Best Practices in Organizing a Cadre of Undergraduate Science Outreach Students
Abstract
Engaging future scientists, while they are undergraduates, in education and public outreach is an effective strategy for ensuring future participation in high-quality education and public outreach. Since 2003, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory has organized undergraduate science students for education and public outreach work. This outreach cadre has proven remarkably successful at running star parties, working with schools and afterschool programs such as at the Boys and Girls Clubs, conducting special projects related to Spanish language astronomy education materials, and in building kits for use in outreach. They have also done programs with portable planetariums and have even fixed a planetarium projector. Students have also played integral roles in several NSF-funded education projects such as Hands-On Optics. We explain our model for recruiting, training, and organizing our team of 5-7 students. These students are paid for their work but also are mentored in science, their coursework, and in other skills critical for professional success. Notably, a large number of these students have gone on to pursue graduate work. We also describe our use of undergraduate students who participated in our outreach work as part of the Collaboration to Advance Teaching Technology and Science NSF GK-12 project.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFMED33A0773P
- Keywords:
-
- 0800 EDUCATION