World Year of Physics 2005 - Adotpt a Scientist

General Program Information

What is Adopt a Scientist?
The Adopt a Scientist is a World Year of Physics project where high school students conduct email interviews with scientists and report their findings to the class. Through these reports, the class will be exposed to the wide variety of opportunities available to those with a science education.

What is the goal of the program?
The goal of Adopt a Scientist is to expose high school students to the wide variety of careers available to people with a science education. Even in the best high school science classrooms, it is often difficult for students see how textbook work translates to a career in academia or industry. This program seeks to help teachers address this problem by setting up email interviews between high school students and scientists.

Who is sponsoring this program?
Adopt a Scientist is a joint project, in celebration of the World Year of Physics, by the following organizations:

American Association of Physics Teachers
American Physical Society
Society of Physics Students

Mika McKinnon developed the Adopt a Scientist program in the summer of 2005 while interning with the Society of Physics Students through the American Institute of Physics. The project was originally envisioned by Jennifer Fischer, a former intern with the American Physical Society. Kendra Rand, a current intern with the American Physical Society, is running the program.

Adopt a Scientist was inspired Adopt a Scientist is a joint project of SPS, AIP, APS, and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) in celebration of the World Year of Physics.

What is the World Year of Physics?
The World Year of Physics commemorates Einstein’s miraculous year of 1905 and aims to raise awareness about the importance of physics, as well as how it can be fun and interesting. Adopt a Scientist aims to do this by exposing high school students to what scientists do on a daily basis. It expands science from textbooks and classroom experiments to include real people doing innovative work.

How can I support Adopt a Scientist and the World Year of Physics?
You can support these program by providing a link to this page from your webpage, advertising to your local high schools and/or scientists, and getting involved with science outreach in your community. The World Year of Physics website has information on activities across the country and ideas for planning an event in your community.

What is the timeline for Adopt a Scientist?
July 2005: Invite scientists to volunteer for the program.
August 2005: Invite high schools to participate.
September-December 2005: Students conduct interviews with scientists.
January 2006: Collect feedback and assess the effectiveness of the program.

How can I find out more about the program?
All the information on Adopt a Scientist is available online at this website. If you have a question that is not answered here, please email us at education@aip.org.

I have a question that isn’t answered here. What do I do?
Email education@aip.org.

Information for Scientists

I’m a scientist, how can I get involved?
There has been an overwhelming positive response to the Adopt a Scientist pilot program. We had to cap enrollment at 600 scientists due to technical constraints, but please email us at education@aip.org if you are interested in participating next fall (2006).

What is the role of the scientists in Adopt a Scientist?
The scientists respond to emailed questions from students. The interview questions are drawn from a list made available to the scientists ahead of time. Scientists may go beyond the minimum requirements and have further interaction with the students (allow questions not on the list, engage in follow-up emails, etc.), but this is not required.

What is the time commitment for the scientists?
It is expected that this project will only require a few hours from the scientists. Interview questions are taken from a generic list, so scientists may prepare answers in advance. This will reduce the time spent on each interview to a few minutes for copying/pasting the appropriate answers. Scientists decide on the number of interviews they want to participate in as part of the registration process.

How many interviews should I register for?
This depends on how much time you want to spend on the program. Scientists frequently choose based on whether they plan to do prepared answers or respond to each email as it comes.

Prepared Answers – Scientists may prepare answers to questions in advance. This allows scientists to spend time on the program when it is most convenient for them. Then, each interview will only take a few minutes, as the scientist just needs to copy/paste the appropriate answers. Scientists using this approach frequently sign up for 10-15 interviews.

Personal Attention – Scientists may respond to questions as the emails arrive and allow for follow-up questions or questions not on the list. This gives the students more personal attention, but requires more time from the scientists. Scientists using this approach frequently sign up for 1-3 interviews.

Am I a scientist?
If you think you might be a scientist, you probably are. This program considers a scientist anyone that has a background in science and uses it as part of his or her career. Scientists do not need to be active professionals, but may be undergraduate, graduate, or retired scientists. Scientists can be from any geographic location.

I’m an undergraduate or graduate student. Am I eligible?
Yes. Undergraduate and graduate students are in a unique position to answer questions about pursuing a science education after high school.

I’m retired. Am I eligible?
Yes, as a retired scientist you have the unique ability to talk to students about how a career develops and changes over time. In addition, you can discuss the effects of scientific and technological advancements in your field. Retired scientists can also talk about what happens after a career in science.

I’m a scientist outside the United States. Am I eligible?
Yes. International scientists are in a unique position to expose high school students to how science crosses country borders.

How do I give you feedback on my experience in the program?
Please email us at education.aip.org! Whether you use the prepared feedback questions or give us a testimonial about your experience, your feedback will help us determine whether this program is worth repeating and expanding in the future.

What do you do with the personal information you collect from the scientists?
All the personal information is stored in an internal database. We provide teachers with the names and email addresses of their scientists, as well as any optional information given. The information is not posted publicly and the email addresses will only be used to contact scientists about Adopt a Scientist.

