Summer Math and Science Honors Academy

Organization:                    Level Playing Field Institute

Title:                                 Physics Instructor (UCLA)

Reports to:                         Lead Instructor

Position Type:                   Full-time, temporary

The Level Playing Field Institute (www.lpfi.org) is an Oakland-based non-profit organization that operates three education programs for high-achieving, low-income high school, middle school and college students of color: the Summer Math and Science Honors Academy (SMASH), SMASH: Prep,  and Initiative for Diversity in Education and Leadership (IDEAL). Additionally, (and connectedly) we conduct research on inequity and bias in education and workplace contexts.  LPFI is funded by private donors, foundations, and corporate giving; and, we are currently expanding in exciting ways and scaling the SMASH program to multiple college campuses in the coming years. The Summer Math and  Science Honors (SMASH) Academy is a five week Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) residential academic acceleration program for motivated, high school students from underrepresented populations (African-American, Latino/Hispanic, South-East Asian and/or Pacific Islander and Native American), who have demonstrated an aptitude for science and math. The student participants are recruited from underserved communities throughout the Bay Area and Los Angeles County and are selected through a competitive application process. During the summer component, SMASH provides accelerated classes, laboratory experiments and exposure to STEM fields; the academic rigor is alloyed with a strong community experience in residential dorm living in order to introduce our scholars to a university environment. During the academic year, SMASH provides scholarship workshops, college counseling, and various community events and further exposure to STEM opportunities.  We view the SMASH Academy as an excellent professional development opportunity for instructors who are willing to critically examine their own pedagogical practices and wrestle with new educational paradigms. We believe that the SMASH Academy is a unique environment for scholars and staff alike to focus their interests in STEM education and explore cutting-edge practices. LPFI is seeking to hire individuals that will contribute to our larger aim of developing our scholars to be STEM practitioners who are critically-aware and oriented toward social justice, equipped to employ their STEM knowledge and skills for the betterment of their use their local, national and global community.

The goals of SMASH are to:

Applied Physics: The SMASH science curriculum is lab based with a project-based learning pedagogy.  The focus is to provide scholars the opportunity to apply already learned concepts while acquiring the higher order skills associated with lab work.  Therefore, third year scholars engage in lab work ranging from mechanics to electricity and magnetism. This is an exciting course that helps students develop the skills of a scientist.

In addition to teaching one of the Science courses, each SMASH Science Instructor will partner with one of the three computer science instructors to co-teach an Engineering and Design Challenges course.  This three-part course sequence focuses on the nature of the design process and design thinking through engineering project. Teaching this course does not require a background in engineering or design.  The modality will be one where teachers and students work together on fun and engaged prescribed challenges. All lesson plans, course materials and physical resources will be provided by LPFI.

 

Apply for this position below. Be sure to check the location(s) of the job opening to confirm which SMASH sites are hiring for this position. If applying to multiple sites, please rank your site preference in the application.

$6000. While we cannot offer a benefits package for this position, we can reimburse you for any approved work-related expense. You are responsible for your own parking and transit related expenses.

In keeping with our beliefs and goals, no employee or applicant will face discrimination/harassment based on: race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, age, gender, marital/domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, or veteran status.  Above and beyond discrimination/harassment based on “protected categories,” LPFI also strives to prevent other subtler forms of inappropriate behavior (i.e., stereotyping) from ever gaining a foothold in our office.  Whether blatant or hidden, barriers to success have no place at the Level Playing Field Institute.

We value a diverse workforce: People of color are strongly encouraged to apply.

 

Structural and institutional racism are embedded in the sediment, in the very crust of our Nation’s racialized terrain. The material consequences of race-based inequity, specifically for poor students of color, are first realized, and subsequently promulgated at the institutional level. Our scholars, perhaps unbeknownst to them, have been (negatively) affected by both structural and institutional racism. That is to say, their respective academic trajectories have been informed, in some manner, by their race. (This is evidenced by the reality that the vast majority of our students will be the first in their respective family to attend a four-year University.) Consequently, here at LPFI we are interested in teachers who are not only competent in their subject matter, precisely because we assume this to be a given; in truth, we are interested in change agents. We are interested in teachers who seek to contribute to and, where necessary, catalyze positive social change by teaching for social justice so that we can foster a student body, which is capable of creating the conditions for producing a citizenry that is critical, self-reflective/reflexive, knowledgeable, and willing to act in morally responsible ways (Giroux, 2011).

 How do your teaching practices actively combat the negative effects of structural/institutional racism within the classroom?