Graduate Student Fellowship Opportunity 2009-2010

The UC Berkeley Natural History Museum's GK-12 project, Exploring California Biodiversity, is accepting applications for the 2009-2010 school year. Fellows will spend a year working with K-12 (primarily 5th through 12th grades) students teaching about biodiversity and the process of science. They will gain valuable teaching and communication experience as well as the satisfaction of enriching science offerings in K-12 schools.

The curriculum for the year will be developed by the fellows in collaboration with participating teachers and project staff. Some fellows will work with teachers in Bay Area schools where they will collaborate to develop and teach classroom lessons, lead field trips to local parklands and to UC field stations. Other fellows will work mainly at schools in the three communities near to our field stations (Carmel Valley near the Hastings Reserve, Truckee near the Sagehen Creek field station, Laytonville near the Angelo Coast reserve), where activities will be run primarily at the field stations.

Duration and stipend: Duration of the appointment is June 15, 2009–June 14, 2010. Fellowship stipend is $30,000/year plus student fees for the fellowship year. Funding is from NSF's GK-12 program.

Qualifications: Graduate students should be in the 2nd year of graduate study or higher, and have some experience with field work, natural history collections and/or bioinformatics. Experience as a GSI or other teaching would be advantageous.

To apply: For further details on how to apply see GK-12 Graduate Student Fellow Responsibilities 2009-2010 and GK-12 Graduate Student Fellowship Application 2009-2010.

Submit application materials on or before March 23, 2009. Note: If all positions are not filled, we will consider applications after March 23—contact Betsy Mitchell if you have questions about submitting a late application. After we have reviewed the applications we will contact you to set up an interview. Interviews will be held in early April.

Current and past fellows would be happy to talk to you about their experience with the program (you can find their names on the website, or contact the project coordinator).

Further questions may be directed to project coordinator, Betsy Mitchell via e-mail or call 643-7426.