The Colorado School of Mines has a full-time post-doc position open to work with two NSF grant funded projects related to STEM teacher preparation. The position is three-quarters time on Get the Facts Out: Changing the Conversation around STEM teaching and one quarter-time on our Noyce Scholarship Grant. Get the Facts Out is an innovative partnership led by Mines that includes the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Chemical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, behavior change researchers, teacher educators, and several colleges and universities to serve as study sites. The grant aims to tackle misperceptions about the teaching profession with the goal of increasing the fraction of physics, chemistry, and math majors that choose to pursue middle and high school teaching as a career.
This position requires travel to the annual project team meeting and a national conference to report on project findings. The post-doc will work with Wendy Adams, Physics Education Research Faculty member, Kristine Callan, Physics Teaching Professor and Savannah Logan, also a post-doc on the team.
Minimum Qualifications: Candidates must have earned a doctoral degree before the position start date in physics, chemistry, mathematics, science education, or communications. Candidates can either have a degree in education research or demonstrated interest in education research. The successful candidate will have excellent communications skills, strong quantitative skills, ability to work collaboratively, the self-discipline to work independently, and enjoy multi-tasking.
Job Responsibilities: Conduct research on perceptions of teaching as a profession, including longitudinal analysis of perceptions through surveys, site visits, interviews, and focus groups. Conduct teacher recruitment activities at Mines including presentations, advising, and assisting with scholarship decisions. Supervise undergraduate research assistants, manage budgets, and report findings through peer-reviewed publications.
Salary: $50,000 per year with benefits and travel support. The Post-doc will be on a yearly-appointment with funding for up to four years.
Department 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 addresses the qualifications described above, describes the applicant’s interest in joining the project, and answers the following questions:
1.A) In what ways do your previous research, teaching, and/or outreach experiences inform your interest in recruiting new science and math teachers?
1.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?
1.C) How do your previous experiences prepare you to work cooperatively and productively with colleagues, students, and supervisors from diverse backgrounds?
1.D) In this postdoctoral research position, you will gain significant skills in physics education research, as well as in survey development. How do you envision those skills will be useful to you later in your career?
2. CV with references listed.
