What are the responsibilities and job description for the Nature Educator position at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Inc?
Job Description
Job Description
A Day in the Life
The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s mission is to conserve California native plants and habitats for the health and well-being of people and the planet. The Garden is a living museum which fosters the conservation of California’s native plants through our gardens, research, and education, and serves as a role model of sustainable practices. Within the scope of this mission, the goals of the Education team are to facilitate transformative experiences with native plants, encourage wider use of native plants in our communities, and empower conservation leaders for the future.
Nature Educators work collaboratively to lead youth-focused programs that ignite interest and curiosity about California’s native plants and habitats. You’ll provide general support to the Garden’s Education Department through school field trips, youth and family events, offsite after-school programs and general public interactions. Nature Educators should be passionate about sharing nature with the public, creative and flexible in their teaching approach, and able to work either as a team or individually to provide effective and impactful programming. This is a part-time (6-19 hours a week), temporary position that runs from runs February 24th through June 8th, 2025, and reports to the Youth and Family Programs Manager.
What You’ll Do
- Work with the Education department to provide Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)-based Garden tour programs with an emphasis on Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
- Lead and supervise groups of 6-15 students (grades K-5) on exploration tours of the Garden that incorporate STEM, NGSS, and CA Environmental Literacy standards.
- Serve as tour hosts by welcoming groups upon arrival, filling in group information and distributing family passes
- Travel to partner locations and schools to provide after school programming based on the K-6 Garden Pathfinder curriculum
- On select Saturdays, provide Pathfinder programming for guests of children ages 8-12, including supervision
- Participate in offsite outreach tables at community events such as school Science Nights and Earth Day
- Facilitate and support programming during regular family events
- Answer general questions about the Garden and its Education Programs to the public.
- Support interpretive activities such as creating signage, activity prompts, activity ideas, etc.
- Assist the Education Department with general departmental needs such as collecting plant materials, surveying visitors, entering data, prepping materials for programs, etc.
- Attend check-in meetings with Education staff as necessary
- Support additional education programming as necessary
You Must Be Able To
You Will Definitely Need
It Would Be Nice If You Had
More About Us
The Garden is a beautiful place to work. In this role, you are often outdoors. In addition to beautiful views, outdoor work environments include exposure to extreme temperature fluctuations, rain, dust, allergens, poison oak, insects, wildlife, and sun exposure.
Disclaimer
You must be able to perform the essential functions of the position satisfactorily, and if requested, reasonable accommodations will be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of their job, absent undue hardship.
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden retains the right to change or assign other duties to this position.