public speaking, and improved my ability to communicate to the public both verbally and through writing for the 'Ask a Geneticist' website. It was informative to interact directly with the public. This made me realize not only how important it was to educate them, but also to learn from the way the program was setup to see the things that worked best to do this.

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Working at The Tech has been one of the best experiences of graduate school!

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Every scientist should be so lucky to have the opportunity to actually see the awe and wonder that reminds us of why we love science. Being exposed to the big questions that comes from creative curiosity is a great way to get pulled out of the minutiae of experiments. Those questions are an eye-opener to how critical it is that scientists be involved in dialogue with the public. Helping people improve their science literacy and understand the importance of research is essential for an enlightened society (and for us to keep getting funded). It certainly wasn't a one-way education road though. I learned even more than the visitors that came to the museum or read the Ask a Geneticist answers. In addition to the ongoing training of communicating complex scientific ideas to a broad audience, I've learned a lot more about genetics (reading the answers myself!), discovered what sweetbread is and purified my first protein. The Stanford at the Tech program has been fun, rewarding and incredibly challenging. The only problem is that it's addictive!

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I always loved science museums as a kid, but I never had the chance to experience a museum quite like The Tech.

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I would have loved it there! My experience at The Tech truly added a new element to my graduate career. The program taught me valuable communication skills in an entirely different way than TAing a Stanford course would. I learned so much by interacting with museum visitors and leading them through fun and engaging scientific experiments. By working with people outside of academia, I had to learn how to break down complicated concepts into easy-to-understand pieces. The best part was teaching elementary school students about DNA, proteins, and cells—things that I never learned about until college! The kids really understood the science, too. Every time someone walked away from the exhibit with a smiling face, I felt a sense of accomplishment.

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Working at The Tech was a fantastic opportunity to teach the public about science!

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The Tech exhibits provide a great, hands-on way to teach and think about science, and the experience is a unique way for graduate students to get involved in the community. I learned a lot about human genetics by answering the Ask a Geneticist questions. Helping out each week on the museum floor and writing about science really improved my ability to describe science in ways that are easy to understand. One of the neatest aspects of working at The Tech was contributing to the museum by helping to design a new exhibit. My Tech experience was also a great reminder of the responsibility that we have as scientists to educate the public about what we do.

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Stanford at The Tech program is a multi-faceted and a unique program.

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Volunteering at The Tech was a wonderful and helpful experience for me for several reasons. This program enabled me to explain science to the public both in person and in writing and I believe that makes it a very unique and special program. I wrote several science articles that allowed me to research and learn about a new subject each time. Writing these science articles for the general public was a very rewarding and enjoyable experience for me and taught me to write about science in a simple way. Doing the programs about DNA extraction, protein purification, and DNA analysis using gel electrophoresis gave me the opportunity to interact and communicate with people of all ages and taught me to explain science in a fun and interesting way. I also had the chance to teach a class about DNA and human traits to 5th-7th grade students. I had a great experience at The Tech and I highly recommend it to both postdocs and graduate students at Stanford. Ultimately none of these opportunities would have been possible without Barry so I would like to thank Barry for being a great mentor to me.

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Every scientist should have an experience similar to The Tech.

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I learned so much while at The Tech . As scientists, we tend to get immersed in our very complicated, jargon filled world. Teaching at The Tech really helped me step back from that and be able to explain science to the public. Kids are a great learning ground for this because they're so responsive and filled with so much enthusiasm. In addition, the writing I did for the Understanding Genetics website was invaluable to wrapping my head around how to teach science. Because of my time at The Tech , I'm seriously considering making science writing a much larger part of my future career.

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Volunteering at The Tech exposed me to a new teaching and learning environment that an academic institution does not provide.

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Here, I not only learnt to explain science to non-scientists but also to get young brains very excited about the scientific process. To see young children's eyes light up when they saw their own cheek cells for the first time or when they carefully stashed away their little eppendorf tube with green fluorescent protein was the best reward I could get from this program. Interestingly, I also learnt how hard it is to write about scientific issues in a non-scientific, yet engaging manner. When I researched to answer questions that were posted by visitors to The Tech , I too learnt a lot about topics that were relatively new to me. In short, I would strongly encourage other students to avail themselves of this wonderful opportunity and learn more about science and themselves in the process!

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My experience at the museum was positive and challenging.

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I think that it is important for the scientific community to interact with general public and present their findings in simple terms. The internship program at The Tech provides a unique opportunity for students to see the scientific world from the perspective of those who are less involved in it, if at all, and gain skills to communicate scientific ideas and experiments outside of Stanford. The program's flexibility provides every participant many opportunities to contribute ideas as to what the program has to offer now and what it will become in the future. As part of this program, I helped adults and children of all ages perform experiments that introduced them to DNA, genes, proteins, cells, forensics and medicine. I also helped develop a new experiment that teaches about components of tasting, genes and taste buds. It was rewarding to see happy and interested faces of the museum visitors as they mastered complicated and elegant methods and ideas that biologists face on a daily basis. The length of the program was just right to become comfortable with relating scientific ideas to the general public and to develop an interest in pursuing similar types of volunteer work in the future.

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Such a rewarding experience!

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I had so much fun working at The Tech and learned a lot in the process. Watching children and parents take a real interest in science and come away with a better understanding of genetics is energizing and rewarding. I loved the challenge of explaining scientific concepts to people of all ages and backgrounds. The writing I did for the museum has definitely improved by ability to effectively communicate scientific ideas in a simple, succinct, and engaging manner. This experience has also given me an insight on just how much the general public understands about science and the issues they find most fascinating.

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The best part of working at The Tech was watching kids’ eyes light up when they get excited about science.

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The kids were the ones who reminded me of why I pursued science in the first place. While some kids left inspired to become a scientist and cure cancer, other kids left with a shy smile after solving a simple genetics mystery. The energy and curiosity the kids brought was invigorating! During my Tech experience, I also discovered an interest in writing genetics articles for the public. By use of analogies, and with Barry’s help, I was able to break down complex genetics concepts into simpler, more meaningful ideas. This whole experience was very rewarding and a ton of fun.

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Working at The Tech for two quarters was the most amazing experience I’ve had in grad school!

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When experiments weren’t working in lab, I knew that I’d get to spend every Friday morning with a bunch of super enthusiastic kids (and adults) who couldn’t wait to get their hands on a pipette. The ultimate reward? Hearing the kids explain to their parents and teachers that they were learning how to make medicine in bacteria, or helping solve a crime using DNA evidence, or staining their cheek cells and looking at the nucleus—things that I didn’t learn about until college. I loved answering all sorts of creative Ask-a-Geneticist questions, from the genetics of Tourette Syndrome to the existence of human chimeras to why people sneeze when they look into the sun. And writing Genetics in the News articles was an incredible experience—with Barry’s help, we were able to transform complicated, jargon-filled scientific articles into super exciting stories that (we hope!) will make people excited about scientific research. And although our main goal at the Tech was to spark kids’ (and adults’) enthusiasm and understanding of science, the past two quarters have re-inspired me to make teaching and writing about science a huge part of my future.

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