seed2STEM is a summer research program for Indigenous high school students in Metro Vancouver and Kelowna, with the goal of increasing Indigenous participation in STEM fields. This summer, two EOAS groups hosted students for the first time: the Pacific Museum of Earth (PME) and Dr. Rachel White’s Climate Dynamics group, offering earth science perspectives to the program. As a researcher, the work that seed2STEM does felt like an important contribution towards reconciliation for Rachel White, who stressed the significance of “helping Indigenous high school students see what we actually do here.” 

seed2STEM reduces both tangible and perceived participation barriers—students are paid for their work, financial support for homestays is available for participants from outside the region, and careful student-mentor pairings along with weekly research-focused group activities foster community among the program participants, alumni, and supporters. The program has been running since 2018, beginning with a single student in spinal cord injury research at ICORD. Internships now include neuroscience, engineering, chemistry, biology, math, physics, and, new this year, earth science. 

Returning participants Catalina Claxton and Ila Joseph, who were paired with mentors Oli Beeby and Tirpat Sekhon at the PME, were thrilled to explore non-traditional ways of engaging with science. They primarily worked on displays in the PME gallery—Catalina’s on wildfires and Ila’s on ocean conservation—applying their artistic skills to contribute to science communication at the museum. 

Thatcher Bradshaw, a grade 10 student participating in the program, was paired with graduate students Taylor Swift-Lapointe and Lualawi Mareshet Admasu in the Climate Dynamics Group. Thatcher quickly learned and applied coding skills to earth science data, culminating in an impressive final project on long-term cold spell prevalence in BC. 

At the end of the six-week internship, the students presented their work at a poster session at ICORD, where students could show off what they learned and mentors could be wowed by all the work done across the seed2STEM program. This was just the final event in the array of programming that seed2STEM provided its participants. Notably for Catalina and the PME, a guest speaker on cultural burning and Indigenous wildfire management practices inspired Catalina to include additional content in her wildfire display—material she, and certainly the PME, might not have encountered otherwise.

Working with high school students was a unique opportunity for the mentors to learn from as well. “There are concepts that we learned during undergrad and then into graduate school that you kind of take for granted—you forget that you didn’t know what that was at one point… It was pretty fun just to go back to basics,” shared Taylor Swift-Lapointe. This sentiment was echoed by all the mentors interviewed. Oli Beeby noted that the PME was drawn to the program partly to strengthen its connection with young people. Working with an engaged high-school student for an extended period provides a unparalleled opportunity to refine how you explain your work. 

We’ll end with a quote from Lualawi, who captured perfectly why others should consider hosting a seed2STEM intern in the future:

“’Its quite enriching doing these programs—not even just the sense of contributing to the community and letting students see what you could do in science, but it’s also a really fun experience. There are really bright minds out there. They have really interesting ideas that you haven’t thought about because it’s very fresh minds coming to the program.” 

If you are interested in potentially participating in the seed2STEM program please visit https://icord.org/seed2stem/projects/ to learn about the timeline and process for hosting a student.

Read more about seed2STEM and other organisations and departments participating in it: ICORD-main program description, ICORD-program growth, DMCBH, BCCHR, UBC, UBC-City of Vancouver Leadership in Reconciliation Award