Science Blogger Targets Inner City Youth
Some blogs function as personal online diaries, while others provide commentary or news on a particular subject.
Scientist Danielle Lee's blogging mission is a little different. She hopes to foster an interest in science among young people in inner-city communities.
Different audience
Lee, who blogs for what she calls “the underrepresented,” believes being African-American helps her reach a different audience than most science bloggers.
“I’m really good at helping people find their on-ramp to science and I enjoy that. And I think that has to do with my personal interest in working with kind of the least-likely candidate students, because I myself was a least-likely candidate student.”
She believes African-Americans - and inner city youth in general - face many educational barriers.
“You may be encouraged to go to school, but you’re not given a lot of direction as to how to pursue particular careers, particularly in science and engineering," Lee says. "There aren’t a lot of role models. So that’s why I do my outreach, to let folks see one, a different face of science and to see different avenues into science.”
Getting started
Lee started blogging about science in 2006, while pursuing her doctorate in animal behavior at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
In her blog, "Urban Science Adventures," Lee uses text and photographs to explain what she calls “science you can see right outside your back door,” even if you live in the city.
“I focus on urban ecology and all those different ways to access environmental science, conservation and biology," Lee says, "but through accessible, you know, wildlife watching in your neighborhood parks or backyard.”
Lee says her blog entries often grow out of conversations with friends. She recently received a text message asking her to identify an animal based on a photograph of its feces.
“And I was like, ‘Are those berries?’ And they’re like, ‘I think so.’ I said, ‘Well, take the picture again next to a ruler or something for scale.'”
After a little more investigating, she figured out the scat sample belonged to a raccoon. Lee finds being a scientist is a lot like being a detective.
“I tell people that all the time, it’s exactly what science is," says Lee. "You get to answer all your own questions, and figure things out, yeah!” |