Carnegie Academy for Science Education

Scientific literacy is now recognized to be crucial for our nation's progress in the 21st century.

The Carnegie Institution, a pre-eminent basic research organization, has fostered the development of scientific knowledge since the early 20th century. For many years, this meant the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the Institution's laboratories, located in Washington, DC and around the country.

In 1989, Maxine Singer, then president of Carnegie, founded First Light, a Saturday science school for children. This was the start of the Carnegie Academy for Science Education (CASE) whose goal is to encourage interest in science among school children and teachers in Washington, DC. First Light remains a lively program for children.

Since 1994, CASE has offered professional development for DC teachers of science, mathematics and technology. Emphasis in all programs is on inquiry-based, hands-on approaches to learn and teach the processes and content of school science. For more click here

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DC STEM Network to Share $1-Million Award in STEM Coalition Challenge
May 21, 2018

Washington, D.C. –The DC STEM Network is one of eight groups to win the US2020’s 2018 STEM Coalition Challenge. The Challenge was a nationwide competition for communities toincrease hands-on STEM mentoring and maker-centered learning to underrepresented students. The winners were announced at the Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA, last week. The DC STEM Network will receive a share of a $1 million award which will support further innovative, STEM-based learning for Washington, DC students.

The Network was selected from 92 applications from 35 states, representing more than 1,800 nonprofits, companies, school districts, and local government partners. The Network is

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Exciting Trip for DC Grand Prize Winners to International STEM Fair!
April 23, 2018

Washington, DC — On Saturday, March 17, middle and high school students in the nation’s capital showed off their science and math skills in a full-day celebration of STEM education and innovation at Ron Brown College Preparatory High School. More than 100 local students participated in the 2018 DC STEM Fair, where they presented their own science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) projects to a group of 80 volunteer judges, including representatives from local universities, STEM professional organizations, research institutions, and STEM employer groups.

Three DC high school students were selected as grand prize winners of the DC STEM Fair’s Senior

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DC STEM Network Finalist in Nationwide STEM Coalition Challenge
January 16, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C. – US2020, a  nationwide network of more than 350 organizations to advance the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields, chose the DC STEM Network as one of 15 finalists for the STEM Coalition Challenge.  Ninety-two partner networks, working to advance STEM mentoring and learning to underrepresented students, competed. The finalists will compete for $1-million in resources to implement their innovative approaches to STEM teaching and learning.  

The DC STEM Network is a collaboration between the Carnegie Science’s education arm, Carnegie Academy for Science Education (CASE) and the DC Office of the State Superintendent of

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DC STEM Network chosen to accelerate advancement of STEM education; Marlena Jones named LEAD STEM fellow
October 3, 2017

Washington, DC—Marlena L. Jones, Acting Director of Carnegie Academy for Science Education (CASE) and the DC STEM Network has been accepted as one of 22 fellows in the inaugural class of LEAD STEM, a new national leadership development experience designed to empower and arm individuals with high level skills to shape the future of STEM education in the U.S. Fellows are meeting in person for the first time today in Kansas City, MO as part of the STEM Learning Ecosystems National Community of Practice Convening.

Carnegie Science has been committed to hands-on science and STEM education in Washington, DC, for almost three decades through CASE programs. In 2014, CASE partnered

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Advanced Education Programs

Carnegie is renowned for its post-doctoral and graduate student fellowship programs, which operate on each of the Carnegie campuses. Our fellows participate fully in the institution’s vigorous intellectual life, and have complete access to the laboratory instruments and facilities at the institution. The fellowships are extremely competitive, and are prized for their independence and for the resources they afford the fellows. The fellowships vary in duration depending on the research area. Each fellow is key to ehnancing the Carnegie mission and expanding Carnegie's influence of unfettered, imaginative scientific research into the next generations.  For information about

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Math for America DC

Fifty years ago, Americans led the world in math and science, claiming some of the most important inventions and technological breakthroughs of the 20th century.  Today, American 15-year-olds rank 25th in math compared to their peers worldwide.  Math ƒor America DC strives to reclaim America’s reputation for scientific greatness by recruiting and supporting the very best secondary education math teachers.

Here in Washington DC, the majority of secondary school students are not math proficient.  Only about two thirds of secondary school math teachers are fully certified.Our goals follow:

Recruit candidates with strong math knowledge and teaching
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BioEYES

Together with Dr. Jamie Shuda, Steve Farber created a Science Outreach Program, Project BioEYES, that incorporates life science and laboratory education using zebrafish. The outreach program has two main components: educating teachers through hands-on training and tours of our zebrafish facility, and bringing the zebrafish to K-12th grade classrooms for hands-on experiments. The program teaches students about science literacy, genetics, the experimental process, and the cardiovascular system through the use of live zebrafish.

The mission of BioEYES is to foster an enthusiasm for science education, promote interest for future participation in a biology-related field, and allow all

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Moises Exposito-Alonso

Evolutionary geneticist Moises Exposito-Alonso joined the Department of Plant Biology as a staff associate in September 2019. He investigates whether and how plants will evolve to keep pace with climate change by conducting large-scale ecological and genome sequencing experiments. He also develops computational methods to derive fundamental principles of evolution, such as how fast natural populations acquire new mutations and how past climates shaped continental-scale biodiversity patterns. His goal is to use these first principles and computational approaches to forecast evolutionary outcomes of populations under climate change to anticipate potential future

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Kamena Kostova

Staff Associate Kamena Kostova joined the Department of Embryology in November 2018. She studies ribosomes, the factory-like structures inside cells that produce proteins. Scientists have known about ribosome structure, function, and biogenesis for some time. But, a major unanswered question is how cells monitor the integrity of the ribosome itself. Problems with ribosomes have been associated with diseases including neurodegeneration and cancer. The Kostova lab investigates the fundamental question of how cells respond when their ribosomes break down using mass spectrometry, functional genomics methods, and CRISPR genome editing.

Kostova received a B.S. in Biology from the

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Sally June Tracy

Sally June Tracy applies cutting-edge experimental and analytical techniques to understand the fundamental physical behavior of materials at extreme conditions. She uses dynamic compression techniques with high-flux X-ray sources to probe the structural changes and phase transitions in materials at conditions that mimic impacts and the interiors of terrestrial and exoplanets. She is also an expert in nuclear resonant scattering and synchrotron X-ray diffraction. She uses these techniques to understand novel behavior at the electronic level.  Tracy received her Ph.D. from the California Institute of

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William Ludington

The Ludington lab investigates complex ecological dynamics from microbial community interactions using the fruit fly  Drosophila melanogaster. The fruit fly gut carries numerous microbial species, which can be cultured in the lab. The goal is to understand the gut ecology and how it relates to host health, among other questions, by taking advantage of the fast time-scale and ease of studying the fruit fly in controlled experiments. 
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