Eighteen fifth-graders from Hendley Elementary School in Washington, D.C., visited the Library’s Young Readers Center this week to test the scientific method under the direction of Dr. Svetlana Kotliarova, a cancer researcher who is now a scientific review officer at the National Institutes of Health. She talked about her difficult childhood in Ufa, Russia, her education, and the scientific process. Who can become a scientist? she asked the children. Anyone with passion, curiosity and persistence, she told them.
The students left with a copy of “Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World” by Rachel Ignotofsky. The book was provided by the event’s cosponsor, Everybody Wins! DC, a nonprofit that promotes children’s literacy.
Everybody Wins! is a longtime partner of the Library’s Center for the Book, and Library staff members have served as reading mentors to students at a nearby elementary school for the past seven years.
Comments
Such an important, experimental program especially for girls to imagine themselves as real scientists. Women scientists inspire! Thank you to the Library of Congress for promoting these connections!