“We have a microscope that we can turn on and we can take out the little things and the kids can see what they have in there.”
Victoria Herrera is a junior scientist at the nonprofit BioBus’ mobile research lab on the Lower East Side.
Herrera was an intern for a year at BioBus. Now a scientist, she created a project to teach the community about climate change in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
“The importance of science, ecology and how we can, as Latinos, create a healthier future with healthy land. As a Puerto Rican, it is very important to do it here, it is also very important to do it on the island,” Herrera said.
Since 2008, BioBus has traveled to different schools to teach science to children and young people in low-income communities in the city.
“When we take soil from their communities and put it under the microscope and they see that there are different types of insects or different types of plants, it is like their mind opens a lot to understand that we are all part of this environment and we have to take care of it,” explained Marina Delgado, BioBus.
Scientist Delgado says that during the year they work on various projects in the schools of the Lower Eat Side, Harlem and the South Bronx teaching about environmental justice.
“Understanding the importance of compost not only for our environment but also for our health, with other elementary schools this past year we did a hydroponics program and grew different types of edible plants to combat food insecurity,” Delgado said.
He added that Spanish-speaking Latino participants are filled with emotion when spoken to in Spanish.
“If they don’t understand English yet because they are learning it and we speak to them in Spanish, their mind and their world change a lot because for the first time they see that someone who speaks like them is doing science.”
The organization offers internships for high school students each summer and is preparing to open a new mobile laboratory that will serve the Bronx community.
“Working with even more communities because we are going to have even more buses, it seems to me to be the most important thing coming now this year,” Delgado added.
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