About BEAM
The mission of BEAM is to create pathways for students from low-income and historically marginalized communities to become scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and computer scientists. Led by staff with these same technical backgrounds, BEAM believes that pathways to STEM careers are created through community, individual support, and access to advanced work that typically lies outside most school curricula. We work to directly support students and to transition them to other supportive enrichment programs that enable their future success.
BEAM's model provides continuous support from middle school through college graduation, including intense academic summer programs for middle school students (after 6th and 7th grade), weekend classes and mentoring, and STEM-focused support through college. Our program includes not just access to learning advanced math but also support finding and applying to other opportunities, including support with college admissions and financial aid. In addition to our academic content, bringing students into community is a key part of our mission and all of our work is designed to support that goal.
BEAM has grown from a small summer program serving 17 students in the summer of 2011 to a year-round, national program, serving 420+ students at six summer program sites and 600+ students in year-round programming in New York City and Los Angeles this school year. In addition, our BEAM National pilot program now reaches over 500 elementary-aged students in seven different states, working to create a new nationwide pathway modeled on our local work.
With our recent strategic plan, our team has committed to transforming the organization from a successful startup to a more mature and scalable organization that can drive change across the country.
About the role
This summer, change the lives of underserved students with exceptional potential in math!
Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics (BEAM), a project of the Art of Problem Solving Initiative, Inc., is seeking enthusiastic mathematics instructors for a 5 week long summer day camp. Junior Faculty teach at least one pre-packaged course designed by BEAM and may request to teach a second class of their own design to curious middle school students from low-income and historically marginalized communities and help us to build a community of math-lovers. Ideal candidates for Junior Faculty include graduate students and early career middle or high school teachers with strong mathematical backgrounds. Faculty positions are also available for more experienced teachers and college or university professors.
What You’ll Do:
As a Junior Faculty member, you are a key component of the structure of our program. It is important to us that students are presented with challenging mathematical topics and that they are at the center of the math that happens in the classroom. Our students are inquisitive and enjoy working hands-on, discovering deep mathematics to grow as mathematicians. In a BEAM classroom, students work to discover patterns, connect with each other over their discoveries, make conjectures, and share arguments in favor of or against those conjectures with classmates and their instructor. You’ll support that by:
- Teaching interesting mathematics courses to engaged middle school students. Full-time faculty members teach two 5-week courses that run concurrently (one in the morning, one in the afternoon) and have two sections each. Part-time faculty members teach just one 5-week course with two sections (both in either the morning or the afternoon). Courses at BEAM Discovery can be:
- Logical Reasoning introduces logical reasoning including deductive logic, case analysis, working methodically, and proof by contradiction
- Math Fundamentals leads students to understand mathematics from school (especially foundation, elementary topics) on a deeper, more conceptual level
- Creative Problem Solving exposes students to problems that require creativity, often through math contest problems (or topics that appear often in middle school math contests)
- Applied Math introduces students to applications of math, such as programming, astronomy, mathematical biology (such as predator and prey models, or genetics), or estimation and Fermi problems
- Preparing class materials that allow students to do mathematics (rather than hear about mathematics)
- Leading classes designed to provoke student curiosity and inquiry; ideally, this would be done via activities built to allow students to explore/develop the math directly through their work (as opposed to copying examples and applying them) and where students are given time and space to productively struggle and to get through that struggle
- Supporting student learning, growth, and love of mathematics by fostering positive relationships and being an engaged member of the community during camp activities, such as working with students during Open Math Time, judging Relays, and/or (optionally) eating lunch with students
- Attending staff meetings (typically 1-2 times a week) that include time for building community amongst summer staff, engaging in professional development, and aligning on upcoming priorities
- Attending the pre-program Course Planning Retreat to work on lesson plans/materials, begin working collaboratively with a mentor (your mentor will work with you during camp as well), and receive feedback on draft materials
BEAM Discovery is a day camp, so it isn't necessarily a typical teaching job, but we think that's one of the great things about working with us! Our faculty teach courses they are passionate about and our students have the ability to choose which classes they take: this fosters a strong, positive relationship between enthusiastic learners and faculty who get to share their love of mathematics with them each day.
Who You Are:
Strong candidates will work well on a close-knit team and will be able to bring unique curriculum perspectives to the program. Experience with mathematics curriculum design for middle school audiences, with students from low-income or historically marginalized backgrounds or at Title 1 schools, and with other extracurricular outreach programs (such as math summer programs or math circles, MATHCOUNTS, programming workshops, or similar) are all beneficial. We will provide mentorship, textbooks, and other resources as needed. Beyond the classroom, we expect that faculty will create a fun and inclusive community with the students.
We’re interested in hiring people who are committed to growth. Faculty often return to work with us for multiple summers, and the feedback we get is that working for us allows them to identify and tackle growth opportunities that translate to their year-round jobs. We believe that we have as much to learn from our students as they do from us!
Details:
Location: BEAM Discovery's Los Angeles campus is located at Richard Merkin Middle School.
Program dates:
- The LA dates will be June 19 - July 30, 2024*
- The NYC dates will be July 1 - August 9, 2024 (with July 3-4 off)*
- All BEAM Discovery Faculty are also required to attend a pre-program Course Planning Training to be held over Zoom on
- May 9th from 6pm to 9pm PT for BEAM Discovery LA
- May 16th from 6pm to 9pm ET for BEAM Discovery NYC
- Asynchronous materials to complete before the live Zoom meeting will be available in late April.
* These dates are inclusive of the 5-week camp as well as pre-camp training and set-up and post-camp wrap-up. During this period, you would work Mondays - Fridays.
Compensation: $5,400 for Junior Faculty for the time that the program runs. Part time positions are available with $2,700 compensation.
Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the US. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visa at this time. International graduate students able to obtain CPT or OPT are welcome to apply.
Application Process and Deadline:
The initial step is to submit your application, including resumé and responses to a few short application questions, via our online portal. When your application is complete, we will follow up with next steps.
Our process will include an initial interview, submitting a course proposal that outlines the objectives and a sample lesson from a course you would like to teach at BEAM this summer, and a final interview with the hiring lead for Faculty positions. We will continue to accept Faculty applications and review on an ongoing basis until positions are closed.
For more information and the application, contact us at Bruce@beammath.org or visit our website at www.beammath.org/beam-discovery-faculty-info. For information on working at our residential summer camps, check out our BEAM Summer Away postings!
