Environmental Education Fellow

Description: The Clifton Institute seeks an environmental educator to coordinate our Lawn Lab project and to help run school year field trips and summer camps. Lawn Lab is a land-management experiment being conducted on the shared grounds of a Fauquier County public elementary and high school; students from those schools go out routinely during the school year to conduct biodiversity surveys to determine what happens to plant and insect communities when a lawn is mowed only once a year. The Fellow will be responsible for developing curriculum to integrate this experiment into classroom learning, coordinating with teachers, and providing the in-school programming, with the support of Clifton’s other education staff. The Fellow will also help run our Scientist for a Day field trips, during which K-12 students learn how to collect data on one of five ongoing research projects, and our four weeks of summer camp. We would like the Fellow to start in June 2025. This is a 7 month position, with a possibility to extend to 12 months, working 40 hours a week.

Background: The Clifton Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located two miles north of Warrenton, in the northern Piedmont of Virginia. Our 900-acre field station, which includes forests, grasslands, shrub fields, and wetlands, is permanently protected under a conservation easement. We host an average of around 1,200 pre-K-12 students annually on our environmental education programs. We have one full time educator and one part-time educator along with a handful of education volunteers. On our inquiry-based field trips, students learn about the scientific process and help collect data on ongoing scientific research projects. We also provide summer day camps, nature hikes for children and their families, and walks and workshops for adults. You can learn more about our field trips at cliftoninstitute.org/fieldtrips and about our other education programs at www.cliftoninstitute.org/events. The pilot year of Lawn Lab was the 2024-25 school year and we are anticipating at least another year of actively teaching at the pilot school, hopefully replicating the experiment at other school sites in the future. The Clifton Institute is a small but dynamic organization and the successful applicant will play an important role in our organization.

Duties:

• Developing curriculum to tie the Lawn Lab experiment into second grade and high school ecology curricula
• Coordinating with teachers at the Lawn Lab schools about program dates, evaluation, and curriculum development.
• Lead teaching between 10 and 15 Lawn Lab programs a school year
• Designing professional development training days for teachers about how to take students into outdoor settings
• Helping run half-day environmental education Scientist for a Day field trips for groups of up to 75 students, with each instructor leading groups of up to 25. Running field trips involves setting up materials beforehand, taking groups of students out onto our trails, and cleaning up from trips.
• Working at least 3 out of the 4 weeks of summer camp we run for ages between 7 and 18 years old, teaching about natural history subjects, leading explorations, and other camp duties.

The successful candidate will have the following qualifications:

• A keen and demonstrated personal interest in natural history, conservation, and education.
• At least 6 months of teaching experience ideally including lesson plan or curriculum development.
• Ability to work independently and with a small team of educators in both lead and supporting positions.
• Familiar with ecological research techniques and/or habitat restoration.
• A Bachelor’s degree in biology, ecology, education, or related field.
• Ability to walk on hilly terrain for 1-2 miles and be outdoors for 4+ hours in rain or shine.
• Available to work 40 hours each week. Currently all of our programmatic staff work Tuesday through Saturday during the school year, but the Fellow would be free to work a Monday – Friday schedule.
• Must be authorized to work in the US and able to work at our office in Warrenton, VA.
• Able and willing to drive to the Lawn Lab site in Bealeton, VA.
• Must pass a federal background check.
• Ideally holds a current First Aid/CPR certificate or be willing to attend a training before June 15th 2025.

Wages and benefits:

• The starting wages will be $17 / hour.
• Part-time employees accrue .039 hour of paid time off per hour worked.
• Reimbursement for mileage driving on their personal vehicle for work ($0.655 per mile or the current federal rate)
• In addition, employees of the Clifton Institute spend a significant amount of time outside on our beautiful 900-acre property.