The Process of Choosing Featured Scientists and STEM Careers
This blog post is part of the Super Cool Scientists FAQ Series, where we answer some of the most common questions about the project.
A popular question that comes up from people after they’ve read the Super Cool Scientists books is:
How did you choose which scientists and STEM careers to feature?
Honestly, it was a mix. I found out about some of their work through my professional network of science folks, researched online for others working in certain fields I wanted to highlight, and a very few of them, I knew personally. It was important for me to highlight a range of STEM career fields and a diverse group of individuals.
My goal was to have anyone who picked up one the books be able to connect with a feature story—whether through the biography or the coloring page illustration.
Thinking back on one particular memory of how I picked the featured scientists makes me smile and laugh. I remember at one point looking at an excel sheet of several dozen names and realizing that more than half of them were marine scientists or oceanographers.
I was a marine biology major and that bias showed up prominently in that list. Now, that would have been fine if the book were about celebrating specifically water-based science fields. But this first book was meant to be a celebration of the full range of careers in STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
My research continued, and that excel sheet ended up with a diverse representation of STEM fields that would be featured in the book, and a list of marine scientists saved for future projects.
Some of the STEM careers represented in the Super Cool Scientists books include:
Anthropologist
Biochemist
Cognitive Scientist
Doctor of Medicine
Environmental Engineer
Mathematician
Paleontologist
Physicist
Systems Engineer, and of course,
Oceanographer
Once I had the list of possible people, I drafted an email to tell them a little about me and about the project idea, and then asked if they’d be interested in being a part of it. I sent out cold emails with this gut shiver of imposter syndrome. What if they all say no? Can I really do this?
Luckily though, that feeling didn’t last long. A handful of people never responded and a couple did say no, but overwhelmingly, the possible people became actual featured scientists. They enthusiastically said yes to being interviewed and expressed support for the project in general.
They wanted copies for their kids. They talked about going to buy the new skin color variety pack of crayons so their kids could color their pages to “look like mommy.”
Those initial yes answers from that original group of Super Cool Scientists validated my idea. I knew I had to make it a reality. This was something important, something bigger than me and my nerves. It was that group’s resounding and excited positive response that pushed us onto the next step—the interviews.