Graduate Students Unite! Building an Outreach Program From Scratch

In the spring of 2000, a group of graduate students at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) gathered and declared the need to facilitate participation in science education outreach. The result was the formation of the Scripps Community Outreach Program for Education (SCOPE, http://sioscope.ucsd.edu). SCOPE has been connecting SIO graduate students, faculty, and staff with existing outreach programs in the San Diego area ever since. While many scientists would like to commit some time to helping the general public understand the world around them, they often do not know where to begin. To make this connection, SCOPE holds meetings and operates an email listserv to announce upcoming outreach opportunities and sign up volunteers. Over the years, SCOPE has developed relationships with local science outreach groups, outreach events, schools, and teachers. There are usually at least two volunteer opportunities a month, some of which take place on the SIO campus itself. These opportunities include speaking to senior citizens, participating in a school career day, mentoring National Ocean Science Bowl teams, providing tours of SIO to minority middle and high school students, and just about anything else one can imagine. The opportunities are coordinated by one or two graduate students who graciously volunteer their time to make sure that community's and the scientist's needs are met. To keep such an organization running requires not only networking with the community but also networking within the university as well. It is necessary to keep in contact with other outreach groups on campus as well as the communication and development offices. In addition we have worked closely with the Birch Aquarium at Scripps and have played an important part of the California Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE, http://www.cacosee.net). We believe that SCOPE has been very successful and would like to share the lessons we have learned with interested members of the education and outreach community.