UTRGV-Starr County Scientist Dioramas at Rio Grande City Library

The creation of the dioramas stems from the idea that many scientists are often unknown mainly because they may be Hispanic, African American, Asian or Women. These minority scientists are the focus of the dioramas for a UTRGV at Starr County course entitled, Teaching Science to Elementary Students. Each university student was given a specific scientist to research enough information to create a diorama that would encourage young elementary students to think about science as a field of study.

Dr. Richard Irizarry provided a list of 28 scientists to the 28 students in the class, distributed on a random basis. The students need to understand the challenges and the contributions of these minority scientists to create an attractive diorama from a basic shoebox to display the talents and the relative importance of the scientist.

Jocelynn Garza, the Cohort IX President, and a member of the class researched Dr. Helen Rodriguez - Trías who was the scientist assigned to her. Jocelynn stated, “I never heard of this scientist, let alone that she was a Latina doctor. I had no idea what to expect when I started researching this scientist. To me, a scientist is someone who wears a lab coat and conducts continuous experiments in a science lab or someone who goes to the moon.” She added that Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trías, on the other hand, was an incredible woman who helped so many people in poverty but focused more on women. She founded the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse as well as the Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse. She was the voice of many women who had unwanted pregnancies or who tested positive for HIV. While conducting the diorama, Jocelynn and others noted that they had so fun much learning about an amazing Latina or a minority scientist. “My classmates and I each had a different scientist, and it was a great way to showcase our creativity through a shoebox while also informing students about our scientist. It was like a show and tell, but in a university classroom.” We are proud to be able to display our student’s creativity in the Rio Grande City Public Library.