Sarina Peterson

Sarina Peterson graduated from Texas A&M with a bachelor's degree in economics in 2010. She holds a master's degree from the George H.W. Bush School of Government and Public Service in public policy with concentrations in nonprofit management and education policy.

Before graduating, Sarina won second prize at the A&M university-wide Raymond Idea Challenge for a STEM-based video game and published a paper on using games in STEM education at Virginia's Center of Excellence in Education. This experience allowed her to explore different avenues of engaging students in STEM. Following her internship at Virginia's Center of Excellence in Education, Sarina worked in Dallas ISD as a program evaluation analyst for four years where she conducted a wide variety of educational research.

In 2013, Sarina and her sister (Brianna Rapini) created a science focused YouTube channel called The Amoeba Sisters with the intention of delivering biology content in a memorable cartoon format to provide more time for student discussion and hands-on lab experiences in the classroom. As the channel experienced growth, Brianna and Sarina created an "Unlectured" series with their biology content which was designed to be an alternative to traditional lecture and notes by encouraging more class discussion, student questioning, and addressing why the content matters.

Brianna and Sarina remain passionate about sharing their experiences in unlecturing traditionally lectured educational content, which can be applied to content areas beyond biology.

[Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.]