Pop Culture, Inclusion and STEM Education
The New Year began with great excitement for me. I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Scholastic's Science World about our contribution focused on Black Panther, Vibranium and the Periodic Table . Scholastic's Science World is read by over a million students worldwide, so this is just awesome! In addition to the interview article, there are lesson plans aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which allow students to focus on where to classify the fictional vibranium (Vb) metal based on evidence, draw conclusions and then share their ideas. Thus, our work is being used to help students learn to engage in arguments from evidence, which is an important skill all students need to develop. As an educator, I have always used pop culture, history, and music to make connections to classroom content. Several years ago, I published a short paper focused on using iPods to teach electrochemistry concepts for a general chemistry class, which was a lot of