<p>Can a high school science teacher be involved in research outside of their teaching schedule? I am considering becoming a high school science teacher, and to also pursue my passion of research to the side.</p>
<p>Thinking of double majoring in Neuroscience and Chemistry, and possibly a minor in secondary education to the side. I was thinking teaching Chemistry (more in demand than biology), and then do research in Neuroscience, and maybe start a neuroscience club at whatever school I end up at (yeah, I'm gushing now)... And yeah, I know I could become a professor instead and do research there, but I think I prefer the high school level since I'd be working with a more varied background of people, and I feel that it could be more rewarding to inspire instead of 'working' with those already interested. And that's why I am asking this question here anyway too!</p>
<p>Any insight or suggestion would be greatly appreciated too, thanks</p>
<p>I think this would be very difficult. Not impossible, but very difficult. You’ll be working all day, so you would have to choose projects that don’t require much time, or much in the way of time-critical steps and which will accommodate your work schedule. You won’t have access to research-grade equipment. You won’t have any significant research budget for supplies or animal care. I’m sure if you are creative, you could come up with something to do, and start a club with students, but it wouldn’t be anything like professional research, more like a fun hobby that likely will never get published.</p>
<p>Thanks for some insight. That doesn’t really matter to me, as long as I get to be involved here and there, maybe be on board at some research facility (I know a teacher who does this). I am also the club president at the Research Club at my school with my teacher, and my teacher is also a board of director for a local research competition as well. Just trying to keep my options open, that’s all.</p>
<p>It would be difficult to do it during the school year. My sons’ physics teacher and Science Olympiad helper spent one summer at Columbia working on nanotubes as part of some program that was specifically designed to get high school teachers research experience.</p>
<p>There are two areas of science I know of that dedicated amateurs make regular and even important contributions: paleontology and astronomy. Those are also good areas to generate interest in high school students. Paleontology extends to study of geology and biology.</p>
<p>I will tell you about a private HS that my daughter went to because she did do research there with a teacher. But he wasn’t really a teacher so much as the Director of the Alf Museum of Paleontology that is part of the school. Students who attend are introduced to paleontology fieldwork, lab work, research as part of the science program. Several teachers are involved in that. The Director, who holds a PhD both works with students and does research; they have a 2nd PhD in house doing research now. He also teaches a paleontology elective and an independent study elective. Advanced students attend professional conferences and have had some papers published.</p>
<p>This program started in the 1930’s when a biology teacher took his students out to a desert area and they discovered a new species of fossil pig. This inspired the bio teacher to delve into paleontology and the expeditions continued until eventually they built a museum that now holds over 70,000 specimens that students, faculty and friends have collected. Over the years students have been exposed to research and discovery and inspired many students to go into sciences, including a student who went on to be a remarkable paleontologist.
<a href=“http://research.amnh.org/paleontology/f/Malcolm_McKenna.pdf”>http://research.amnh.org/paleontology/f/Malcolm_McKenna.pdf</a></p>
<p>I know this school also has certain resources and were able to gather donations over time to make this all happen but they didn’t start out with any special equipment. They have some now and the school also has a small observatory with a powerful telescope, scanning electron microscope–resources that are not very common in high schools. Trying to do things with public school resources would be a challenge.</p>
<p>Either way, college or HS instructor, you need to get a B.S. in Chemistry. (or whatever science). The education training component would generally be part of a 5 year BS/MS or a separate MS. So you can adjust your major and then toward junior year figure out if you are interested in H.S. teaching or if research is more your thing. If you taught at a state school or small school you probably would still get a great variety of students who take Chem101.</p>
<p>I think this would be really hard at a public school, but easier at a private/independent school. In fact, many independent schools would encourage it.</p>
<p>An alternative to you is to teach at a community college. You would also be working with a very varied group of people, and there’s honestly not a huge difference between high school seniors and college freshmen. Community college teachers are not expected to do much research, and many of them have very heavy teaching loads (4/4, which means 4 classes per semester). But they generally have access to more resources to do research, and their time is structured in such a way that it might be easier to do some. You can teach at a community college with an MA, although for some in more competitive job markets you may need a PhD to be competitive.</p>
<p>I also think if you taught at less selective four-colleges you’d get the kind of experience you want - students from varied backgrounds (including students of color and students who are kind of disinterested or lost) plus perhaps more time and resources to do research. I’m thinking of like regional state colleges and four-year colleges that have nearly open admissions - they range in selectivity, from places like Cal Poly Pomona to Middle Georgia State College. You would need a PhD to be competitive for jobs at these places.</p>
