Location
Research Associate
The Colorado School of Mines seeks a Research Associate who could potentially take on additional responsibilities as they become experienced with two closely related efforts at Mines: 1. Teach@Mines, which is a program that offers pathways to become a teacher through either a minor, a major, or a master’s degree; and 2. A national effort called Get the Facts Out: Repairing the Reputation of the Teaching Profession (GFO), which is an innovative partnership led by Mines that includes five national societies, college faculty, and school district personnel who are all working to recruit more Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics teachers by sharing facts about the benefits of the profession and how it compares to other careers.
Our group is very collaborative, dynamic, reliable, and hard-working. The team works to both support students at Mines who are interested in exploring the teaching profession as well as supporting other faculty across the country who work with prospective STEM teachers. The Get the Facts Out efforts include
- Supporting the nearly 300 GFO Champions via our website, blog, webinars, a listserv, email newsletter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
- Compilation of local teacher salary data, retirement benefits, and housing costs for each champion.
- Collecting and analyzing survey data from both faculty and students at over 50 colleges/universities.
- Development and testing of teacher recruitment resources
- Presentations at various local and national venues sharing GFO resources and/or research results.
- Publication of research papers describing our findings
Minimum Qualifications:
- Master’s Degree.
- Either a degree in education research or demonstrated interest in education research.
- Experience with, or a demonstrated interest in K-12 teaching.
- Detail oriented
- Excellent communications skills, strong quantitative skills, the ability to work collaboratively, the self-discipline to work independently, and enjoy multi-tasking.
Additional Desirable Qualifications:
- K-12 Teaching Experience
- Experience with teacher preparation (mathematics teacher preparation in particular)
Job Responsibilities:
- Participate in weekly group meetings and other meetings as needed
- Regular, timely communication via email
- Help with community engagement tasks such as YouTube Channel, Instagram, TikTok, Mailchimp, uploading blogs…
- Write blog articles as needed
- Conduct research on perceptions of teaching as a profession, including longitudinal analyses of perceptions through surveys, site visits, interviews, and focus groups.
- Conduct teacher recruitment activities at Mines including presentations to students and/or faculty, advising, and advertising events.
- Supervise data analysts and or undergraduate assistants on specific projects
- Report findings through peer-reviewed publications.
- Various support tasks such as printing and posting posters around campus, support and participation in a crowd funding campaign, water plants, update student space with current student photos and keep the space neat and organized.
- Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado
Compensation:
- $55,000-$65,000 per year
- Full benefits: Mines benefits include fully paid health and dental insurance for the whole family, 12% matching retirement contribution, and 20 vacation days per year.
Employer Description:
Located in Golden, nestled in the foothills of the Rockies, located on the west side of the Denver Metro area and 21 miles south of Boulder, Mines has enrollment of over 5000 students in undergraduate and graduate degree programs in engineering and applied science. Annual research funding exceeds $60M. The Department of Physics is housed in the new CoorsTek Center for Applied Science and Engineering building, which is at the center of campus and has several new classrooms designed for interactive and innovative teaching techniques.
Part of Mines' mission is to create a family-friendly environment supported through our dependent tuition benefits, parental leave benefits, and dependent care assistance plan, as well as in special events, camps, and programming. For more information visit: family.mines.edu
To apply for the position please send the following materials to wkadams@mines.edu:
1. Cover letter that describes how you meet the qualifications described above, your level of interest in the various possible tasks and responsibilities listed above, and finally please share why you are interested in joining the group. Additionally, please include a section with specific answers to each of the following questions:
A) In what ways do your previous experiences inform your interest in recruiting new science and math teachers?
B) What background experiences do you have that lead you to feel prepared for and interested in statistical analysis of large-scale data and conducting individual interviews?
C) What previous experiences do you have where you have had to manage your time, make decisions, and figure out how to complete a task or project on your own?
D) How comfortable are you doing both high-level tasks where you are in charge of a particular project as well as basic tasks including formatting blog articles, watering plants, and weekly tidying of the student space?
E) In this position, you will gain significant skills in physics education research. How do you envision those skills will be useful to you later in your career?
2. CV with references listed.
3. Academic Transcripts