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INFORMATION FOR

External Outreach

A comprehensive list of STEM initiatives through the Office of New Haven Affairs can be found here. Below we highlight just some of the many ways to get involved in teaching and communicating about science with the community, both here at Yale and beyond.

Teaching Opportunities

  • Yale Pathways Summer Scholars ProgramEach summer Yale Pathways offers New Haven public school students the opportunity to participate in a free, on-campus summer STEM program designed to extend their learning beyond the walls of their high school. Instructors design workshops that run 90 minutes/day for 5 weekdays in July. Paid positions as residential advisors and teaching assistants are also available.
  • Ulysses S. Grant Foundation Summer ProgramCreate and help run a 6-week summer educational enrichment program for talented middle school students from the New Haven area.
  • Yale SplashYale Splash brings hundreds of middle and high school students to campus for a day of classes taught by Yale undergraduate and graduate students. Pick any topic or subject that interests you and design a class to teach about it for an hour. Your class can be formatted as a small discussion seminar, a large lecture, or anything in between!
  • Yale SproutSimilar to Yale Splash, Yale Sprout brings middle school students to campus for two consecutive Saturdays in the fall to learn from Yale students about topics that are passionate about. Instructors can teach either a 1-hour core class that meets for both weeks of the program or a one-time 1-hour elective.
  • Yale Young Global Scholars ProgramPaid summer teaching opportunity in which you develop and teach your own curriculum, gain valuable classroom experience with diverse high school students from around the world, and mentor students in a variety of different contexts. Instructors can teach up to three 2-week summer sessions.
  • Code Haven at YaleCode Haven is an undergraduate student organization dedicated to introducing students to computer science starting at a young age. Every week, Yale students teach computing lessons at several schools in the New Haven district, engaging the students with online lessons, group activities, and class-wide demonstrations.

STEM Outreach Organizations

  • Yale Pathways to SciencePathways to Science is a data-driven STEM outreach infrastructure within the Office of New Haven Affairs. Pathways opens the door for hundreds of New Haven-area middle and high school students to join Yale’s scientific community and encourages these promising young scholars to pursue a career path in STEM. Pathways also provides support to Yale students and faculty looking to design and implement new STEM outreach programming. Pathways helps coordinate over 150 different outreach programs and events, including our annual Day of Immunology.
  • Open Labs at Yale Open Labs is a group of graduate students, postdocs, and other members of the university dedicated to scientific outreach to the local New Haven community and beyond. Open Labs offers opportunities to introduce students to science through in-person demos and talks (Science Café, Science Haven, Flipped Science Fair) and through online forums (Exploring Science, Flipped Science Fair).
  • Yale Student Science DiplomatsAn official chapter of the National Science Policy Network, YSSD works to foster a scientifically informed electorate through several science communication, advocacy, and policy initiatives.
  • Yale Science CommunicationEach year Yale SciComm organizes public lecture series that focus on communicating topical scientific issues to the broader public, including Science in the News and Science@Brewery. With these initiatives, Yale SciComm aims to ignite scientific engagement across diverse communities and to train effective science communicators.
  • SynapseThe official outreach team of Yale Scientific Magazine, Synapse aims to cultivate the interest in science, research, and scientific journalism in students of all ages, and to help them pursue science after high school.
  • Científico LatinoCientífico Latino aims to promote an environment of inclusivity in STEM and increase the number of scientists from minoritized backgrounds in higher education in the sciences through mentorship, open-access resources, and professional development opportunities.

Science Communication & Outreach Opportunities

  • Flipped Science FairYale's Flipped Science Fair (FSF) flips the traditional science fair format on its head: middle school student judges evaluate graduate students and postdocs presenting their current research.
  • Science HavenThrough partnering with community leaders, Science Haven aims to bring engaging science activities to neighborhood events across all of New Haven. Formed as a collaboration between Yale Open Labs and Yale Science Diplomats, Science Haven serves as a conduit for graduate students to get involved in their communities.
  • Science CaféScience Café features bite-sized talks on cutting-edge research coupled with guided discussions. Presentations are given by Open Labs Graduate Student Fellows and cover a wide variety of scientific fields (Biology, Physics, Sociology, Medicine, Neuroscience, Astronomy, etc.), and aim to help students discover how research is done and why we choose to devote our lives to it.
  • Exploring ScienceRun by Open Labs, Exploring Science is an online discussion series that gives Yale scientists the opportunity to talk to middle and early high school students about the subjects they love! Presenters share about their pathway to science, their field of interest, and how in the world they actually study it.
  • Science in the NewsScience in the News is an annual spring talk series that brings together a team of Yale graduate students or postdocs to present different aspects of a topical science topic. These talks are typically hosted local libraries and community centers across CT. Volunteers can audition to be a speaker or get involved behind the scenes as a coordinator.
  • Girls' Science InvestigationsGSI aims to motivate, empower, and interest 6th-8th grade girls in developing the skills they need to pursue careers in science. Volunteers run hands-on demonstrations related to a particular physics or other scientific principle (with training available prior to the event).
  • Science on SaturdaysHosted through the Dept. of Chemistry, students and their families come to campus to explore science through demonstrations and attend a lecture from a Yale faculty member. Volunteers help run demonstrations related to biology, physics, and chemistry.
  • Skype a ScientistConnects researchers across STEM with K-12 teachers and other youth group leaders globally who are looking to have a scientist present and answer questions from their students about what it is like being a scientist. When you are matched with a teacher/classroom, you will coordinate a time that works for you to connect virtually.
  • Letters to a Pre-ScientistPen-pal program between middle school students and scientists (including both students who are already excited about STEM and those not yet interested). Volunteer commitment involves an asynchronous online training session and writing letters 4 times over the course of the academic year.
  • Journal of Emerging InvestigatorsJEI is an open-access journal that publishes original research in the biological and physical sciences that is written by middle and high school students. JEI provides students, under the guidance of a teacher or advisor, the opportunity to submit and gain feedback on original research and to publish their findings in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. JEI provides the opportunity for graduate students to contribute to the editorial and review process, and management of an academic journal.