Volunteering Opportunities
Science Journal for Kids is produced by a small group of team members who can’t possibly get around to completing all the tasks and ideas we have. To help us with that, we welcome volunteers’ input and help. Read on about the various volunteering opportunities we provide. Please note that when we have a staff opening, we recruit from the volunteer pool first and thus many of our staff members started off as volunteers.
Types of Opportunities
Help us select papers worth adapting for kids. Check our publication criteria here. To make a recommendation, fill out this survey.
Submit video-recorded questions for researchers whose papers we have adapted for our ongoing Ask-a-Scientist segment. Use this Videoask form to submit your questions.
In addition to the alignment with NGSS, APES, and IB Bio standards we already provide.
This opportunity is best suited for experienced U.S.-based teachers.
Submit a lesson for our Lesson Ideas blog. It could be:
- a hands-on/online hybrid lesson like this one;
- a long-term lab activity like this; or
- a data graphic activity like this one about rhinos and this one about plastic pollution.
It should be related to at least one of our scientific articles (which will be suggested as a reading extension). We will provide personal credit with a link to your online profile.
Teachers who love and use our content can become further involved. Here are some options (but we are open to other ideas as well!):
- Share our website with colleagues in Facebook groups for teachers.
- Provide detailed feedback about your experience with our content: either unstructured by email or structured by completing this survey.
- Submit our site to scientific resource collections online (like this one) or in a local library or school district.
- Organize an Ask-a-scientist session for your students after reading one of our articles. (We can connect you to any of the researchers whose papers we’ve adapted.)
- Lead a professional development session for your fellow teachers at school or in the district about ways to incorporate SJK scientific articles in class.
- Present about SJK resources at a teachers’ conference in your state.
- Host a webinar on Facebook (or other social media) for fellow science teachers.
- Develop a lesson plan based on one of our scientific articles (currently a PAID opportunity).
We are a small and young non-profit organization open to learning and growth. We’d welcome advice or consultation from people (especially senior citizens) with valuable professional and life experience from the fields of education, resource management, research, non-profit etc. Contact Tanya by email.