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Four Seniors Represent the School at Annual Lecture Series.
Seniors John Ainslie, Sarah Gray Castle, Caelen Wang, and Erin Zhang represented the School at annual lecture series.
Seniors John Ainslie, Sarah Gray Castle, Caelen Wang, and Erin Zhang represented EHS at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Holiday Lectures on Science, which took place on October 13 at the HHMI headquarters in Chevy Chase, MD.
The Holiday Lectures on Science is an annual lecture series that seeks to help bridge the gap between scientific research and the science classroom. Kim Olsen, Chair of Episcopal’s Science Department, noted that the Lectures are “a once-in a lifetime opportunity for students to connect with scientific scholars, and they often bring much back to share with their science classes.”
The Holiday Lectures on Science is an annual lecture series that seeks to help bridge the gap between scientific research and the science classroom. Kim Olsen, Chair of Episcopal’s Science Department, noted that the Lectures are “a once-in a lifetime opportunity for students to connect with scientific scholars, and they often bring much back to share with their science classes.”
The theme of this year’s Lecture was Ecology of Rivers and Coasts: Food Webs and Human Impacts. Students heard from leading ecologists Mary Power of UC Berkeley and Brian Silliman of Duke University, who each delivered lectures on the complex interactions between species and their environments in aquatic ecosystems.
“Given my interest in conducting research in college, the greatest lesson I learned from the Lectures was about how to take a scientific approach to problems,” said Zhang. “For example, after closely examining the diminishing salt marsh, Professor Silliman discerned thousands of hidden snails nibbling away the succulent grass. He then proposed a theory and proved it by conducting controlled experiments. The patience and carefulness he showed impressed me the most, because in order to arrive at a conclusion, he had to trudge through the six feet tall marsh for months to collect data.”
Wang saw connections between what he learned at the Lectures and work he did during a one-week externship with the Environmental Defense Fund in Beijing: “I learned a lot about trophic cascades and how they affect underwater ecosystems. In my externship I primarily worked on fishing rights and restoring fisheries. I saw a parallel between the externship and the Lectures.”
In addition to listening to the Lectures, the students participated in hands-on activities and lively discussions with teens from all over the greater Washington, D.C. area. Zhang enjoyed learning from and working with her peers: “My favorite part of the day was the afternoon Q&A session, because by listening to the thoughtful questions, I felt bound to the students next to me. We want to be part of solving problems and implementing our solutions.”
Learn more about the HHMI Holiday Lectures on Science here.
