NASA DEVELOP Spring 2025 Internships

NASA DEVELOP is an applied science, capacity-building program in NASA’s Earth Science Division. In collaboration with partner organizations, NASA DEVELOP conducts 10-week feasibility studies that address local, national, and international environmental and policy concerns using data collected by NASA’s Earth-observing fleet of satellites. NASA DEVELOP operates at thirteen locations across the country at NASA Centers and other regional locations.

As a capacity-building program, DEVELOP offers program participants opportunities to learn about Earth science and develop research, collaboration, and science communication skills. NASA DEVELOP research teams are interdisciplinary and built around members from diverse backgrounds, differing skill levels in Earth science research and science communication, and the unique experiences and strengths each participant brings to a team. No previous experience in Earth science research is necessary for these positions, and applicants with backgrounds in other fields of study are encouraged to apply.

Details about this opportunity and how to apply can be found at https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/nasadevelop. Applications for the Spring 2025 term (January 27th-April 4th) are due this Friday, October 4th, with recommendations due October 18th. Weekly work schedules are flexible, but applicants should be able to commit to 20 – 29 hours of work per week during the project term. These positions are paid on an hourly basis, and pay rates are determined by education level and geographic location. A list of planned projects with their associated NASA DEVELOP locations is attached to this email. Please note that some DEVELOP locations allow for in-person opportunities while others are virtual. For virtual locations, all accepted participants must work remotely from within the United States.


UW Dawg Daze Thrift Swap

Join us THIS FRIDAY from 2 – 6PM down in Wallace Hall for an exciting Dawg Daze event in partnership with PoE RSO SPORES! Bring your unwanted clothing items to participate in a thrift swap and enjoy light refreshments. All unclaimed clothing items will be donated after the event. Now is a great time to clean out your closet and snag some new items for the start of the school year!


Seattle REconomy Tool Sale

Tool Sale @ NE Seattle Tool Library (9/21): All Offers Accepted!

Seattle REconomy is hosting a Tool Sale at the NE Seattle Tool Library (NESTL) on September 21st from 9am–3pm! This event is free and open to the community. Whether you are putting together your furniture, starting DIY projects, or need tools for school, our Tool Sale can help you out! You could even purchase a bike to make commuting easier or get gear for some outdoor adventures.

With that, not only will there be thousands of tools for sale, but we’ll also have several bikes, outside gear, a bake sale, t-shirt making, and tours of NESTL! There will also be a special offer for new members: A 15% off coupon for our ReUse Building Materials Shop at the Shoreline Tool Library!

Categories of tools available include power tools, landscaping, hand tools, electrical, painting, plumbing, kitchen, building materials, and so much more available for ANY price!

  • $10 for a circular saw, no problem.
  • $5 for a shovel, sure.
  • A knowing nod for a screwdriver? As long as it’s sincere, it’s a deal!

Our goal for these Tool Sales is to keep tools out of landfills and make tools more accessible. The addition of gear in partnership with GeerGarage also helps keep outdoor gear in use and connects nature lovers in the area.

The NE Seattle Tool Library is most accessible to UW students through the 372 bus that runs around campus. Folks tend to start lining up one hour before the event starts.

You can let us know you’re coming by signing up here! All proceeds support the Seattle REconomy community and our tool libraries in NE Seattle and Shoreline. Please email info@seattlereconomy.org if you have any questions.

Location: NE Seattle Tool Library (10228 Fischer Pl NE)
Date: Saturday, September 21
Time: 9am-3pm

 


Apply Now: Assistant Teaching Professor, Environmental Studies

The University of Washington Program on the Environment (PoE) invites applications for 2 faculty positions at the level of Assistant Teaching Professor in any field of Environmental Studies. These positions may teach courses in at least one of the following areas:

  • Bioregional natural history
  • International socio-ecological issues
  • Quantitative and qualitative data analysis
  • Environmental justice

Positions are full-time (100% FTE) over a 9-month service period with additional possible summer teaching.  The intial appointment is 3 years.  After the initial appointment, they can be renewed up to 5 years as an Assistant Teaching Professor.  Teaching faculty are ineligible for tenure.  All teaching responsibilities will be in the Program on the Environment (PoE); however, the academic appointment will be based in an academic appointing unit within the College of the Environment, depending on interests and expertise of the successful candidate. Teaching Professors are full voting members of their academic appointing unit faculty.  The anticipated start of the position is September 16, 2025.

