Academics Taking Action
We are a group of group of graduate students working towards empowering and protecting graduate students from abuses of power that take place in academia. Over the past few years we’ve engaged our entire department in conversations related to power dynamics, harassment, and other harmful actions, and are constantly working towards a supportive and inclusive environment for everyone.
In our department we also call ourselves the Safe Spaces Committee, but we started Academics Taking Action, where we document our story & share resources, to broaden our impact and hopefully inspire other departments and institutions to address workplace behavior in academia.
Our story is featured in Science Magazine!
ComSciCon
ComSciCon is a science communication workshop for graduate students by graduate students.
For 3 years, I’ve been involved with the local Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill chapter, ComSciCon Triangle, first as an attendee, then on the organizing committee. Each year we host a 2-day workshop in the Research Triangle area, bringing in experts from local and national organizations, to train graduate students in the basics of scicomm and a selection of topics for that year (past topics include science and policy, science improv, scicomm and multimedia, scicomm careers both in and out of academia, to name a few!) Applications usually open in January each year. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or ComSciCon Triangle on twitter if you have questions!
SciRen
The Scientific Research and Education Network is another graduate student let outreach opportunity, currently in NC Research Triangle area, NC Coast, and Georgia. Grads interested in education should definitely check this out! First, you will attend a workshop with K-12 educators to learn how to create a lesson plan that satisfies NC curriculum requirements. My experience with this workshop was incredible- the teachers are so incredibly inspiring, and they are very keen to help you develop a lesson plan that they can use! SciRen will also host a networking event, which is a gallery-style even for grads to showcase their lesson plan activity while educators walk around and find activities suitable for their classroom.
My lesson, “Connected Coral Reefs”, introduces students to coral reef ecosystems and uses it as a model to demonstrate the connection between humans and their environment. The lesson plan and associated materials can be found here