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School of Earth Sciences Graduate Students Lead November Outreach Events

December 5, 2025

School of Earth Sciences Graduate Students Lead November 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 ou`treach events engaging students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Girl Scouts STEM Event

On November 8, grad club member Shannon Dixon organized a Girl Scouts of Ohio STEM activity for Cadettes through Ambassadors at Mendenhall Laboratory. Over 30 girls and their parents participated in rotating stations covering different Earth Science fields.

Graduate students each created their own station activities. Saffron Martin taught sedimentology, while Max Eshbaugh covered hydrology and Abigail Natoli explained natural hazards. Emerald Goldbaum and Denise Mondragon ran the polar geochemistry station together. Connor Hopps led paleontology activities, and Madison Schaefer taught about agriculture and contamination. Shannon Dixon and Isabelle Basden covered coral and marine science.

Batoul Saad helped at different stations throughout the event and led a crowd-favorite dry ice demonstration with fruit, using materials provided by the Griffith Laboratory. The event received partial funding through gift funds from OSU alumni.

Westerville Central High School Visits

On November 20 and 21, graduate students visited Westerville Central High School to share their academic and research journeys with students. Grad club officer Denise Mondragon and former officer Connor Hopps coordinated the two-day visit.

On Thursday, Max Eshbaugh, Emerald Goldbaum, Saffron Martin, Denise Mondragon, and Abigail Natoli presented to a geology class. The following day, Shannon Dixon, Connor Hopps, and Isabelle Basden visited an ecology class.

Each graduate student gave a short presentation about their path through high school, college, and graduate school before leading small group advice panels. Students asked questions about research experiences and fieldwork. Mondragon brought clothing, rocks, and videos from Antarctica to share with the class, giving students a hands-on look at polar research.

Teachers at Westerville Central High School were very happy with the visits and their impact on students.

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.