Welcome to the family STEM newsletter. You will find information about famous people in STEM, upcoming STEM events, STEM careers and fun activities to try at home. Take this opportunity to experiment, have fun, and share new learning with your family!

The first Friday of May celebrates all of the great achievements we have made in space. This year it falls on May 3, 2024. Check out the video below to learn about the different branches of the government and how they are working in space.

Nilanga Jayasinghe

Manager, Asian Species, Wildlife Conservation

• Nilanga Jayasinghe is a manager on the Wildlife Conservation team at WWF and focuses on Asian species, particularly elephants, rhinos, tigers, and snow leopards. She has more than 20 years of extensive experience in international species conservation and has worked on conservation issues across the board in Asia, Africa, and North America.
• Her areas of expertise include human-wildlife conflict management, Asian elephants, strategic planning, connectivity conservation, protected area management, and capacity building, among others. Nilanga is the WWF Network’s lead on Asian Elephants and co-lead of the WWF Network’s human-wildlife conflict working group. She is also a member of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group (AsESG), the Asian Rhino Specialist Group (AsRSG), and the Pangolin Specialist Group under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Species Survival Commission (SSC), and a member of the Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group under the IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas.
• In her role, Nilanga works with WWF teams and partners in more than 15 countries in Asia to further conservation efforts on the ground for WWF’s priority flagship species. She provides technical support for species conservation, manages numerous projects with field teams, and mobilizes resources to accomplish conservation activities. In addition, she works with global partners to develop and implement initiatives that harmonize species conservation with broader conservation goals.
• Prior to WWF, Nilanga gained experience in both terrestrial and marine conservation issues through her work with Defenders of Wildlife and Oceana. She developed expertise in human-wildlife conflict management during her time at Defenders of Wildlife where she worked on coexistence issues pertaining to North American species, as well as through her volunteer work with Ewaso Lions, a lion conservation organization based in northern Kenya that addresses human-carnivore conflict through research and community engagement. In addition, Nilanga was also part of the 2007/2008 class of the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders program through which she had the opportunity to engage in okapi conservation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Whittier College and a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Credit: https://www.worldwildlife.org/experts/nilanga-jayasinghe

Did you know that National Paper Airplane Day is May 26th? Some believe the paper airplane originated over 2,000 years ago. Paper airplanes provide engagement along with lots of fun. Read The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers. In this story, animals' home begin to disappear. The have some clues as to who has done it. Read to find out if the animals can solve the mystery! After reading, create paper airplanes using a sheet of paper. Test them out and see how far they can fly. Watch the video if you have never made one before! Don't forget to show off your designs at #STEMatHome.

Reshma Saujani is an American lawyer, politician, civil servant and founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First. She lives in New York with her husband, 2 sons, and their dog Stanley. She is a practicing Hindu. She was the first Indian-American woman to run for Congress in 2009. While running for Congress and visiting schools along the campaign trail, she saw that most of the computer science classrooms were filled with boys with very few girls in those classrooms. She became determined to transform the tech world by equipping young women with programming and other 21st Century skills. While her career is not a traditional STEM career, she has focused her attention on the gender gap in computing and other tech careers.

Girls Who Code has reached over 500,000 students and they have clubs all over the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. More than 50% of the girls served in these programs come from historically underrepresented groups and these numbers grow each year!

Check out these local upcoming STEM events!

Tons of STEM fun in and around Gwinnett County!

https://www.readysetgwinnett.com/steam-stuff/