Broader Impacts Faculty Symposium

Panelists

• Justin Burton, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Physics. The outreach efforts in the Burton Lab are a team effort that involve undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral scientists. We are mostly focused on K-12 STEM education. For the past 5 years, our lab has led an after-school science club at Laurel Ridge Elementary School in Dekalb County. The monthly club is designed for 30 students in 4th or 5th grade. Most recently, the students experimented with “squishy circuits” of conducting and insulating playdough, learned about CO2 acidification of the oceans with dry ice, and built “scribble robots” that draw pictures as they move on the ground! As part of the Atlanta Science Festival, our lab also leads an annual open house event in the Physics Department called Physics Live! Nearly 400 people join us for a day full of physics demos, laboratory tours, and planetarium shows. Preparation for this event takes about 1 week and relies on the dedicated assistance of the Society of Physics students, a club which is advised by Prof. Burton. In addition, the research in the Burton Lab is often featured in multiple news outlets, including ones designed for young students. Recent projects include the tipping over of large icebergs and the physics of giant bubbles. Finally, Prof. Burton is an advocate for science-based education surrounding climate change. He has given numerous public lectures on this topic, such as The Science Cafe at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Funding for outreach: NSF CAREER Award 1455086, NSF Award 1506446, Emory Department of Physics, Atlanta Science Festival
  
• Eri Saikawa, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences. The Saikawa Lab members and students in her classes have been involved in community outreach in two different ways. First is via various outreach activities through Dr. Saikawa’s NSF Atmospheric Chemistry award (AGS 1350021). They visited Science Day at Mill Springs Academy in 2014, King Middle School in 2015, Druid Hills Environmental Club in 2016, Tucker Middle School in 2017, DeKalb Alternative School in 2018 and Centennial Academy in 2019 to teach middle school and high students about air pollution and climate change. In 2018, the PI also participated in Punk Science outreach in Telluride, CO, talking about air pollution. The Saikawa Lab has disseminated research results more broadly to the public by hosting Atlanta Science Festival events every year since its inception in 2014 in March. For two years, the PI incorporated the project into her Atmospheric Chemistry class and the students presented their research on air pollution to middle school students and also at the Atlanta Science Festival. The lab has also held various climate-related events on campus, including four annual Climate Weeks since 2016 and the annual Universities for Cleaner Georgia Conference, since 2018, involving more than 50 students from all over Atlanta (Emory University, University of Georgia, Auburn University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Oxford College, and Georgia State University). Lab members have also started working on setting up a low-cost air quality monitoring network on campus with the Office of Sustainability Initiatives seed grant, as a way to raise awareness of air pollution and visualize the data on the website. Second, the Saikawa Lab has been involved in community-engaged research via the pilot grant project that was funded by Emory’s HERCULES Exposome Research Center (5P30ES019775, Marsit PI) since April 2018. They have measured heavy metals and metalloid (HMM) concentrations in soils from approximately 30 urban sites in West Atlanta and from three rural gardens/farms at least 30 miles outside of Atlanta. Through their work with community members, Saikawa’s soil HMM contamination findings prompted an EPA Removal Site Evaluation. As a result, EPA started excavating contaminated soils in a small part of a West Atlanta neighborhood in January 2020. In addition to soil screening, the lab has  conducted phytoremediation, analyzed children’s blood lead levels, and assessed residents’ awareness of the exposure to HMM for the past two years.