The base salary range for this position is $8,500 to $11,000 per month commensurate with experience and qualifications, or as mandated by a U.S. Department of Labor prevailing wage determination. Other compensation associated with this position may include start-up funds, lump sum moving allowance and/or a relocation incentive.

All UW faculty engage in teaching, scholarship, and service. The Teaching Faculty in the PoE are long-term educational professionals who combine instructional excellence with a variety of leadership, community building, outreach, advancement of pedagogy, and disciplinary scholarship work.


Autumn Course: ENVIR 495 A, Environmental Innovation Practicum

Environmental Innovation Practicum (2 credits, credit/no-credit) | Tuesdays | 4 to 5:50 pm

Jointly-listed: ENVIR 495, ENTRE 443/543, ENGR 498A

Interested in finding solutions to today’s climate and environmental challenges? Take this Autumn Quarter class and find out how! The environmental innovation practicum (ENVIR 495, ENTRE 443/543, ENGR 498A) is instructed by Christian Primack Metcalfe, president and co-founder of Korvata, a company he was inspired to create as a student in this exact class! Each week you’ll fill your toolbox with new skills and problem-solving experience while also engaging with guest speakers from multiple sectors. This 2 credit/no credit course is open to all levels of undergraduates and graduate students providing a great opportunity for these groups of students to connect. An idea you work on as part of the class could even gain enough traction to do well in the Environmental Innovation Challenge. Questions? E-mail Lauren Brohawn at brohal@uw.edu.


Reuse Seattle Volunteer Opportunity

Are you interested in supporting reuse efforts in Seattle? Look no further!

Reuse Seattle is a City of Seattle initiative, partnering with community events throughout the city to
pilot reusable dishware. To ensure a successful pilot, we need to educate event attendees to return
their reusable dishware–because there is no reuse without returns!

We are looking for volunteers to stay near the return stations at events, direct attendees to return
their reusable dishware, and educate attendees about the pilot and the benefits of reuse. Volunteers
will receive:
(1) Volunteer training
(2) A complimentary Reuse Seattle t-shirt
(3) A promo code for a membership with Okapi — a reusable cup program in participating cafes

Interested in supporting and attending some incredible Seattle events? Fill out the volunteer form
below!

https://forms.office.com/g/wq7hC2J0ix


UW CELE Center Student Job Opportunity: Communications Assistant

Position available: CEC Communications Assistant
Department: UAA, Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center
Hours: 12-15 hours per week, flexible with student’s schedule
Compensation: $19.97 per hour
Work Study Job Number: CELE02

Undergraduate Academic Affairs (UAA) shapes, advances, and stewards a world-class
undergraduate academic experience for students at the University of Washington. Staff, faculty
and students in UAA deepen and enrich the learning experience for all undergraduates,
recognizing and supporting the unique learning path of each individual student and the
commitment of each academic program to excellence in learning and teaching.
Within UAA, the Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center unit
provides students with opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to
contribute to thriving communities. Building authentic community and campus partnerships
drive our work. CELE programs are centered around the areas of community-engaged learning,
democratic engagement, leadership education, pK-12 student success and place-based
initiatives.

The CELE Center is accepting applications for a Community-Engaged Courses (CEC)
Communications Assistant. Community-engaged courses combine service in the community
with structured preparation and reflection opportunities, and address concerns that are
identified and articulated by the community.
Objectives: The Community-Engaged Courses (CEC) Communications Assistant will work in
close cooperation with CEC staff in the CELE Center to provide support on key components of
the center’s Community-Engaged Courses program and will support digital communications
through email, web contact forms, and CELE social media channels. The CEC Communications
Assistant will contribute to the University of Washington’s commitment to community
engagement through supporting both community organizations and undergraduate students in
the community-engaged learning process.

Job Responsibilities:

  • Under guidance of CEC staff, participate in the development of undergraduate community-engaged courses positions by communicating with contacts at community-based and non-profit organizations by phone, email, and in-person.
  • Provide peer advising to students from community-engaged courses, managing student
    inquiries both in-person and over email.
    Support CEC staff in quarterly database management with processing forms, updates
    and documentation.
  • Assist with in-class presentations to community-engaged courses during the quarter.
  • Graphic design and content development for outreach materials and event collateral.
  • Represent the CELE Center at tabling and outreach events on campus.

