Student Resources
Requirements
All CoSGC Students must...
1.) Participate in at least 1 outreach a semester. If you are a credit student (or enrolled in Gateway to Space), you must volunteer in 1 outreach. If you are a paid student you must volunteer in 2.
2.) Attend the prep meeting for your outreach activity. Also review our Volunteer Tips to help prepare for your outreach.
3.) Participate in the entirety of the outreach activity.
4.) Provide any necessary feedback.
Volunteering for Space Grant Outreach
or, "How to be a Good Volunteer"
All volunteers must attend a prep meeting for the outreach for which they have volunteered. Prep meetings will typically be held one to two days before the outreach and are announced via e-mail. If you have a scheduling conflict, please let the outreach coordinator know so she can schedule a one-on-one meeting.
Always arrive at least 15 minutes early to the outreach, unless specified otherwise.
As outreach volunteers, we are very significant role models to our K-12 students. For this reason, we must always be conscience of the content of our language, as well as the manner in which we speak to one another and to our students. In other words, we must lead by example by refraining from any jokes or comments (no matter how harmless they may appear to be) that involve gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. In addition to teaching math, science, and engineering, we also always strive to teach tolerance and open-mindedness.
The Space Grant outreach team strives to create an environment that is supportive, inspiring, and fulfilling for K-12 students and volunteers alike. We encourage volunteers to use supportive language, reinforce the idea that “there is no wrong answer,” and to encourage K-12 students to see themselves as potential engineers and scientists.
We encourage our volunteers to help students engage in inquiry learning by answering their questions with more questions. Instead of giving a simple answer to students' questions, challenge and assist them in exploring the issue until the students arrive at a conclusion for themselves. We have discovered that this form of learning helps students build confidence and self-assurance.
Working with kids and young people is very exciting, fun, and inspiring, but
it can also be challenging, unpredictable, and overwhelming. We ask our
volunteers to be prepared to “step up” and be proactive in overcoming obstacles
and resolving problems in the case that they arise. Our most outstanding
volunteers are those who see a potential problem forming and take the
responsibility to resolve it.
A real example from a member of Outreach: "Another organization that was
facilitating an activity for us was 15 minutes late so we had a group of fifth
graders and no activity. I left to search for the facilitator and when I came
back, one of the volunteers had the group of students engaged in a conversation
about what he was building in one of his classes."
Please feel free to bring your ideas to the table. Outreach is a very fun and rewarding part of working at Space Grant that allows you to give back to your community. We encourage our volunteers to get as involved as they want in outreach and we always try to support and include any ideas they might have.
Are you a COSGC student who wants to volunteer for an outreach? Contact us