2013 Summer Undergraduate Research Assistantship

AVAILABLE FOR MAINE STUDENTS INTERESTED IN MIDDLE OR HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE OR MATHEMATICS TEACHING CAREERS

The Maine Physical Sciences Partnership (PSP) invites applications from undergraduates in Maine to participate in a seven-week summer program on the University of Maine campus during the summer of 2013. The PSP is a major initiative funded by the National Science Foundation to improve the teaching and learning of physical sciences, targeting grades 6-9 and University courses. It involves teachers in Hancock, Penobscot, Waldo, and Washington counties, University faculty, staff, and students, and partnership members from the Institute for Broadening Participation, the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, and SERC Institute.

2012 SURA Fellows (clockwise from top left: Justin Lewin, Paige Gallagher, Divya Bisht, faculty advisor Dr. Mitchell Bruce, PSP Placement Coordinator Medea Steinman, Ashley Ballanger, Erika Thayer and Becky Allen)

Students will work as part of a team of instructors and students preparing for the 2013-2014 academic year by learning about, teaching, and critiquing lessons from the PSP common instructional resources being implemented across 27 middle and 3 high schools in Maine. The students will also be involved in research projects investigating learning from this curriculum.  (See below for highlights from the 2012 SURA Program.)

There is the possibility for continued employment during the 2013-2014 school year working part-time assisting in PSP school classrooms.

Successful applicants should be undergraduates seriously interested in careers in science and/or mathematics teaching.  Preference will be given to those who have a strong background in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines and who are attending colleges and Universities close to the partnering districts.  All undergraduate research assistants must be available to work full time from June 17 through August 9, including availability to participate in the PSP Summer Academy, to take place from June 24 – 28 at the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) at Schoodic Point, Winter Harbor, Maine. The salary is $750 per week.  Housing is only provided during the week of the Summer Academy (the nights of June 23-27).

To apply, please complete the application at this link.  Then send your resume and academic transcript to PSP_SURA@umit.maine.edu with your name in the subject line. Any questions should be directed to this email address as well. Review of applications will begin on January 28, 2013 and continue until all positions are filled.

Highlights from the 2012 SURA Program

In 2012, the Maine Physical Science Partnership was once again very fortunate to have the participation of six highly dedicated and enthusiastic undergraduate students.  These students worked with K-12 teachers, research faculty, PSP staff, and graduate students during a seven-week internship that began with an orientation at UMaine, participation in the biennial national RiSE Center Conference, the 2012 Summer Academy in Winter Harbor, and then continued with their research and K-12 collaborations at the University of Maine.

The 2012 SURA Fellows were Becky Allen, Ashley Ballanger, Divya Bisht, Paige Gallagher, Justin Lewin and Erika Thayer.  The group included five UMaine students and one Colby College student; natives of Maine and Canada; two pre-medical students; two College of Education and Human Development pre-service teachers; and biology and physics students.  All made highly valuable contributions to K-12 teachers, as part of the Teachers-in-Residence (TiR) Program, and to UMaine research faculty, through their work on a variety of education research projects.

With the TiRs, they helped to develop supporting resources that are facilitating SEPUP and PBIS teachers’ first experiences using the instructional resources.   They created documents, modified websites and wikis, researched educational resources, worked closely with the Next Generation Science Standards Framework aligning activities and lessons, and helped develop rubrics.  Two of the 2012 SURAs have continued their involvement with the Maine PSP, and with K-12 teachers, by serving as Teaching Partners in fall 2012.

With the research faculty and graduate students, they worked on a wide variety of research topics.  Among other work, they analyzed student pre- and post-test data, student and teacher assessments, results of a journal project, a clicker project, and student proficiency with nature-of-science concepts.  The SURAs summarized their research in Powerpoint slideshows, which they presented to the UMaine research community during their final week.

Comments from 2012 SURAs

“I definitely will be a teacher and this was a great learning opportunity for me. This program allowed me to understand what is involved in research. After completing this I am considering grad school and perhaps being a MST student.”

“TiR was a great experience overall. …being with these teachers for 6 weeks has encouraged me to pursue a science education career.”

Highlight: “The Brown-bag lunches where we got to see other graduate students’ research. It helped us get a better picture of the different kinds of education research being done.”

“I really enjoyed my research topic and it was very interesting to me, making it very enjoyable. My advisors were a great help and I always had someone I could talk to and work with.”

“Working with the teachers was a very good learning experience. Also, TiR and Summer Academy really gave us a good understanding of the curriculum.”

Highlight: “Learning from my research; not only the content but the process of researching.”

“I certainly am more interested in both teaching as a profession and educational research. I didn’t even realize the opportunities within educational research, now I feel as though I have a much greater understanding.”

“I enjoyed working with the teachers and getting to know them. They are all great people and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend some time with them. … The beautiful campus of SERC was a great way to start the program.”

“I got to learn about how hard teachers work and how much consideration they give their students.”

Highlight: “The opportunity to do independent research and make a presentation.”

“I really enjoyed working with everyone and my research. I hope to continue to work with the MainePSP; being a teaching partner and SURA again next year. Thank you to everyone!!”