- WHAT IS CLUBES DE CIENCIA MÉXICO (CDECMX)?
“Clubes de Ciencia México” is an NGO formed by young scientists in Mexico and abroad. Our mission is to expand access to high-quality science education and to inspire and mentor the future generation of scientists and innovators in Mexico through international scientific networks.
2. WHAT IS THE WEEK OF “CLUBES DE CIENCIA”?
It’s an intensive one-week event with hands-on workshops on cutting-edge scientific topics, social activities, and networking opportunities.
3. WHAT IS A “CLUB”?
A “Club” is a hands-on, intensive course for high school and undergraduate students. CdeCMx pairs a foreign-based instructor and a Mexico-based instructor to design and implement a club during the Clubes de Ciencia week.
Check out our more clubs on our YouTube Channel!.
4. WHAT DOES AN INSTRUCTOR DO?
Introduces students to cutting-edge scientific topics by implementing a combination of experimental, computational, and theoretical activities. Through this model, we reinforce students’ aptitude for critical thinking. At the same time, we engage students in a collaborative environment to strengthen their communication skills.
Develop communication and teaching skills in a different cultural context by interacting with other young scientists, students, and university hosts in Mexico.
Make a strong impact on emerging talent and create lifelong camaraderie bonds. Through your knowledge, experiences, and passion in your field of study, students learn not only from your technical or scientific background, but also make their scientific pursuit much more tangible by looking at the instructor as a mentor.
5. SHOULD I DESIGN A CLUB TO BE AN INSTRUCTOR?
All CdeCMx instructors design and implement a Club!
Each team of instructors will have 300USD to purchase materials you will need for the development of your Club.
Round trip flights are provided for all instructors based in North America. For other regions, considerations will be made on a case-by-case basis.
We have 2 modalities of participation:
- Involvement 50/50 with another Mexican instructor so both works to develop the same Club.
- Implementation of a Club that has been designed by expert collaborators such as Frank Wilczek (Nobel Prize in Physics 2004) or Research Professors in various areas (ex. Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Stowers Institute, HHMI)
We suggest you design your Club proposal based on the idea: “learn by doing”. By this we mean that the Club should be a very practical course where students can participate to the fullest, doing experiments, programming and solving problems that allow them to approach the day-to-day life of a scientist. Keep in mind that these activities should be developed during a full working week (Monday-Friday), 6-7 hours a day. There is an opening ceremony on Sunday prior to launching CdeCMx week, and a student symposium by the end where students present their results to the community.
For CdeCMx, a competitive Club helps students develop their science skills and intuition through engaging exercises that introduce them to interesting science topics!
Examples of past club activities include:
- Extending our sense of sight by building electronic gadgets.
- Perform bioinformatics analysis to understand the ancestry of students.
- Learn about semiconductors by building lasers and microcontrollers.
- Apply “machine learning” to find the best tacos in town.
- Learn about the ecological diversity of the host city.
Take a look at our past clubs on our Youtube Channel!
6. WHAT IS THE DESIRABLE PROFILE OF AN INSTRUCTOR?
Graduate students (preferably PhDs) and postdocs in fields related to STEM areas affiliated with research institutions or with previous research experience.
Professionals from tech or biotech companies, as well as entrepreneurs, can apply too!
- Recommended teaching experience.
- Be willing to immerse yourself in different cultures.
- Strong communication skills with a focus on teamwork.
- Diverse and exciting club proposal!
7. DO I HAVE TO SPEAK SPANISH TO PARTICIPATE?
It is highly recommended to speak Spanish but it is not a requirement. CdeCMx organizes clubs in Spanish and English and students are notified in advance of the language in which the Club will be taught. We do our best to team up with someone who is fluent in English.
8. HOW DO I BECOME AN INSTRUCTOR?
- First of all, wait for the call for instructors on our website.
- Create your profile at https://plataforma.clubesdeciencia.mx/
- Complete your application and send your “Club” proposal.
- Wait to hear from us!
9. IMPORTANT DATES FOR INSTRUCTORS
FEBRUARY 9: Open call for instructors.
FEBRUARY 23: Close call for instructors at 23:59h PST.
Deadline extended! New deadline March 3, 23:59 CST
MARCH 13-17: Instructor admissions notification.
JUNE 30: You will receive the list of your students
The in-person time commitment is one week, practically full time from Sunday to Saturday in the city in Mexico that you were assigned, you will be able to select the week that works best for you in your application, there are options on July and on August.
Besides, you will have to work to prepare your club with another instructor once we let you know who the instructor is. So, for this you will have to think to designate time for video call workshops when works best for you both, in order to deliver the program and the list of materials that you need in time, we will give you some deadlines for those deliverables once you are selected.
This edition of Clubes de Ciencia México 2023 will be held in 9 cities:
- July 9 – July 15, 2023: Mérida & Guadalajara
- July 16 – July 22, 2023: Chihuahua
- July 23 – July 29, 2023: Guanajuato
- July 31 – August 5, 2023: La Paz, Monterrey & Ensenada
- August 7 – August 12, 2023: Oaxaca & Xalapa
10. HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY CHANCES TO BE SELECTED?
The application to our program is competitive. The number of clubs we accept is limited to the financial support that CdeCMx receives. This means that unfortunately we can only accept about 10% of instructors.
That is why you must apply with a super interesting idea!
Some suggestions to improve your chances:
- Focus on exciting and super interesting, non-traditional activities for a mainstream classroom! Use experimentation and programming, apply critical thinking, and help students appreciate new approaches to tackling problems.
- Think of an innovative science topic that you would like to teach and think about it creatively. This is your chance to design a course that you would have liked to take while in high school or college!
- Simple activities that help students understand advanced scientific concepts in your field. The Higgs boson as an energetic piggy bank, viruses as infiltrating agents, entropy in a salt shaker, etc.
11. CAN I PARTICIPATE IF I DON’T LIVE IN MEXICO OR USA?
If you are selected, CdeCMx can cover the equivalent to the cost of a round trip US-MEX flight (up to $650 USD) and the remaining amount can be covered by the instructor or an institution sponsoring you. Most of the time, your university is willing to take that expense if you can explain what this wonderful science outreach initiative entails! We would love to bring more instructors from Europe, however, the restrictions we have due to the nature of our funding sources set a limit to the number of European instructors we can host per Summer edition.