Meet Our CyberGuides: Riding the Rubric

Getting to Know Our Guides

Each year, eCYBERMISSION has the pleasure of working with many volunteers that sign up as CyberGuides for our program. CyberGuides are STEM professionals, both civilian and active military duty, that join our program to provide online assistance to our eCM teams. They also can serve as Ambassadors and spread the word about eCM in their local communities. 

For our upcoming chat on Thursday, September 20th at 5 PM E.T., we wanted to sit down with our two CyberGuides, Bruce Elliot and Jeffrey Gillispie and get to know how they came to be in their respective STEM fields and why they think its important to encourage today's youth to think about STEM as a career path.

Meet: Bruce Elliot

How did you begin your career in STEM?

I became interested in Microbiology in 10^th grade when we had a bacteriology unit in Biology class. I had a wonderful teacher, a PhD, who fostered my interest and who got me a university internship my senior year. From there I majored in Microbiology at the Ohio State University and then transitioned into Immunology and received my PhD from the University of Illinois.

What have been your greatest accomplishments in the STEM field?

Now that I’m retired, I can look back on my career. I’ve been a researcher, a college instructor, and lastly Executive Director of the Office for Sponsored Research at the Northwestern University Medical School. By far, research administration is the area that gave me the most satisfaction and in which I feel I had the most accomplishments at both the local and national levels.

How many years have you participated with eCYBERMISSION?

Four years. One as a virtual judge and three as a CyberGuide.

What are some of the benefits of participating in the eCYBERMISSION program?

For me, I get a great deal of satisfaction in helping young students with what is likely their first experience in scientific research. Understanding the content of middle school science courses is quite different from learning how scientific research and the scientific method are used to understand the natural world, and hopefully the students will have a broader view of science after having the eCybermission experience. This is certainly their first encounter with a juried science fair so this is the time to emphasize the importance of their project and provide useful critiques that show the teams how other scientists would peer-review their project. If it’s done in an encouraging manner, many of the students who participate in eCybermission will continue on with an interest in science.

Why do you think it is important to encouraging STEM careers to today’s youth?

The complexities of today’s world require all people to be equipped with a new set of core knowledge and skills to solve difficult problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information they receive from varied media. The learning and doing of STEM helps develop these skills and prepare students for a workforce where success results not just from what one knows, but what one is able to do with that knowledge. Those graduates who have practical and relevant STEM precepts embedded into their educational experiences will be in high demand in demand not only in traditional STEM occupations, but in nearly all job sectors and types of positions.  (https://innovation.ed.gov/what-we-do/stem/)

Meet: Jeff Gillispie

How did you begin your career in STEM?
I am a STEM advocate. I have been around STEM since 8^th grade. Most people don’t believe that they will be using STEM outside of school, but I will promise you that you will see bits and pieces of STEM everywhere in your life. This could be buying groceries, starting families, building or renovating a house or project, college, payroll, etc.

What have been your greatest accomplishments in the STEM field?

I have helped guide over 40 students and advisors to the STEM area in a single year. I help teach students or others some things that I know or have learned in reference to STEM. I am consistently looking for ways to continue bringing more students and advisors into the STEM program. 

How many years have you participated with eCYBERMISSION?

I have helped guide over 40 students and advisors to the STEM area in a single year. I help teach students or others some things that I know or have learned in reference to STEM. I am consistently looking for ways to continue bringing more students and advisors into the STEM program. 

What are some of the benefits of participating in the eCYBERMISSION program?

 eCYBERMISSION is a great program for a few reasons. It gives you the chance to look at a “bigger” picture of things that go on in your “community”. This “community” can be as small as your neighborhood or school, to as large as your state, country, or global. It gives students a chance to get some money for college, as their rates go up, every dollar helps. eCYBERMISSION also gives students the chance to build necessary skills they will need later in life, even if the students don’t know it yet.

Why do you think it is important to encouraging STEM careers to today’s youth?

Over the last 20 years of my life, I have seen STEM just grow. My first internet connection was “Dial-up”, using a phone line to connect to the internet, my first cell phone was a “NOKIA”, and my first computer was a “Windows 95” operating system. These items have grown and improved rapidly into touchscreens, portable computers, tablets, smartphones and more. These items will only continue to get better and it will only become a bigger piece of your life as the years go on. All I ask is that we don’t create “Skynet”. 

You can get more from Bruce and Jeff Thursday, September 20th, 2018 as they join the "Riding the Rubric" CyberGuide chat at 5 PM ET. During this chat, they take an in-depth look at eCYBERMISSION's scoring rubric and help participating teams determine how to use it to their advantage! Click here to join in!