Community Educator

Purpose of Position

Community Educators are associated with an on-going educational effort in their communities. They use Vital Signs resources to enhance the academic portion of their own local education offerings, provide local teacher support, increase community awareness and knowledge of native and invasive species, and encourage data collection in local habitats.

Benefits

• Connect your learning community with a statewide research effort to identify and track native and invasive species across Maine
• Incorporate standards-aligned curriculum, scientific sampling methods, species identification resources, and online analysis tools into your environmental education bag of tricks
• Foster and provide an outlet for stewardship in your learning community

Responsibilities & Tasks

• Adapt Vital Signs learning activities and fieldwork resources to fit your current environmental education program
• In accord with our CC-BY license guidelines, use, remix, and share our online educational resources to help engage your learning community with authentic science

Optional Responsibilities & Tasks

• Reach out to local teachers who are either using Vital Signs in their classroom currently or who could benefit from involvement in the Vital Signs community
• Share information about upcoming Vital Signs trainings and events with teachers and citizen scientists in your learning community
• Develop original learning activities around the Vital Signs program and share your curriculum with educators statewide in the Vital Signs Open Resources Exchange

Necessary Qualifications

• Current involvement in environmental and/or outdoor education
• Desire to share and learn
• Comfort providing support to teachers, students, and citizen scientists who are using Vital Signs
• Access to and comfort using a computer with Internet access

Training & Support

We do not require training, but plan to offer half-day workshops around the state prior to spring and fall field seasons. Phone and email support is also provided. Community Educators should plan to spend time familiarizing themselves with the Vital Signs website, reading through available resources (curriculum, datasheets, species cards, sampling methods, discussion forums, blog).
Experience shows that participation as an Investigator (i.e. collecting and publishing your own species observations and habitat data) is an effective and fun way to orient yourself to the Vital Signs website and program. You are also encouraged to participate as a Field Site Host in conjunction with your position as Community Educator.

Time Commitment

Initially a few hours spent orienting yourself to the Vital Signs website and/or becoming an Investigator will be worthwhile. Your involvement can be as short and simple as doing one or two Vital Signs activities with your learning community, offering assistance to a trained Vital Signs teacher, visiting a classroom, or answering questions and assisting during a local field investigation. You may chose to increase your time commitment and involvement by implementing a complete Vital Signs experience with your students or learning community, or by developing and contributing original curriculum to our Open Resource Exchange.