Virtual Classroom Partnership Program

In 2021, SEP’s virtual partnership programs brought together UCSF scientist volunteers with SFUSD teachers for three visits to the teacher’s virtual classroom. In recognition of the limited capacity of teachers to co-plan with scientists this year, the visit structure was relatively prescribed, with the first visit being a “Meet and Greet” session where the scientists introduced themselves and described their paths to their science careers. The second visit was a virtual lab tour with time for Q&A following the tour, and the third visit was a hands-on activity that required only commonly available household items. Each session was interactive with time for students to ask questions.   

“The scientists I partnered with were incredible. They engaged my students in a wonderful interactive tour of their lab, shared their own stories, and took my student’s through the scientific method in an experiment requiring no extra materials.” – Teacher

One-Visit Virtual Offerings

In 2021, one-time visits were designed with the goal of providing students with exposure to scientist role models and connections to science, while recognizing how little capacity teachers had in the pandemic context.

At the elementary level, we offered STEM Storytimes in which a scientist volunteer read a STEM-themed children’s book followed by a simple science activity. SEP selected age-appropriate STEM picture books and developed short demos or activities related to the book.

At the middle and high school level, we offered virtual Science Career Talks. Volunteers gave a brief interactive talk sharing their background, academic path and current research or studies in a way that used language and scientific concepts that were accessible to the students and where the relevancy of their work was brought to the foreground. The presentation was followed up with an interactive Q&A session for the students.

“Very high engagement, growing a love of learning science. The book was awesome and the follow up activities were perfect” – Teacher