Outreach

The CEMB is dedicated to sharing our science with the general public, from children to adults, through community science outreach. Our faculty, trainees, and staff have led demonstrations at the Philadelphia Science Festival in Clark Park, brought our science to local classrooms, and given talks at Science Cafes.

If you are interested in participating in our outreach efforts or would like to have our researchers speak with your group, contact us today for more information.

In summer & fall 2026, CEMB will host at least 5 visits to local libraries in Philadelphia to engage children/teens/adults in mechanobiology/STEM programming.

Participants will:

• Experience a short research talk from a current CEMB scientist
• Speak with scientists about the role of science in society and how the general public can be involved
• Engage in hands-on demonstration of research techniques inspired by mechanobiology

In July 2025, after many years of collaboration between The Franklin Insitute and CEMB, we have developed and launched a mobile mechanobiology museum exhibit titled “Forces of Life”!

The learning goals of the exhibit are to:

• Increase understanding of basic principles of mechanobiology, including how living things change and the physical forces underlying those processes.
• Increase awareness of how scientists investigate questions in mechanobiology.
• Increase appreciation of the relevance of mechanobiology to human life.

The focus audience for Forces of Life is families with children ages 6-13, although interactives are engaging for younger children as well.

The kiosk has traveled to the following stops since its creation:

• The Franklin Institute – Summer/Fall 2025
• Saint Louis Science Center – Winter 2026
• Montgomery City-County Public Library – Juliette Hampton Morgan Memorial Library (Montgomery, AL)  – Mid-March – Mid-August 2026
• Discovery Space of Central Pennsylvania – September 2026 Onward

Our partnership with The Franklin Institute (TFI) has evolved over the years, from demonstrations at the Philadelphia Science Festival to teaching high school students in the STEM Scholars program.

Each year, students from Washington University-CEMB’s research experiences for undergraduates program help lead a two-part workshop that provides hands-on demonstrations about the mechanobiology of the Venus Flytrap for the WashU Pre-Engineering Summer program, an outreach and STEM pipeline event that targets high school students from under-represented and resource-limited backgrounds.

By preparing lectures and serving as lab assistants of “Lunch with a Venus Flytrap,” CEMB REU students also gain experience in the communication of basic STEM principles. This workshop has also been led by CEMB faculty to special interest groups, such as the Mid-Atlantic Carnivorous Plant Society.

At Penn, we partner with the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter to present occasional faculty talks in a pub-setting in Philadelphia. At WashU, faculty present talks in the Teen Science Cafe Network.