Summer Internships 2015

The Cardiff University, School of Physics and Astronomy outreach group invites applications from motivated undergraduate students for Summer Internship Positions. Successful applicants will spend 4-8 weeks in Cardiff working with a mentor from the Cardiff PHYSX outreach group. We are currently offering the following 3 projects:

astroEDU: astronomy peer-review activities

astroEDU is a platform that showcases the best astronomy activities from around the world, but uniquely improves on them through peer-review. This internship will involve researching UK curriculum links for the education activities in this platform. There is a possibility for this internship to continue beyond the summer of 2015.

This internship would suit any student with a good knowledge of astronomy.

Agent Exoplanet

Agent Exoplanet is a web application and education project to investigate extra-solar planets. It is built on Django, a python web framework. The web app needs to be fully tested, and some optimisation and upgrades performed.

This internship would suit any student with good experience of Python, and preferably experience of Django and/or creating HTML/CSS/JS. It is not necessary for you to have knowledge of astronomy.

Inspiring Science in Secondary Schools

The Inspiring Science Education project (ISE) aims to motivate and stimulate teachers to attract students to the world of scientific discoveries, natural and scientific phenomena and much more by providing them within their classrooms with access to the latest, interactive tools and digital resources.  Cardiff is the UK co-ordinator of this role and as such we aim to disseminate these resources to hundreds of schools across the UK working in partnership with science learning centres and other networks of teachers in the UK.   Successful applicants will spend a period of 4-8 weeks helping us to run this project and reach more teachers. It will also involve working alongside Chris North and Sarah Roberts to provide support in all aspects of running a diverse and dynamic outreach project.

This internship will specifically run in June and September only so interested students would be required to jump straight in.  It would suit a student who can drive, is willing and confident enough to go to local schools and speak to teachers and help them engage with the Inspiring Science Education.

The Internships include a subsistence allowance of £1000/month. They will last 4-8 weeks, based on mutual agreement of the applicant and their group mentor. They are open to undergraduates worldwide now completing their second, third or fourth year of study. A complete application will include the following:

  • Unofficial transcript (a copy of your course marks)
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Two Letters of Reference (preferably sent separately by your references)

Applications should be emailed to Dr Edward Gomez, and you must indicate in the email which internship you would like to apply for.

The deadline for receipt of applications is 3 May 2015.

These internships are supported by the Royal Astronomical Society and Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network.