Interview With Teresa Barnett

Teresa Barnett

Executive Director of Community Resources for Science (CRS)

Q: What is your name, your pronouns, and how do you engage with science or science learning?

A: Teresa Barnett, and I use she/her pronouns. I’m the Executive Director of Community Resources for Science (CRS). I engage by supporting efforts to empower both teachers and scientists to bring science to life for children in classrooms, particularly in elementary classrooms, where teachers don’t get a lot of training or ongoing support around science. Teachers themselves often view science as that scary spider in the corner, and they’re just going to ignore it. So we want to give teachers really exciting personal opportunities to discover science in their own lives, to have discovery experiences, and to have things that make their own light bulbs go off, so they’re motivated to bring those experiences to their students.

Q: What is your connection to The Lawrence?

A: CRS is in our 29th year, so we’ll soon be celebrating our 30th year. We’ve had a strong partnership with folks at The Lawrence from almost the very beginning, working with teachers and helping them find resources in the community, whether it’s professional development or field trips. We’ve collaborated on a number of special events at The Lawrence over the years and professional development. Just this summer, we collaborated with the Bay Area Science Project and did a professional development around integration of science, language arts, and math.

On the personal side, it goes back to my childhood of coming to Lawrence Hall on field trips. One of my favorite parts was the hallways downstairs — regardless of what program we were coming for, there were these little activities in the corners and hallways where you could stop and puzzle your way through and figure something out. That ability to figure something out is so powerful. When kids have those experiences, they feel empowered — like, “I want to do more of this.” I had those first-hand experiences as a kid, and I still remember them.

Q: What relationships, traditions, or collaborations help make your work possible?

A: At our heart, our work at CRS is being a connector. We work with classroom teachers — it’s our mission to strengthen their ability to teach science. We do that by weaving connections throughout the community and helping scientists who want to come and share their science. How do you talk about a concept in climate change that you’re researching with 8-year-olds? We connect with those scientists, and they get excited when they come into classrooms, share their pathways, and talk about what makes them excited about science.

We also build connections with the rich community of science centers and community science education in the Bay Area. We help teachers find what they’re looking for, and we help partners let teachers know what’s available.

Q: How does your work make science more engaging, accessible, and/or inclusive?

A: That’s a big part of our work, for both teachers and children in classrooms. The main two ways we make it inclusive are, first, providing experiential learning opportunities for teachers so it demystifies science and helps teachers gain confidence and knowledge for teaching science. Teachers are bound by other tested subjects where the answer’s in the back of the book and you don’t want to be wrong. Science is about asking questions, so we build confidence so teachers start to see themselves as capable and excited about teaching science.

Second, for students, we bring in scientists and engineers and other people who can say, “Wow, you had a really good idea,” “That’s a good question,” “I don’t know the answer — how can we try to find that out?” We show students that science is in their daily lives. If their parents work as gardeners or in restaurants cooking food, what’s the science in those things they do every day? Helping students discover their own inner scientists is a big focus for us. We love getting thank you notes when a kid writes, “Dear UC Berkeley engineers, thank you for coming to my class and teaching us about engineering. Now when I grow up to become an engineer, I know exactly what to do.” They’ve already put themselves in there.

It’s also important for scientists to gain experience communicating in a way that is inclusive and helps people understand it. They are role models for students. The majority of folks in our outreach programs identify as a person of color, or as a woman, or as someone underrepresented in STEM. For them, it’s important to bring that experience into classrooms — either because they benefited from it or they wish they had when they were younger.

Q: What advice would you have for young people who feel like science isn’t for them?

A: The reality of the world we’re living in right now is that everyone needs scientific literacy. If you want to become an athlete, or a musician, or work in design, fashion, literature, the arts — almost any field that isn’t thought of as STEM — you’re going to need to understand issues around climate. You’ll need to understand how to access and interpret data and use technology.

Future pathways will require some degree of literacy and comfort, and it’s nothing to be afraid of. Students should find their connections to it, explore their pathways and interests. The connection is there to something you’re interested in. For example, even if you aren’t going to be an NBA player, there are science connections all around: running sound systems, lighting systems, designing arenas, sports training, physical therapy, and more.

Q: What would the world be like if everyone felt welcome in science and felt that connection?

A: I think we wouldn’t see some of the problems we see playing out, because science is based on critical thinking — asking questions, asking for evidence, and thinking critically about information to make decisions. With social media and AI, it seems like people want to tap in a few things and have an answer appear, or something that triggers anger or fear. You see the harm that comes from that when people don’t have the skills to step back and think critically: Where’s the data? What’s the information? Who’s trying to influence me, and how can I get more information to make a decision? Science brings critical thinking skills.

Q: Do you have a science hero? Who is your science hero?

A: My science heroes are the teachers that we work with. To see a teacher go from, “I’m kind of afraid, I know I should teach it,” to “Oh my gosh, this is so cool, I need to do more of this in my classroom.” Many become peer coaches and help run professional development, or run their own with same grade-level teachers in their district. They go from being afraid, to excited, to being ambassadors to other teachers. They show up every day for their students and are constantly thinking about how to bring more of this to their students. They’re my heroes.

Q: What is your favorite thing about science, and why?

A: Science is about asking questions. It’s about making meaning, and figuring out. It’s about telling stories as we try to understand the world we live in. That’s what I love about science. Science is all around us, it’s part of everything we do. The more we try to understand the world we live in, it helps us build understanding and build that story of ourselves and our communities. Science is about asking questions and pursuing curiosity, and knowing that there are ways to systematically build an understanding of something you’re curious about.