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Earth Sciences Graduate Students Lead Successful K-12 Outreach Events

December 5, 2025

Earth Sciences Graduate Students Lead Successful K-12 Outreach Events

This shows the graduate students who presented and visited on Thursday for the Westerville central high school visit.

This November, the School of Earth Sciences Graduate Student Club, led by Noah Gronewold, Matthew Idzakovich, and Denise Mondragon, hosted two outreach events with students ranging in age from k-12. 

On November 8th, 2025, Grad club member Shannon Dixon led the a Girl Scouts of Ohio STEM activity event for Cadettes - ambassadors. We welcomed over 30 girls along with parents to Mendenhall Laboratory. We educated students on different topics of Earth Science. We had rotating stations with activities for students to learn about different fields of study in Earth Science. The stations were led by graduate students. Saffron Martin (MS student) led the sedimentology station, Max Eshbaugh (PhD Student) led the hydrology station, Abigail Natoli (PhD Student) led the natural hazards station, Emerald Goldbaum (MS Student) & Denise Mondragon (PhD Student) led the polar geochemistry station, Connor Hopps (PhD student) led the paleontology station, Madison Schaefer (MS Student) led the agriculture and contamination station, Shannon Dixon (PhD Student) and Isabelle Basden (PhD Student) led the coral and marine science station, Batoul Saad (PhD Student) helped different stations and led a dry ice demonstration with fruit. Thank you to the Griffith Laboratory for the dry ice they provided. Each graduate student created their own station activities and students had a great time. Thank you for gift funds from OSU alumni for supporting some of the materials used for this outreach event. (see pictures attached for event)

On November 20th and 21st, Grad club officer, Denise Mondragon and former grad club officer Connor Hopps led the Westerville Central High School visit for graduate students on Thursday and Friday, respectively. On Thursday, Max Eshbaugh (PhD student), Emerald Goldbaum (MS student), Saffron Martin (MS student), Denise Mondragon (PhD student), and Abigail Natoli (PhD student) visited a geology class. The next day, Shannon Dixon (PhD student), Connor Hopps (PhD student), and Isabelle Basden (PhD student) visited an ecology class. Each student gave a brief presentation of their high school, college, and graduate school career paths. Then, they led small group advice panels, answering questions about their research and fieldwork experiences. Teachers at Westerville Central High school were very happy with the visits.

 

This image shows Madison Schaefer leading an activity abou contaminant transport in aquifers. See how a contaminant spreads between grains, pull contaminated water from a “well”, and filter it through activated carbon.
This image shows Madison Schaefer leading an activity abou contaminant transport in aquifers. See how a contaminant spreads between grains, pull contaminated water from a “well”, and filter it through activated carbon. 
This image shows Denise Mondragon and Emerald Goldbaum leading a polar research activity. They had students make ice cores and explain the different things that you can find trapped in them.
This image shows Denise Mondragon and Emerald Goldbaum leading a polar research activity. They had students make ice cores and explain the different things that you can find trapped in them. 
Batoul Saad doing a dry ice activity where she poured dry ice on fruit and then broke it on the floor.
Batoul Saad doing a dry ice activity where she poured dry ice on fruit and then broke it on the floor. 
This is an image of one of the high school students at Westerville Central High School wearing a big red jacket and bunny boots, attire worn by scientists in Antarctica. Presenter, Denise Mondragon, brought clothes, rocks, and videos from Antarctica to share with students.
This is an image of one of the high school students at Westerville Central High School wearing a big red jacket and bunny boots, attire worn by scientists in Antarctica. Presenter, Denise Mondragon, brought clothes, rocks, and videos from Antarctica to share with students. 
This shows the graduate students who presented and visited on Thursday for the Westerville central high school visit.
This shows the graduate students who presented and visited on Thursday for the Westerville central high school visit.