Opportunities for Faculty

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• Help Create Programs and Assist in Writing Curriculum

  Science Explorers: Each year Science Discovery staff, faculty, and other scientific experts create a curriculum around a particular theme to be presented to teams of teachers and students across the state. Faculty are recruited to assist SD staff in creating activities, writing background information for the teacher curriculum, editing the curriculum for scientific accuracy, and to serve as a scientific resource for the presenter training. This is fun, creative work.
  
  Time commitment: This will vary a great deal depending on how you want to contribute and how much time you are willing to give, anywhere from 10 to 40 hours.
  
  Science From CU: Science From CU is a perfect vehicle to fulfill outreach components of research grants. Each year Science Discovery publishes a catalog of presentations that go to K-12 classrooms, senior centers, and libraries all over the state. Many of these presentations are developed in collaboration with individual University of Colorado at Boulder faculty or departments. Often a research grant will support the development and delivery of these programs. Science Discovery provides the infrastructure for booking and presenting the programs. Usually 50 minutes in length, Science From CU programs are designed to be highly interactive, exciting, and utilize materials that are not usually available in a teacher’s classroom. If you are not interested in creating a completely new program, we can use your assistance in reviewing existing programs, help make the presentation more reflective of current research, infuse the program with additional exciting demonstrations, or work on pre and post activities and information for teachers.
  
  Time commitment: To create a new program will take a minimum of 40 hours working with SD staff. This can be a fun and interesting project for graduate students or a dedicated undergraduate student. Time commitment for upgrading an existing program will vary.
  
  After-school and Summer Classes, The Outdoor Classroom and Wilderness Camps: Help us create a new class or a segment of one of our Outdoor Classroom programs or summer camps. Refine an environmental study for the Outdoor Classroom. Science Discovery is always on the lookout for new ideas for classes and camps. We need your scientific expertise.
  
  Time commitment: Depends entirely on what you want to do.

• Be a Presenter

  If you would like to present in classrooms or to a group of teachers, we will help facilitate your experience. There are many options open to you, some of which are listed below. If you want to talk with us about other ideas you have, feel free to do so.

  • Present the program you or your graduate students helped to develop. This is a good way to launch it and to make sure it comes across the way you want.
  • Presentation at the Colorado Science Teachers Conference: Each year in early fall Science Discovery sets up presentations and workshops for the Colorado Science Teachers Conference. Sessions are usually one hour long and a workshop can be 1.5 – 3 hours. Solicitations come out in spring. Each year we look for faculty involvement.
  • CU Wizards: Science Discovery assists in advertising for the CU Wizard Saturday program as well as finding CU Wizards or other dynamic faculty presentations to travel outside the Boulder area to give talks and presentations.
  • Teach one of the After-school Classes or Summer Classes, Science Explorers workshops, or Science From CU programs. See the program descriptions. These can be local or anywhere in the state.
• Conduct a Professional Development Workshop for Teachers

  Each year Science Discovery conducts or helps to design workshops for teachers. These are often held in the summer but may occur on weekends or after school hours. Topics vary. Your interests and area of expertise may fit with what the teachers and school districts want and need.

• Outreach Component to Research Proposals

  Science Discovery is currently working with several research groups to develop outreach activities focusing on their particular area of research. Many NSF and NASA grants now require a K-12 outreach component. We can help design your outreach component and, in many cases, help to deliver programs. Examples of current collaborations are:

  • The Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, Department of Physics (FLC MRC). Developed Materials Science From CU presentations, delivered talks at the Colorado Science Teachers Conference. The FLC MRC also developed a CU Wizard presentation and a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program.
  • SORCE (Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment), LASP. Developed a new Science From CU presentation which focuses on the sun, measuring its variability, and studying it as the source of the energy that drives the Earth system.
  • Conserving Biodiversity: Science Discovery and the Department of Environmental Population and Organismic Biology (EPOB) received funding to develop a map of Front Range wildlife reserve areas, develop a curriculum in conservation biology for high school and middle school teachers, and deliver three teacher workshops in summer 2002 to teachers along the Front Range.
• Colorado Junior Science Academy

  For over 25 years CU has hosted the Colorado Junior Science Academy for middle school and high school students interested in careers in science, engineering, and technology. Students travel to CU for a day of scheduled activities, in which they attend seminars, tour labs, participate in a Science From CU program, and see a show at the planetarium. Faculty are encouraged to make their labs available and give a short presentation. Science Discovery can help facilitate this.
  
  Time Commitment: One day per year, plus prep time to set up lab visits and presentations.

For more information, contact Science Discovery.