May 4th JoEllen McBride gave a talk about how the Event Horizon Telescope took a picture of a black hole at the PV Planetarium Domefest. She also had a table set up to do Pocket Solar Systems.

On Friday, May 17th, Penn State Brandywine held its second STEM Options: Career Pathways for 9th grade girls program. Philly Pod member and PSUBW faculty member Laura Guertin is chair of the program. Two Philly pod members participated in a virtual graduate student panel during the event - Kathryn Riman and Amy Campbell.

JoEllen McBride gave a talk about how we discovered Dark Matter at the Astronomy Enthusiasts of Lancaster County meeting on September 11th.

Laura Guertin organized a full-day, campus-wide Climate Impact Teach-In at Penn State Brandywine on September 19, to get everyone to understand what it was they were marching for with the Global Climate Strike the next day!

Stef Kroll spoke on a panel for the screening of “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” by the Philadelphia Environmental Film festival at the Academy last Wednesday. The film is really impactful and will be available in January.

JoEllen McBride held a teach-in at noon in her office space on September 20th during the Climate Strike to go over effective ways to advocate for change and come up with asks for our employer to quickly transition away from fossil fuels. She also wrote a blog post for the Women in Astronomy blog titled The Means of Doing Science.

Laura Guertin was the GIST Guest Speaker on Saturday, November 2 at the American Helicopter Museum.

Dr. Laura Guertin was in charge of a program at the Penn State Navy Yard campus on Monday, November 25, where they welcomed 99(!) high school girls from Philly and the surrounding area for a day of STEM-themed workshops to learn about careers, and how to prepare for a college major in STEM. “I was thrilled to have my female and male faculty colleagues from Penn State Brandywine show up and lead programming, even though the campus is already on break for Thanksgiving. One of the student volunteers who was already home for break drove 2+ hours back to Philly so he could volunteer at the event. So much support for the next generation of women in STEM gives me hope for the future!”

Lauren Frazee gave a tour in Penn Treaty Park in Fishtown earlier this month for Wild Foodies of Philadelphia focused on Edible Wild Rosaceae (we safely foraged for crab apples, hawthorn berries, and rose hips!). They are a very active group and over 15 people attended plus 4 kids. Great fun!

Erin Reagan wrote a short piece about “Harrisburg Lobby Day for 500 Women Scientists Philly Pod” in the University of Pennsylvania’s PSPDG (Penn Science Policy & Diplomacy Group) December 2019 newsletter.

Laura Guertin (Earth Scientist at Penn State Brandywine) went to San Francisco at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, where among her presentations included a flash talk on doing STEM postcard advocacy with students and speaking at The Story Collider on her science storytelling through quilts.