Required Qualifications:

  • Excellent communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills.
  • Ability to work effectively with diverse populations of students, community
    partners, and staff.
  • Experience navigating and managing digital platforms.
  • Highly motivated and self-directed.
  • Genuine interest in community engagement and service.
  • Interest in personal and professional development.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience with community engagement/service/volunteer work with community
    organizations or non-profits in the greater Seattle community.
  • Practice in public speaking and/or presentations.
  • Exposure to platforms such as Prezi, Canva, and Mailchimp.
  • Interest and excitement around communications.

Benefits:

  • Valuable experience for students to gain professional and personal development
    through work experience and coaching.
  • Interesting/relevant work environment for students who are already involved or
    interested in student services, public service, and non-profit work.

To apply please submit the following:

  • A current resume including the names and contact information for two references.
  • A cover letter that includes:
    ○ Why you are applying for this position
    ○ Articulating your interest in communications, peer advising, and developing
    community-campus relationships.
    ○ A description of two to three things you seek to learn from this opportunity

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. The position will remain open until filled. Application review will begin in mid-August, and priority consideration will be given to applications received by August 19. The student selected for this role should plan for orientation and training to begin the week before Autumn Quarter classes start; exact schedule during the week of September 16, 2024 to be determined after hire.

To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at 206.543.6450/V, 206.543.6452/TTY, 206.685.7264 (FAX), or dso@u.washington.edu.

Priority Deadline: Please submit all materials via email by Monday, August 19 to engage@uw.edu. We are hoping to conduct interviews during the final week of August and make hiring decisions during the first week of September. Questions can be directed to Maria Lee, Program Manager of Community-Engaged Courses at the email listed.

Box 352803
171 Mary Gates Hall Seattle, WA 98195-2803
206.543.4282
engage@uw.edu
https://cele.uw.edu/


Bloomberg Green Festival — Students attend free!

Bloomberg Green Festival is a global collaboration between innovators, policymakers, entrepreneurs, artists, activists, musicians and more, to explore new solutions spanning the entire climate spectrum.

Headquartered at our Seattle Center campus, the festival will cover four themes vital to creating practical, collective change: Technology and Innovation, The Climate Economy, Greener Living and Green Policy. Through dining experiences, performances, installations and cultural moments, guests will be immersed in interactive learning, participate in data-driven experiences and build relationships with world-renowned experts. Whether you run a business or a household, lead a non-profit or work within your community group, have already begun effecting change in an organization or don’t know where to start, or simply want to learn how your everyday choices can contribute to a global movement – this festival is for everyone who cares about this planet and all 8 billion of its fans.

If you are a current UW student of any major, admission to this festival is completely free! Please email miajlh34@uw.edu to receive a promo code to register.


CoEnv Highlight: UW researchers use DNA to investigate a green crab whodunit

Over the past several years, shellfish growers in Washington’s Willapa Bay have raised the alarm that Manila clams, one of the region’s most important commercially grown shellfish, were inexplicably declining. At the same time, these aquaculturists have witnessed growing populations of one of North America’s most destructive invaders: the European green crab.

But determining if the crabs were directly responsible for the declining clam populations — that is, whether they were eating them — was trickier than it sounds. Marine ecosystems are complicated, and as it turns out, green crabs don’t give up their secrets easily.

“I’ve spent more than 20 years trying to figure out what crabs eat,” said P. Sean McDonald, associate teaching professor in the UW Program on the Environment and School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “It is an incredibly difficult proposition. Crabs are like little self-contained blenders, and anything that goes into their mouths is immediately turned into a slurry. It’s like trying to identify the individual parts of a smoothie.”


COIL Project Bringing Students from the UW and Taiwan Together for An Interdisciplinary and Cross-Cultural Learning Experience

This spring, students in Professor Yen-Chu Weng’s course “Environmental Issues in East Asia” participated in an Online International Collaboration Learning (COIL) project with students from Taiwan on evaluating the accessibility of interpretive signs in nature parks. COIL is an approach to foster global competence through development of a multicultural learning environment that links university classes in different countries. Using various communication technologies, students complete shared assignments and projects, with faculty members from each country co-teaching and managing coursework (UW Bothell COIL Initiative). 

