{"id":3960,"date":"2009-08-11T10:56:37","date_gmt":"2009-08-11T10:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2009\/08\/11\/pnas-ethan-allen-education-pro\/"},"modified":"2009-08-11T10:56:37","modified_gmt":"2009-08-11T10:56:37","slug":"pnas-ethan-allen-education-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2009\/08\/11\/pnas-ethan-allen-education-pro\/","title":{"rendered":"PNAS: Ethan Allen, Education Program Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers<\/a> with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Ethan Allen, a program manager.)<\/i><\/p>\n

1) What is your non-academic job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I manage education and outreach (terrible term, hate it) for two different Centers here at UW the Center for Nanotechnology<\/a> and the Genetically Engineered Materials Science and Engineering Center<\/a>. In these similar roles I design, develop, implement, assess, and report on a broad range of education programs and activities for multiple audiences: K-12 students and teachers, general public, undergrads, and doctoral students.<\/p>\n

2) What is your science background?<\/strong><\/p>\n

have a PhD in systems & integrative biology, with my focus having been neuroscience and animal behavior.<\/p>\n

3) What led you to this job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Weird, random chance. After doing my doctoral work and two post-docs, and having been involved in developing an exhibit for the Smithsonian’s Traveling Exhibition Service, I found myself drawn to informal science education and so went to work for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. From there, I then moved into K-12 science education improvement, working to renew and advance science in Chicago’s elementary schools. After this, I continued the K-12 science education improvement work out in Seattle, working on several of the NSF Local Systemic Change projects. When NSF killed that program, I came back to the UW, where I had done some of this work earlier, and signed on with the CNT, later picking up the additional work for GEMSEC.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

4) What’s your work environment like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Office-based, but with some interactions with labs. We have a Nanotech User Facility associated with our CNT<\/p>\n

5) What do you do in a typical day?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A mix of activities typically fills my day. Often there is considerable writing – reports, grant proposals, educational modules, etc. – and usually some interactions with one or more of the various audience groups that I serve.<\/p>\n

6) How does your science background help you in your job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The scientific habits of mind are very useful in designing programs. And having a background in learning and neuroscience is highly applicable to education work.<\/p>\n

7) If a current college student wanted to get a job like yours, how
\nshould they go about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is just now a burgeoning recognition of the role of educator affiliated with research center as a profession. We have little in the way of formal organizations or resources, though groups like the National Research Centers Educators Network (NRCEN) exist, and Neo-Sphere<\/a> is a useful resource.<\/p>\n

8) What’s the most important thing you learned from science?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Patience and persistence are key qualities in success.<\/p>\n

9) What advice would you give to young science students trying to plan
\ntheir careers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Get involved in education activities (“outreach”) early on and in as many different ways as possible. Volunteer at your local museum or science center. Network, network, network.<\/p>\n

10) (Totally Optional Question) What’s the pay like? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Not too bad – moderate university level. Note that most museums and science centers pay very poorly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This… Continue reading PNAS: Ethan Allen, Education Program Manager<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13,57,58,59,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-education","category-jobs","category-non-academic","category-pnas","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}