Stanford cyclists shared their love of science this summer — and evolved as teachers

Beginning in 2017, a new Stanford Spokes team of six or seven undergraduates has assembled every summer to cycle across the country from the Stanford campus to Washington, D.C. The trip is marked by teamwork and physical challenge, steep mountain roads and long flat stretches, group decision-making and meals in hosts’ and families’ homes. It combines adventure with a teaching mission: the Spokes offer workshops on STEM topics along the way for pre-K through 12th grade students at day camps and libraries. This past summer, the 2024 Spokes team conducted eleven learning festivals in ten states and the nation's capital, as well as presenting a college Q&A panel with Boys Hope and Girls Hope of St. Louis. Overall, they connected with over 700 students in their 75 days on the road.

What they taught, what they learned

Here’s a glimpse into the lessons the Spokes created, and how they grew as teachers, this summer:

Hunter Liu, ’24

My workshop: Elephant toothpaste (biochemistry)

What I learned about teaching: One of the most interesting parts of teaching on the trip was adapting the lesson on the fly based on how engaged the children were, the age distribution of the children who actually showed up for the lesson, and so forth. Teaching four-year-olds about what can happen when things get mixed together was quite different from teaching high schoolers about the chemical reactions carried out by superoxide dismutase and catalase.

Eva Matentsian, ’27

My workshop: I taught a lesson on genetics through a hands-on activity where students extracted DNA from strawberries.

What I learned about teaching: A fun challenge throughout Spokes was adapting my workshop to various age groups, from 5-year-olds that had no clue what a cell was to high schoolers with advanced knowledge of mitosis. Also, I discovered that making anything a competition, such as seeing who could extract the most DNA, instantly boosted engagement!

Kawther Said, ’25

My workshop: Exploring agricultural sustainability through hands-on rice processing. 

What I learned about teaching: I had several components of my lesson: the discussion-based presentation that goes through more technical information about the climate impacts of agriculture, the rice processing activity, and the rice mosaic activity. I originally created my lesson to just be about rice processing. Still, I found myself adding the other components over time because I wanted to be able to go more in-depth depending on my audience. Because of this, I could easily tweak my lesson to be more age-appropriate by forgoing or adding a component. For younger children, I focused more on the artistic expression component of my lesson, allowing them to make rice mosaics while I asked them questions about the environment. For older children, I spent most of the lesson going through the presentation with them and then doing the rice processing activity. I found gauging the students’ general attitude during the first few minutes of the lesson helped me make better decisions about how to approach the lesson.

Ethan David Scott, ’27

My workshop: I taught a physics spaceship escape room. The kids had to use their knowledge of the laws of physics and the workings of electricity, circuits, pressure, and other physical and puzzle intuition to fix the spaceship before it crashed into the earth. 

What I learned about teaching: As we went along, I kept adding new puzzles and tweaking the original ones so that there would be lots of storylines for kids of different learning styles or interests to follow! It was fun to add spaceship "roles" like "Mechanic" or "Comms" and let them have fun with those.

Jonathan Tubb, ’27

My workshop: My lesson was on the chemistry of rockets.

What I learned about teaching: Teaching along the Spokes journey taught me that often, letting kids get their hands (and occasionally clothing, whoops!) dirty is often the first step to building understanding. To me, it was more impactful to teach why the rockets were flying than to simply tell students how to make them fly, even if that meant a little trial, error, and experimentation was needed to get them in the air.

Will Yu, ’27

My workshop: Psychology of slime — students made slime while learning about mindfulness, oxytocin, and the nervous system.

What I learned about teaching: Building a balanced relationship with students — one that combines professional authority with friendliness — is key to effective teaching. Also, incorporating mindfulness exercises at the start of lessons truly helps students focus on the material! Towards the end of the trip, I introduced progressive muscle relaxation, a mindfulness technique, prior to my slime-making and psychology workshop. I noticed that students were more focused and better understood my instructions and the content.

Photos from the 2024 Stanford Spokes science workshops

You can click on a photo to see it at full size and then use your arrow keys to advance through the collection. All photos below are courtesy of the Stanford Spokes. For a thorough record of the team’s experiences, explore the 2024 Spokes blog and Instagram channel.

Stanford Digital Education has proudly sponsored the Spokes since 2023. Other supporters include Campus Bike Shop, Stanford Athletics, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, the Haas Center for Public Service, and Stanford Medicine, as well as individual donors. The Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation (DAPER) generously loaned the support van.

Photo credit for Stanford Spokes headshots: Aaron Kehoe