Come hear about Dr. del Barco’s commitment to include the most diverse population of students in STEM fields and in scientific research. Dr. del Barco’s past projects include a no-cost physics summer camp for high-school students, a new service-learning Nanoscience Minor, and a collaborative Physical Science capstone research course within the Physics and Chemistry departments of the Florida Consortium of Metropolitan Universities (UCF-USF-FIU). Del Barco has received several recognitions and awards for his educational activities, including the UCF Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching award, two TIPs and two Scholarship of Teaching and Learning awards.
“When I joined UCF, I started my independent research project to explore how nature works at the nanoscale – a fascinating world that I have had the privilege and means to get involved with. But I also started to teach and to get in contact with students, and I quickly realized about the lack of diversity in STEM, particularly in some fields within (like Physics or Engineering). What really made me change my mind and dedicate some efforts into convincing underrepresented minorities to get involved in these amazing fields of study was the births of my son and daughter. I raised the following question in my mind: What if they want to become scientists? Do we have all in place to make this as easy for them as for other groups? When I looked around I did not see that. I still don’t see that, but we are trying to get there.”
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