Hannah Dion-Kirschner lecture at Caltech (Photo – Pat Smith)
As I walked over to Caltech’s Beckman auditorium on the morning of April 11, I thought I was going to see one of Caltech’s genius lectures. What I got was so much more!
By Patricia Smith
It was a genius lecture. The speaker was graduate student Hannah Dion-Kirschner, her topic “How Soil Microbes Help Us Fight Climate Change.” Many Caltech audiences run the gamut all the way up to white-haired, retired intelligentsia, but this audience was mainly four schools of fifth and sixth graders. As the speaker took them on a journey from microscopic microbes in dirt all the way up to the limits of our atmosphere, the students rode right along. Dion-Kirschner told them how her playing of the piano was just like science: from idea to hypothesis to testing the hypothesis…over and over again. The scientific method became clear. Practice, practice, practice.
She explained microbes’ role and even played the piano. When a smiling teacher changed places with a squirming student, the learning process continued. And, in the last 15 minutes, students asked intelligent, probing questions, which the speaker praised and answered fully and clearly.
These students will remember today’s journey, and so will I. Caltech, you are doing a great job.
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