{"id":9735,"date":"2019-10-29T15:48:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T19:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metcalfinstitute.org\/?p=9735"},"modified":"2025-09-02T12:57:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T16:57:29","slug":"sibrina-collins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/sibrina-collins\/","title":{"rendered":"Sibrina Collins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"As Dr. Sibrina Collins sat in a dark movie theater watching Black Panther<\/em>, she viewed the film, which is based on a Marvel comic book character, through the eyes of a scientist. \u201cWhen I go to the movies, I just can\u2019t turn off my chemistry brain,\u201d says Collins, an inorganic chemist and executive director of the MarBurger STEM Center<\/a> at Lawrence Technological University in Michigan.<\/p>\n

The fictional element Vibranium, that gave the Black Panther his super powers and helped fuel the imaginary nation of Wakanda, captured Collin\u2019s attention. \u201cAnd I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about where Vibranium would appear on the Periodic Table,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Collins immediately recognized a unique opportunity to engage students in science and asked a colleague, Professor LaVetta Appleby, to pose a question about Vibranium\u2019s place on the Periodic Table on her next chemistry exam. \u201cIf you can make connections to pop culture and these student experiences, that\u2019s a really neat strategy for creating inclusive classroom environments,\u201d says Collins. She referenced the students\u2019 answers in an article<\/a> she coauthored for the Journal of Chemical Education<\/em> about the merits of using the film as a teaching tool. \u201cI think just having an image of someone who looks like them is very powerful,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s an example of inclusive science communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collins used that same approach, almost a decade ago, to get students excited about science in a general chemistry class she taught. \u201cI walked into the class one day and said, \u2018the title of this lecture is What\u2019s in Your iPod?<\/em> Tell me what you listen to,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI had them hooked, and I followed up by asking, \u2018how does this iPod work?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Collins was among the nearly 200 attendees at the 2019 InclusiveSciComm Symposium held at the University of Rhode Island in September. \u201cI absolutely loved it,\u201d says Collins, who presented a poster at the symposium entitled STEM Inclusion:<\/em> Black Panther, Vibranium and Frankenstein.<\/em> She especially valued the networking opportunities and workshop sessions focused on developing strategies to create more inclusive classrooms.<\/p>\n

Collins hadn\u2019t planned on a future in STEM when she enrolled at a local community college as a young student at the start of her academic career. Her confidence soared after earning an A in a chemistry course for non-majors, and set her on a career path in science. She went on to earn B.A. cum laude <\/em>in chemistry from Wayne State University and a Master\u2019s degree and Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from The Ohio State University.<\/p>\n

In her career, Collins has held teaching positions at the College of Wooster and Claftin University, led graduate diversity and recruitment at the University of Washington, written and edited for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and served as director of education at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.<\/p>\n

Now, as head of the Marburger STEM Center, her work focuses on campus-wide STEM initiatives at Lawrence Technological. She\u2019s also focused on engaging more students from underrepresented backgrounds in science. \u201cWe need to let them know that STEM plays an important role in their everyday lives,\u201d says Collins. \u201cEven if they decide not to be scientists, they know it\u2019s an option.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Dr. Sibrina Collins sat in a dark movie theater watching Black Panther, she viewed the film, which is based on a Marvel comic book character, through the eyes of a scientist. \u201cWhen I go to the movies, I just can\u2019t turn off my chemistry brain,\u201d says Collins, an inorganic chemist and executive director of the MarBurger STEM Center at Lawrence Technological University in Michigan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2201,"featured_media":10074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[51,10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alum-hp","category-alumni-spotlight","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9735"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11957,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9735\/revisions\/11957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}