Binghamton University student receives Graduate Excellence Award

BINGHAMTON, NY (04/01/2014)(readMedia)-- Each year, Binghamton University honors the special achievements of those graduates who distinguish themselves in the areas of service to their department/academic program, school, and/or the University. The University also recognizes students who have made outstanding contributions through their efforts to reach out to the community by applying their skills, knowledge and experiences related to their graduate education.

Sarah Marcus from Newton, NJ has recently received a Graduate Student Excellence in Service and Outreach award from Binghamton University, State University of New York:

Sarah Marcus is enthusiastic about sharing her love of science with kids, and about making it fun and cool for them as she encourages them to keep learning about the natural world. Working with counselors at a 4-H camp for young people ages 8 to 15, she developed an experiment she called "The Fruit Fly Experiment." She then trained the counselors to follow the scientific method, while providing campers with opportunities for self-directed, autonomous learning as they worked through the experiment. Her nominator writes that the response to her lesson was dramatic and students who participated in the experiment "were more excited about science and more interested in learning" after the experiment. She has also participated in other outreach programs, including "Out of the Box Science that Rocks" at Roberson Museum and Science Center, helping children ages 5 to 12 extract DNA from strawberries while teaching them about DNA and what it does.

Binghamton University is one of the four university centers of the State University of New York. Known for the excellence of its students, faculty, staff and programs, Binghamton enrolls close to 15,000 students in programs leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. Its curriculum, founded in the liberal arts, has expanded to include selected professional and graduate programs.