Student & Alumni Profiles

Kristen Bethke, MSTE PhD Candidate

Hometown: Richmond, VA
Degrees: M.S. Aerospace Engineering, MIT; B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Princeton

Driven by my fascination with space exploration, I pursued both undergraduate and graduate work in aerospace engineering. Although I enjoyed internships at NASA and was excited by my graduate research in spacesuit design, I found myself even more fulfilled by my educational outreach work in local elementary school classrooms. Engaging children in engineering helped me to discover its relevance to all of society. By the end of my master's degree work, my interest in sharing engineering and science with children had overwhelmed my ambition to practice space systems design. My shift to the education field is motivated both by children's enthusiastic and curiosity-filled response to engineering activities as well as by our society's need for a more technologically literate public.

Through my studies and research in the MSTE program, I am exploring how we can use engineering challenges – modeled on real-world problems – to make math and science more relevant to children and their teachers. I hope to learn how educators can help children develop the understanding and confidence they'll need as they confront society's countless scientific and technological issues.