For many young scientists getting the time to go into a school directly and work with kids on geoscience related projects is an appealing yet unachievable notion due to the various time and location constraints of research.
Luckily, the British Science Association is offering young scientists across Europe the opportunity to mentor school kids undertaking CREST Awards – project based award schemes for science, technology, engineering and maths subjects aimed at inspiring young people to get involved with science – via Skype.
Mentoring projects involve:
- Being a point of access for specialist knowledge or techniques
- Helping student(s) develop their ideas and guide them as they examine their results
Mentors generally help the student(s) throughout the majority of a CREST project, providing advice on the science involved as well as pointers to the next steps in the project’s development.
You can find out more information about mentoring projects on the British Science Association website.
Kirtana at Issac Newton Group of Telescopes on an RCUK visit. (Credit: British Science Association)
Mentoring is an excellent opportunity for young scientists to:
- Get hands-on people and project management experience
- Train and encourage the next generation of scientists and engineers
- Develop your communication skills through a structured scheme
- Reveal new ways of communicating your work
The kinds of projects students may be involved in range across the whole science, technology, engineering and mathematics spectrum. To get an idea of some of the kinds of projects students can undertake look at the CREST Project Ideas website.
This public engagement opportunity means you don’t need to take large chunks of time out of your schedule to do an outreach activity, this can be done from your home or lab at times that suit you. All you need is a good command of English (enough to understand and communicate with British school children) and an internet connection with Skype enabled.
Meriame carrying out a sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay. (Credit: British Science Association)
If you are interested and keen to get involved, please contact the EGU Educational Fellow, Jane Robb at robb@egu.eu. If you also know of any similar schemes in other countries across Europe, please email Jane with the details.
If you are from the UK (or currently residing there), you can become a CREST Award mentor by registering as a STEM Ambassador.
By Jane Robb, EGU Educational Fellow
