Logan Schmidt is a Curriculum Developer at the Smithsonian Science Education Center. Logan learned at an early age that the only thing she liked better than science was talking to people about science, and she has spent the last twenty years pursuing that passion. Logan began her career as a teen volunteer in the rainforest and aquarium exhibits of Discovery Place Science Museum, and went on to hone her educational skills at museums, aquariums, wildlife refuges, penguin colonies, publishing companies, and the classroom. She has a B.A. in Biological Sciences and Classics from Wellesley College and a Masters of Science in Teaching with a concentration in Secondary Biology from Boston College’s Lynch School of Education. In her spare time, Logan enjoys volunteering at the USO, fishing at the Tidal Basin with her fly rod, and searching for the city’s best mozzarella sticks.
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is home to some of the most valuable jewels on the planet. To me, the best ones in the museum aren’t in the Gems and Minerals exhibition. The most colorful, dazzling jewels in the museum have wings, and they are in the Butterfly Pavilion!
What words do you think of when you think of the name Dr. Jane Goodall? Chimpanzee researcher. Visionary scientist. UN Ambassador for Peace. Expert. Leader. How about failure? Maybe not. But like every scientist before her and every scientist who will follow, Goodall encountered failure in the pursuit of science.