Information about the Interviews

What are the interview questions?
Students can choose 3-5 questions from this list to ask their adopted scientist. Scientists should preface each interview with their name, job title, and place of work.

For all scientists:

How would you describe your job? What do you do in a typical day?

What type of organization do you work for? Is this unusual for someone with your background? Why did you choose to work there?

Do you think that your educational background prepared you for your current occupation? What would you change?

When you were 18, what did you want to do when you grew up? How has that changed? Why?

What is your favourite aspect of your job? Least favourite?

What skills or personality traits are important for someone working in your field?

What is the most interesting or unusual project you’ve worked on?

What advice do you have for current high school students interested in science? What advice would you give to someone looking to enter your field?

What do you feel is the most significant or pressing problem in your field?

What are the logistics of your work? (pay, hours, vacation time, collaboration with other scientists and non-scientists, balancing work and family, time spent gathering or analyzing data…)

What personal challenges have you encountered in your pursuit of science? How did you overcome them?

Where do you find inspiration? How do you think of original ideas or choose the problems you work on?

How is your approach to science different than when you were in high school?

For women and minority scientists:

What is it like to be a woman or minority in your field?

What are the biggest challenges?

What resources are available?

How have things changed during your career?

For undergraduate and graduate students:

Why did you choose your school?

What resources did you find for paying for your education?

How do you decide to go to graduate school?

How is studying science at your level different than science in high school classes?

For retired scientists:

Did you work in the same field for your entire career, or did you change fields?

What are you doing now that you have retired?

What changes in society or science were most meaningful to you as a scientist? Why?

Why is there a pre-set list of questions?
Having a pre-set list of interview questions allows scientists to handle easily interviews from more than one school by recycling their answers. While this may limit some students from asking about their particular interests, it has the advantage of opening the program up to many more students. Some scientists are willing to have students ask questions beyond those on the question list.

If the answers are all prepared in advance, why not just post them online?
This project is designed to be an interview-based project rather than a research project. Scientists and students are free to go beyond the format and engage in interaction that is more personal if both sides are willing.

Do the students get to select a scientist that interests them or are they matched up randomly?
For the pilot project, we can’t provide teachers with enough information about the scientists for students to be able to select them based on common interest. Although we would like to do this eventually, this year the students are matched up randomly.

Who is responsible for the views of the scientists?
The Scientists are responsible for their own views. The content and the opinions of the scientists have not been reviewed by any organizing body. Teachers are encouraged to filter all email communication through their own email addresses if they are concerned about the students corresponding directly with the scientists.

Still have questions?
Email us at education@aip.org.

Information for Teachers

How do I register?
Thank you for your interest in the Adopt a Scientist program. At this time, however, we have reached our maximum number of participating classrooms. If the response is positive to our premiere run of this program, we will repeat it again next year. Please email education@aip.org if you would like to be considered for next year's program. Thanks again for your interest in Adopt a Scientist.

What are the teachers expected to do?
We will email teachers a list of scientists, their email addresses, and any additional information the scientists have provided (gender, ethnicity, undergraduate or graduate student, retired, dates unavailable for interviews). We will also send them the list of interview questions and a feedback form.

Teachers should break their classes into small groups and assign each group one scientist to interview. Each group should select 3-5 questions from the prepared list to ask their scientist. It is very important that students stick to the questions on the list since scientists have prepared their answers in advance. After the interviews, the groups should present the results to the class so that the class can gain an understanding of the variety of opportunities available within science.

Because this is a pilot program, feedback is essential in assessing the effectiveness of the program and improving it for future years. Please send us an email letting us know how the program went for you. You can answer the feedback questions or send us a testimonial of your experience. Only classes that send us feedback about their experience will be eligible to utilize this program in the future.

Does Adopt a Scientist come with a lesson plan?
Adopt a Scientist does not come with a specific lesson plan, but here are some ideas to get you started…

Background Research - Many of the scientists and/or their places of employment have websites that can be found with a simple web search. Students can include this information in their presentations.

Defining “Scientist” - Have the class write about or discuss what they think a scientist is and does before the interview. Then, repeat the exercise after the interviews and discuss how answers changed.

Predictive Answers - After the students have picked the questions they are going to ask their scientist but before they conduct the interview, have them predict how their scientist will respond. Compare the predictions with the actual responses.

Comparing Answers - Have the whole class decide on the 3-5 interview questions they find most interesting, then ask all the scientists these same questions. How are the answers similar and different between scientists?

We would love to hear how you incorporated Adopt a Scientist into your classroom!

Can I select specific scientists for my class?
We do not have the resources to allow special requests. We do ensure that every group of scientists has a diverse set of careers and backgrounds. We have worked hard to include a mixture of fields of study, stage in career, and gender and ethnic diversity in each group. We do have a limited number of scientists who prefer phone interviews or can do interviews in Spanish; please let us know if this would be helpful to you.

How do I give you feedback on my experience?
Feedback is essential to a pilot program, so please tell us about your experience. You can respond to our questions or send us a testimonial about your experience via email.