<p>A third option is to have a mostly-research day job (like at a pharmaceutical company or research institute. or whatever) but teach community college classes in the evening.</p>
<p>I know of summer programs at universities that allow HS teachers to do research, but doing the school year, especially for the first couple of years, you’ll be too damn tired!!!</p>
<p>I’m almost certain I mentioned this in one of your other queries along these lines, but my D goes to a grade 6 - 12 STEM school which encourages all sorts of out-of-the-box ideas by both students and faculty. Some students do actual research in health care organizations in Seattle, several of the teachers have arranged for kids to do things that would normally only be available to college kids. It’s an amazing place and I can PM you the location or you can do a search for similar schools around the country. What you want is a school or district that will allow you to be more than a traditional teacher. A school that allows students to spread their wings would be the best place for that.</p>
<p>When D was in high school, her class assisted Mary Claire King with her disappeared( Argentine) research but as far as original research, I agree that during the school year you would be too busy!</p>
<p>One of the chem teachers at my kids’ public HS does research every summer at MIT (as part of a research team, not original research). There is no way he would have time to do this during the school year as he coaches one of the scool’s science teams which takes up several hours per week outside of regular school hours. He is an amazing teacher and mentor to the kids he teaches and coaches and has inspired many students to study science in college. Sounds a little bit like what you aspire to. All of this to say that research is possible, but maybe not in the way you are envisioning, </p>
<p>OP, have you participated in neuroscience research yet? Most neuroscience research involves either cell biology (culturing mammalian cells) or animal models, and requires infrastructure, certifications, resources, etc. which would be extremely difficult if not impossible to obtain/support in a HS facility. Most neuroscience research uses biological or at the very least biochemical methodology rather than chemical; I am having a hard time envisioning a neuroscience research project that could be carried out using the resources in a typical undergraduate freshman chemistry teaching lab, which I think would correspond to the best-equipped high school chemistry classroom. Rather than actually doing research, I suppose you could follow some chemical recipes to make compounds which are known to have some neurological effect; however a) if these are regulated chemicals you’d need to have approval that may be difficult to obtain in a high school, b) following recipes isn’t research and c) if you wanted to follow by testing the biological activity of the compounds you make, you would probably not be able to obtain equipment, supplies, and approval to do so. </p>
<p>The advice given by several other posters to do research in the summer in a lab at a university is excellent, especially if you can go back to the same lab each summer so each year you don’t have to start from scratch learning a new system, and can hit the ground running. For context, I have a friend who is a departmental chair of a biology department in a small private 4-year college; his graduate work was in genetics, and in order to keep his hands in research he spends his summers in a lab in a local research university, because his own department in a LAC isn’t adequately equipped for real experiments.</p>
<p>I suggest that, if you haven’t already, you find a way to volunteer in a neurosciences lab - either in the summer if you are still in HS or during the school year if you are in college. There is nothing like first-hand experience to help you decide on a path to take.</p>
<p>You certainly wouldn’t be able to work with vertebrates or cultured cells as a high school teacher, but there is plenty of neuroscience work being done on invertebrates. The problem is you would still need access to expensive equipment and reagents. You’d have to be extremely creative to come up with something meaningful you could do with high school equipment, very limited time, and a very limited budget.</p>
<p>Invertebrates fall under animal models at the institutions with which I’m familiar, and experiments with them still require institutional approval. I have no idea how this would work in a HS setting.</p>
<p>I am a chemist. I’ve worked in academic research, in the pharmaceutical industry as a research chemist, and as a high school chemistry teacher (well, I’m in the middle of my student teaching right now, so I’m close.) I heartily agree with MAdad and others - there is no way you could do research AND be a high school teacher at the same time AND do justice to both professions. Holy moly, this teaching thing is exhausting!</p>
<p>The summer research programs are a good idea. </p>
<p>In research environments, primarily to conform to requirements of funding and regulatory agencies but sometimes just for internal documentation to “cya” in case something goes wrong, there are various committees to approve various types of research protocols and/or various types of materials to be used. Depending on the invertebrate species and the type of study (e.g. Are live animals involved? Will animals be sacrificed?) the experiments may need to be vetted by the relevant committee(s). I have no idea what would be required/possible in a HS setting that is not set up for research and presumably not receiving funding for research, but it would not surprise me if the HS admins would prefer to avoid dealing with these issues altogether.</p>