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Michelle Barboza posted an update in the group
Bruce’s Paleo-Tutorial 7 years, 7 months ago 7 years, 7 months ago7 years, 7 months agoHi all! This is a thread regarding one of our future tutorial topics – nontraditional jobs in science education. I spoke to Bruce about expanding our conversation regarding non tenured-professor jobs for PhDs, and especially discussing options for those interested in informal/public science education.
Here are some questions we might consider during our meeting: What are career options for those interested in informal science education and outreach? How do students interested in informal science education and outreach prepare for those careers? What would make us qualified, competitive applicants in this field? How do we get our foot in the door when it comes to a job not in academia? I feel like I could answer these questions fairly well if we were to be talking about a career at a university, for example, but I haven’t really had a chance to learn about non-traditional careers.
To get the conversation started, I’m interested in learning about working with/at museums and government agencies such as the National Park Service and BLM, but I’m not completely sure what that entails. Are there science outreach jobs already set up in the world, and in these agencies? Or is that more of an aspect of another job we might search for? Are there science education/outreach jobs that perhaps don’t exist yet and that we might want to look into creating? (Lisa’s projects with social media come to mind, for example. Social media management is still a relatively new type of skill/job.)
Okay, I hope I’ve left you with something to think about. Please feel free to share articles related to this topic, as you did with the PhD/teacher shortage, I would be interested in reading more about this topic!
Hi guys! I’ve been doing some research on alternative careers and came across this really great article from Science. It lists different types of non-academia science jobs, and each job mentioned links to other pages with more information should you want to learn more. It looks like a really great overview and resource.
@cgrant @llundgren @smoran @vperez @sholte @bmacfadden
@michelle-barboza, looking forward to class next week! The discussion about non-traditional jobs is important, and a lot of the info I have related to it isn’t necessarily formalized anywhere.
For instance: I know that GeoCorps (http://rock.geosociety.org/g_corps/) exists for folks who want to get involved with NPS jobs, but I don’t know how that process works.
For informal educators, Nina Simon’s Museum 2.0 blog (http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/search/label/professional%20development?max-results=100) and book The Participatory Museum are excellent resources. I linked directly to her blog posts that have been tagged “Professional Development” so that might give a starting point for ways to get info about the field.
Being on listservs, such as the AAM (American Alliance of Museums), Museum-ed, or ASTC (Association of Science and Technology Centers) listservscan be great resources for finding jobs in the field as well as having/following discussions about important sujects in the field. To be honest, though, AAM is more art or history museum focused, so I don’t get a whole lot from following them.
I’m interested in talking about the “jobs that might not exist” piece. That’s huge in the push for STEM skills, and it would be interesting to see what we come up with.
@bmacfadden, @smoran, @vperez, @cgrant, @sholte
GeoCorps is awesome! One of our former PCP-PIRE interns Robyn Henderek, from my cohort in Summer 2014, has actually been working at the Grand Canyon for the past year and a half or so, through GeoCorps. The initial positions are short-term, and the pay is not lucrative by any means (average is about 10$ per hour stipend), but it’s a really great way to get your foot in the door if you are interested in a govt. agency job (GeoCorp employs not only with the National Park Service, but also BLM, National Forest Service, etc). We’ll definitely talk about these agencies during our meeting.
I’m excited for the “jobs in the making” portion too! It seems to me that Broader Impacts and science outreach / informal science education is really taking off right now! Maybe BI is being taken more seriously, maybe the public is more interested, maybe technology is kicking in hardcore, probably a mixture of all those reasons and more. Speaking of technology and jobs that don’t exist yet… I’m interested in exploring the uses of virtual and augmented reality as a science education tool. The market for that is going to explode! It’s not quite around the corner… but it’s coming.
@llundgren, @bmacfadden, @smoran, @vperez, @cgrant, @sholte
@michelle-barboza yes to talking about AR/VR. I (finally!) got to meet @gsantos at the GSA short course and we talked about the iBook he created for his poster. We talked about the potential for using that tech. and myFOSSIL’s fossil gallery to implement in classrooms. Let’s do it!!
Scientists + Government discussed in the Science Magazine article by Brian Vastag titled “A Matter of Policy”
http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2008/04/matter-policy
Agreed, @gsantos definitely opened my eyes to the potential utility of AR in museums and outreach events. Along with GeoCorps are the Mosaic internships. I believe most of these pay a stipend of $3500 for the summer, with varying additions for living accommodations depending on where you apply. You’re only allowed to apply for up to three of these in any given summer though, so if you do apply you should look into all options before submitting any applications. @llundgren, @bmacfadden, @smoran, @vperez, @cgrant, @sholte
@llundgren, @vperez I’m really glad you guys are so open to using this tech. Its ridiculously easy to use and is free. I hope to have a mock up for you soon @llundgren! If you guys are interested, here is the link to Aurasma, which is the AR program I use to make stuff. https://www.aurasma.com
@gsantos, excellent! Looking forward to it. @kcrippen would want to see it too!