Please complete this form by Friday, APRIL 26 to apply to be a PreCollege Scholars (PCS) Program instructor:
CPET's Precollege Scholars (PCS) Program 2024 is a summer opportunity for UF graduate students (teams of 2 grad students) to design and teach a college-level short course for motivated high school students. Only one proposal application needs to be submitted per team.
PCS offers graduate students the opportunity to enhance their teaching and communication skills, gain experience in disseminating the broader impacts of their scholarship and/or research, serve as a role model/mentor for future colleagues; and offers pre-college students the opportunity to improve their college preparedness.
We invite you and a colleague graduate student to co-design and teach an online short course (16 contact hours total) on a topic of your choice to a small group (15 - 20) of highly motivated high school students. These bright, enthusiastic students are curious and anxious to experience college-level coursework and intellectual interactions and to learn about special topics and life on campus. Due to the online format, we are not limited to serving precollege students, who live near a university or other higher education facility; PCS is open to students all over the country.
Expectations:
- Your topic should be related to your research or scholarship area in any discipline on campus. Interdisciplinary topics are especially welcomed.
- Your course should be interactive and engaging- not lecture only; students must actively participate—please be creative!
- Assignments outside of class are expected; literature analysis, problem sets, case histories, storytelling, small group projects, videos, etc., are just a few examples.
- You must have a way to assess student learning; short presentations, projects, debates, games, etc., are better choices than exams or multiple-choice quizzes.
- You must be sure that there are two instructors during each class (this is UF's Youth Protection requirement!).
- Graduate student Instructors must undergo a background screening and youth safety training
- CPET offers a stipends ($250 for each of 2 instructors).
- You will select the grade level of the students you wish to reach. You may choose to teach your course for rising high school juniors and seniors only, or target your course to all high school students. You may also require pre-requisites for your short-course (like programming skills).
- If your course proposal is accepted, you will be required to submit a traditional course syllabus with a detailed description of the course.
- The short courses will be either 2 weeks or 3 weeks in length, with 15-16 contact hours per course (1 credit equivalence). You can choose the session format that is best for you.
- Both graduate student teachers must be eligible for employment at the University of Florida.
You will select one of these sessions:
Session 1: June 10 - July 2
Session 2: June 25 - July 19
The full schedule with class time choices is listed below:
CPET can offer only a small stipends --- so you are essentially volunteering!....but we do provide a legitimate teaching (not just a TA) experience that can help your resume, enhance communication skills, and increase the broader impacts of your research; and we write strong letters of recommendation! Far more importantly, you make a huge impact on these bright young students, both personally and professionally, especially since they have lost so much during the pandemic.
As the course director (Hazel Levy, hclevy@ufl.edu)
, I am glad to answer any questions, discuss concerns, etc. Please visit the CPET website for a list of past PCS courses taught by UF graduate student teams (see
Precollege Scholars CPET). Once your course is selected, I will meet with you to discuss your course details and schedule, request your syllabus, and to thank you personally (via zoom!) for inspiring, preparing, and exciting students about their future college and careers!
More information about all of our UF CPET programs can be found at https://www.cpet.ufl.edu.
Thanks so much for considering this opportunity!