Professor Weng’s course partnered with Professor Chen-Chen Cheng’s course in Special Education from National Kaohsiung Normal University. Through a five-week collaboration, students from both campuses had joint lectures on the basic design principles for accessible interpretive signs and inclusive communication for people with disabilities. Project teams from each campus conducted field work to observe and analyze interpretive signs in their respective cities – The UW Arboretum and the UW Farm in Seattle and several parks in Kaohsiung and Tainan, two major cities in Southern Taiwan. The culmination of the COIL module was a mini presentation comparing and contrasting the accessibility of interpretive signs in nature parks between Taiwan and Seattle. (See student final presentations here.)

Students were asked to have a specific person with disabilities in mind as the intended park user when they visited the park and conducted the analysis. In addition to physical disabilities (vision, hearing, mobility), invisible differences in abilities such as reading abilities, education level, attention span, neurodivergence, and levels of interest in the subject should also be considered. Students analyzed the accessibility of interpretive signs in the following aspects: physical accessibility, communication accessibility, and multi-modality experience. 

There were seven project groups, and each group had a mix of students from Taiwan and from the UW. A total of 70 signs were analyzed. In terms of the purposes of the signs, they varied from maps and directions, environmental education (information on the species, ecology, and environmental science) to park rules and regulations. 

Most of the signs were written in a single language (either English or Mandarin Chinese). A few signs in Taiwan had English translations. Only a few signs had braille texts for the visually impaired. Most of the signs were informational and did not allow interactivity. Only a few signs had either QR codes for more information or flip panels that a user could explore more.

The learning objectives of this COIL module are multi-folded, including both an understanding and application of the universal accessibility concepts to analyze interpretive signs in nature parks and cross-cultural competency and reflection. 

One UW student shared that: “Analyzing signs in Seattle has truly broadened my appreciation of accessibility from various dimensions… The multi-modality dimension has highlighted the importance of providing information in different formats to cater to various learning styles and sensory preferences. It’s about recognizing that not everyone learns or absorbs information in the same way, so offering a variety of formats like visual, auditory, and tactile ensures inclusivity for all visitors.”

In terms of the cross-cultural collaboration experiences, several UW students shared that: “Collaborating with students from Taiwan was an incredibly enriching experience, one that I’m genuinely grateful for.” “This project allowed me to appreciate the privilege of speaking English as my mother tongue and how that makes it easier to collaborate with not just Americans but people of all identities.” “The COIL project allowed me to further understand how many similarities there are between the daily lives of people throughout the world, although of course differences still exist. When discussing accessibility, many of the same issues arose in both the United States and Taiwan.”

Students in Professor Cheng’s “Communication Training for Students with Disabilities” class also greatly appreciated this rare collaborative international learning experience. The following is Professor Cheng’s observation in her class. 

As students in Taiwan seldom encounter people from other countries, one student exclaimed right after her first online meeting with her U.S. partners, “This was my first time talking to a foreigner!” Her eyes shone with amazement that continued through the 5-week project. Learning wise, in addition to having a deeper understanding about the accessibility of interpretive signs in nature park, students from Taiwan experienced first-hand communication breakdowns when they tried to use English, a language they learned in school but did not have a use for in their daily life. While learning how to support students with disabilities to communicate, they now know, to a certain degree, what it felt like to be a person with a “communication need” while attempting to talk to their U.S. partners. A student shared afterwards, “Now I know what multi-modal communication means” as he gestured, mimed, and pointed all at once to make his point.    

In a post-COIL project survey, students ranked the following as having the strongest impact on their growth: Learning and understanding other ways of seeing the world, growth in self-awareness, greater understanding of different cultures, and understanding how to interact with people from different cultures. 

This COIL project was funded by the UW COIL Fellowship, the Global Innovation Fund, and the East Asia Center Travel Grant. Professor Weng and Professor Cheng will present their work at the North American Association for Environmental Education Conference this November. You can learn more about the project on this website: https://sites.google.com/view/uw-nknu-coil2024/home