In today’s installment of “Trying way too hard for a catchy headline”, we bring you either an intro or a refresher about the Science Coaches program, a joint outreach initiative of ACS and the American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT). This is for those of you who (a) heard of it and meant to or (b) never heard of it, but are now like, “Hmm, maybe!”
The program pairs chemists (coaches) with AACT members at any K-12 level. Coaches volunteer face-to-face (virtually or in person) over the course of a school year, assisting the teacher with a variety of activities, which might include mentoring, hands-on experiments, promoting inquiry-based learning, etc.
If this sounds like something you’d find rewarding, you can apply here. Applications for the 2021-22 school year are open until September 1st. The application is painless, dealing mainly with your background and participation preferences. If you know of a specific teacher you’d want to work with, you can specify. Or you can just allow the program to pair you with a teacher who has applied for a coach.
And just to get you started, there is at least one teacher in the Local Section area who needs a coach: Joseph Messina at Saint Charles High School, jmessina@stcharlessd.org. If you live nearby, you can avoid the stigma of not being picked for the team by applying to work with him. He goes by “Alex”.
“Computers and the physics of complex biological systems”
