UC Santa Cruz ISEE Chapter:

Besides managing a number of programs and overseeing PDP participation from Chapters across the U.S. and beyond, ISEE runs programs and maintains active collaboration with local faculty and partners.  The Santa Cruz ISEE Chapter serves graduate students and postdocs from all science and engineering disciplines and has a broad range of teaching options. Santa Cruz PDP participants teach in venues aimed at increasing persistence of undergraduates in STEM, increasing diversity, and affecting curricular change in undergraduate STEM education. Campus support for ISEE’s work comes from Division of Social Sciences, Division of Physical & Biological Sciences, Division of Graduate Studies, Vice Chancellor for Research, Jack Baskin School of Engineering. In addition UC Santa Cruz faculty directly support their students’/researchers’ participation in the PDP through their own grants.

Over the past 19 years of the PDP, UC Santa Cruz-based participants have been involved in developing and teaching over 120 inquiry activities at various local, national, and international venues.

Graduate students and postdocs from UC Santa Cruz are invited to apply for PDP participation. 

Possible Santa Cruz Chapter teaching venues include local PREP programs, biology courses at UC Santa Cruz, the WEST program, and the UCSC Inquiry Demonstration Labs. New venues are continually added.

Graduate students and postdocs who are interested in applying for the Professional Development Program can contact the UCSC Program Manager, Rafael Palomino:  rpalomin@ucsc.edu 

Others in the region who are interested in applying to the PDP, or seeking general information about ISEE, should contact ISEE headquarters at isee@ucsc.edu.

Funding for Santa Cruz participants is available from: a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (52008112; PI: P. Koch); NSF Astronomy grants support astronomy graduate students and postdocs nationally (AST#1347767 and 1643390; PI: L. Hunter); Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant supports participants who will teach in the Akamai PREP short course (FA95501510427, PI: L. Hunter); NSF Astronomy research grant supports UCSC astronomy-related graduate students and postdocs (AST-1412851; PI: C. Max); Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) grant (P200A150100) supports Conservation Biology Fellows at UCSC (PI: R. Mehta; Co-PI: I. Parker); and through UCSC campus support for participants teaching in the WEST program, including a funding allocation from the 2018-2019 Student Fee Advisory Committee.