The Young People’s Project (YPP) is on a mission to change the landscape of who participates in the learning and teaching of STEM education in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville Massachusetts. YPP is committed to working with populations of students who have been historically underrepresented in STEM learning and careers.  YPP understands that part of the solution to the problem of improving STEM education access and outcomes for populations of students who are being left behind lies within the students themselves, who we view as valuable assets and problem solvers.  YPP has over 25 years of experience engaging and employing young people to work in and out of school to learn math well enough to teach, lead, and organize math literacy for their younger peers. 

Description of Role

The Computer Science For All: Building Capacity in Computer Science Education and Student Near Peer Classroom Mentorship Is an integrated math and computer science Professional Development research project that emphasizes a cascading near-peer project based pedagogical approach to math instruction. 

College STEM Literacy Workers (CSLWs) are local college age undergrad and/or graduate STEM majors from groups historically underrepresented in STEM.  They have two essential roles in this project.

The first role is to work directly with YPP and Bootstrap staff to become apprentice YPP educators of integrated computer science education through the Bootstrap Algebra curriculum and YPP Pedagogy. CSLWs will act as co-learners and co-facilitators with teachers in professional development sessions.

The second role is to work hand and hand with 9th grade math teachers to deliver quality content knowledge pertaining to the Bootstrap: Algebra module and other computational thinking principles. Some of the duties in the classroom are, but not limited to:

1. Help to build a safe, inviting, challenging, respectful and engaging learning environment and culture in the classroom;
2. Build meaningful professional relationships with the students, teacher, and YPP staff;
3. Help students develop the thinking, communication, problem-solving, management, inquiry, team-building, and interpersonal skills they will need to become successful in school and in life;
4. Become leaders in the classroom by helping to teach the material and manage a classroom.

Candidates with many of the following skills and attributes will do well in this role:

• Ability to learn from, teach and co-lead a classroom of 20 in STEM related content
• Comfortable with coding, research and development
• To understand that the way you might solve a problem might not be the best solution
• To believe, trust, and act on the suggestions of your students
• Strong presentation/communication of curriculum measured by observation
• Demonstrates Patience and Professionalism
• Shows interest in the lives and well being of all students
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, problem solving, multi-tasking, and leadership skills, and the ability to independently accomplish responsibilities as a member of multidisciplinary team
• Open to all opinions, varying views and questions
• Understand the institutional obstacles and barriers facing the students in the schools and communities you will work 
• Understand and be able to articulate YPP Mission, History, and Purpose of Math Literacy work
• Ensuring Students are learning and mastering the materials
• Meeting with other staff to coordinate the flow of the day, lesson plan, turn in lesson plans on time to get feedback and make adjustments before any outreach
• Documenting where students need help and which skills need work 
• Have continued and timely communication with other instructors and Coordinator
• Take notes during the session so you can add it to skills needed to work on with MLWs
• Conduct and document one-on-ones and make that information available to Director
• Foster an effective relationship with MLWs
• Ensure that attendance and other data collection is tracked and documented constantly and regularly

Basic Qualifications 

• Residency in the Boston area
• Between age 19-25 or enrolled at a Boston area college/university with interests in STEM
• Experience with any coding language
• Comfortable with giving presentations 
• Comfortable with instructing in urban schools
• Openness to learning a “New Way to Teach” 
• Loves to design, act and revise

Compensation & Schedule

• Part-time
• $17/hr