More than 250 students from Harford, Cecil and Baltimore Counties learned a lot about the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics that fuels what goes on inside the gates of Aberdeen Proving Ground South during the 2014 STEM Expo.
Technical experts in many fields from the U.S. Army Public Health Command contributed to the success of the TEAM APG STEM Expo Nov. 18.
Students from Perryville and North East high schools in Cecil County, Harford County's Edgewood and Fallston high schools, and the Paul L. Dunbar High School in Baltimore City attended the event at the Chemical Demilitarization Training Facility in APG South (Edgewood).
Suzanne Milchling, director of program integration for the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, welcomed the students and educators telling them about the interesting careers at APG.
Milchling said the scientists and engineers of Edgewood collaborate with each other as well as other agencies around the nation and the world on projects large and small to make the world a better place.
In addition, Lt. Col. Cindy Landgren, veterinarian and military deputy of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and former director of the Toxicology Portfolio at USAPHC, talked to the students about her career path and how much she enjoyed biology and the sciences.
A member of the team that is developing a vaccine for the Ebola Virus Disease, Lundgren shared how she started out as a veterinarian and never envisioned herself in a potentially life-saving position.
"Don't think that what you start out doing after high school or college is all you'll ever do," she said. "You never know what spark is going to take you to the next level. I had no clue where I would end up when I first joined the Army. But with the right training and education opportunities, I figured out over time that there are a lot of things I can do. And so can you."
The USAPHC experts featured hands-on demonstrations in areas from ergonomics and hearing to laboratory sciences and trash and recycling.
Col. Joanna Reagan, Health Promotion and Wellness Portfolio dietitian, armed with five pounds of sugar and a box of sugar cubes, challenged the students to guess how much sugar was found in various sodas and drinks that they consume every day while Maj. Thomas Jarrett, HPW behavioral health officer, led students through demonstrations about resiliency, thriving and health.
The epidemiology team, Esther Dada and Robert Cosgrove, had students looking at a fictional food-poisoning outbreak at a picnic. Students compared possible foods and who had eaten what foods to determine what caused the problem. The students saw how computers, mathematics and research were important to keeping people healthy in a real-world situation.
Students repeated words like "really neat," "WOW," "I didn't know that," and "this is great," according to Mary Nicholson a biology and environmental science teacher from North East High School in Cecil County.
"This was such a great opportunity for these students," Nicholson said. "They are really interested and engaged."
One of the hits of the expo was veterinarian, Dr. Rebecca Benisch, and her cat, Gandalf--as the students called him the "military working cat." Benisch not only explained what you needed to study to become a veterinarian, but she also showed students how to do a hands-on exam of Gandalf.
More than 20 technical experts from USAPHC provided the hands-on demonstrations, and all enjoyed the experience of interacting with the students. They agreed that it was a worthwhile event for all participants.
Other organizations participating with the USAPHC at the STEM Expo included ECBC; DTRA; Joint Program Manager-Elimination; Program Executive Office - Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives; Chemical Materials Activity; and the Army Educational Outreach Program.
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