| Overview
The CILS Science Fellows Program is designed for current UCSC
doctoral students in the sciences, and led by CILS faculty
from the Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and Engineering.
The program is creating a new a cadre of scientists engaged
and interested in understanding theory and practice in inquiry
science teaching and learning in multiple contexts. This highly
visible program is effective on many levels, and builds capacity
across disciplinary contexts.
The Science Fellows are students at UC Santa Cruz who are
working on their doctorates in fields of social or natural
sciences. Students participate over three years, receiving
funding one quarter (spring) each year. In their CILS quarter
students spend 12-15 hours per week on CILS courses, seminars
and teaching projects. Students come from a wide range of
departments such as Earth Sciences, Marine and Ocean Sciences,
Astronomy, Environmental Toxicology, & Chemistry. Students
have their faculty advisors’ support to participate
in this program, thus ensuring the support of many different
departments in the sciences.
Through the high quality of the students participating and
structure of this three quarter program -- equivalent of one
year funding for each student -- the program has demonstrated
benefits disproportionate to its apparent size. All of the
students who have applied have been top-level research students
with high motivation to become smarter about teaching to diverse
populations. Spreading the program over three years has the
practical value of allowing students to continue their core
research work as they participate in CILS, and additionally
this structure offers the opportunity for ideas to consolidate
over time and influence other areas of their work.
After the first cohort of CILS Science Fellows completed their
introductory quarter in 2002, we noticed the rapid pace at
which they became a part of new community of teaching and
learning that crossed boundaries of museum and classroom,
as well as education, psychology and the natural sciences
departments. They embraced the idea of conducting research
and design experiments in both classroom and museum environments.
Their career choices have expanded as well due to the connections
with CILS faculty, post docs and graduate students from other
departments and institutions through the different CILS programs.
Supervision/Advising of Graduate
Students
Key faculty engaged in the Science Fellows program include:
Mark Mangel (Engineering School) along with CILS faculty from
Developmental Psychology and Mathematics/Science Education.
Course Requirements
Science Fellows attend the monthly CILS colloquium, as well
as the annual CILS Bay Area Institute. Specific courses and
programs developed for the program include:
First trimester: CILS Informal Learning Course (with other
CILS grad students)
Second trimester: Advanced Science Learning Seminar
Third trimester: a field-based education project
Samples of Course Syllabi
|
