“Open Doors to Science and 21st Century Skills to Underrepresented Youth” | Liz Sims & Carol Wiley

The mission of Earth Explorers is to open doors to science and engineering careers by educating and mentoring underrepresented youth. Liz and Carol tell our audience that they define underrepresented as girls, minorities, students living in poverty, students who will be among the first generation in their families to attend college, and people with disabilities. We use video and new media technology to connect young people to science and engineering professionals in their communities, and to deepen networks of resources that will help our students succeed beyond the classroom.

To achieve maximum impact, Earth Explorers focuses on creating positive connections between young people and scientists. Students work together in carefully diversified groups of four, and each team is paired with an enthusiastic scientist or engineer. Teams meet with their scientists several times on filming trips to national and commercial labs; over the course of an average semester, each team spends 10 hours working directly with their scientist and 30 hours interacting with an energetic graduate-student mentor. EE students learn basic research skills, storytelling, interviewing, and videography, as well as important life skills, such as professional communication and team communication. Students take Earth Explorers as an elective during the normal school day and teams participate in monthly after-school and weekend workshops where they produce 8-10 minute videos about their scientists. Those videos are presented at a fancy red-carpet film premiere for the students, their families, scientists, and the community.

ABOUT LIZ SIMS & CAROL WILEY

Earth Explorers is an Educational nonprofit whose mission is to open doors to science and engineering careers by educating and mentoring underrepresented youth. At the heart of this organization are it’s co-founders Liz Sims and Carolyn Wiley.

Liz Sims is a science teacher at Trail Ridge Middle School and has dedicated herself to serving at-risk and underrepresented students, both professionally and in her personal life.

Carolyn Wiley comes to STEM education from a film school background and is responsible for the integration of filmmaking and the arts into the curriculum.

Earth Explorers believes education, especially STEM education, is the key to giving young people the opportunity for a better life. Under their leadership, the Earth Explorers program has exploded at Trail Ridge from an after school program to a full middle school curriculum ready to expand to other schools across the region. Their passion for education and the students they serves continues to make them, and Earth Explorers, an indispensable force in the STEM education community.