Education

David Dussort and his Seconde 6 students at Sainte Marie Bastide High School in Bordeaux, France, participated in the U.S. Embassy in Paris and Smithsonian’s cross-cultural program #SmithsonianInFrance. Learn more about their experience and how the lessons have shaped their way of thinking globally and acting locally.

——————————

Can you describe your participation in the #SmithsonianInFrance program and tell us about a few highlights?

U.S. Ambassador to the French Republic and to the Principality of Monaco, Denise Campbell Bauer. 

Can you tell us how this partnership between the Smithsonian and U.S. Embassy Paris came about?

The Embassy of the United States of America in France and the Smithsonian Institution (Office of International Relations, Smithsonian Science Education Center, and Earth Optimism) have developed a unique program that allows students, educators, and professionals to reach across the globe to explore and discuss new approaches for living, learning, and working more inclusively and sustainably.

Smithsonian Science Education Center volunteer Pam Divack sat down with Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos from Johns Hopkins Medical Center and Dr. Melvenia Martin from Ochsner Health to discuss their experiences leading COVID-19 vaccine education in their communities.  

Below are their biggest pieces of advice and suggestions for how healthcare leaders can collaborate with their communities to advance youth-focused vaccine education, and how they use the Smithsonian Science Education Center’s Vaccines! guide in their communities.  

Adult male mayflies have greatly enlarged eyes, which they use to locate females in the mating swarms. Photo: Dave Funk, Stroud Water Research Center

Mating Dance

In 2021, the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) released the “Vaccines!: How can we use science to help our community make decisions about vaccines?” community response guide. The guide is designed to help young people learn about vaccines, share their knowledge with their community, create tangible ways to help their community make informed decisions in this challenging time, and understand the best places to find additional information on the topic.

Vaccines for kids are here.

On Friday, October 29, FDA authorized Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for young people ages 5-11, and on November 2, CDC issued recommendations that all eligible children should get vaccinated. As a result, young people are now able to receive their COVID-19 vaccines.

However, many parents are still hesitant to vaccinate their kids. New data from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that only 27% of parents in the U.S. say they will get their children ages 5 to 11 vaccinated “right away,” and 30% say they “definitely won’t.”

Holly Baldwin is a professional development provider who specializes in elementary science education for OCM BOCES—an organization that supports more than 20 school districts in New York through their science program. Baldwin works directly with teachers to provide professional development on the Smithsonian Science for the Classroom program (SSftC).

This World Youth Skills Day, Johnson & Johnson’s Women in STEM2D youth program is excited to spotlight Sharon Edelman, a Phoenixville, PA native. She currently studies at Millersville University where she is a Junior majoring in biology with a concentration in pre-optometry.

Sharon is an active participant in Johnson & Johnson’s Pathway to Success program, the college-level follow-on program to J&J’s Bridge to Employment program.