A Club de Ciencia (Science Club) is an intensive, project-oriented workshop, focused on developing technical and cognitive abilities in a wide array of research areas in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

The Club’s aim is to serve as a platform for young students to experience the world of research: the conception of ideas, design, and execution of experiments, and communication of results. Each Science Club is conducted by an instructor who is a professional researcher affiliated with an international institution, in collaboration with a co-instructor based in Peru.

• Day 1: Opening activity for instructors
• Day 2-6: Development of Science Clubs Peru
• Day 7: Student symposium and closing ceremony

It is an an intensive online virtual workshop with hands-on immersion. The topic of the club must be in any STEM area including interdisciplinary topics. Keep in mind that your students will be from all over Peru in the range of age from 16 to 23 years old. 

Each club must be organized during a number of classes under the methodology that the instructor considers pertinent. The last class should be used to plan your student’s participation in the closing event of this edition.  If you are pre-selected, during the interview we will organize with you the best schedule of your classes.

A «Club» is an applied, intensive course, aimed at high school and undergraduate students in any STEM area, including interdisciplinary themes, under the methodology that the instructor considers pertinent. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, we have two types of clubs : virtual and on-site club.  

1. Introduces students to a plethora of cutting edge scientific topics by implementing a combination of experimental, computational and theoretical activities. It is through this model that we reinforce the student’s’ aptitude for critical thinking, while at the same time, engage the student in a collaborative environment to strengthen their communication skills. 
2. Develops communication and teaching skills in a different cultural context by interacting with other young scientists, students, and university hosts in Peru. 
3. Generates a strong impact on emerging talent and creates camaraderie bonds for a lifetime. Through your knowledge, experiences and passion in your field of study, a student learns not only from your technical or scientific background, but also makes his scientific pursuit a lot more tangible by looking up to you as a mentor.

• Involvement 50/50 with another Peruvian instructor so both work to develop the same Club. (Only for on-site events)
• One instructor designs the Club and the other one helps implementing plus group management and team dynamics.
• 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 will contact you if we think your background/club aligns to one of our pre-designed Clubs.

We suggest you to design your Club proposal based on the idea: «learning by doing». And by that we mean that the Club should be a very practical course where students have the opportunity to participate to the maximum, doing experiments, programming and solving problems that allow them to approach the day to day of a scientist.

For on-site activities, keep in mind that these activities should be developed during a full working week (5 days), 7-8 hours a day. There is an opening activity for instructors 1 day prior to launching CdeCPeru week, and a student symposium by the end where students present their results to the community. 

For online activities, you should focus on online applied projects aimed to develop technical and cognitive skills in diverse STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). You can teaming with other people as a co-instructor and use all kind of online resources available (software, online services, websites, simulations services, jupyter notebooks, etc.). Preferably if they are open source. Keep in mind that we have two timetables (GMT -5), one in the morning (10h – 12h) and the other one in the afternoon (16h – 18h), for the realization of your club. So you have to choose the one that best fits your time zone. A more specific timetable will be shared with the selected instructors, that will include networking activities during each session.

• Learning semiconductors by building lasers and microcontrollers.

• Applying machine learning to find the best ceviches in the city.

• Learning the the ecologic diversity of the host city.

• Creating new ventures based on local scientific developments to help their communities.

Check out our previous clubs in the Mexico YouTube Channel!

• Graduate students (preferably PhDs), Postdocs, and Professors from ANY nationality in STEM-related fields affiliated to research institutions or with previous research experience. Professionals in tech or biotech companies as well as entrepreneurs are also welcome to apply!
• Teaching experience recommended.
• Be willing to immerse yourself in different cultures.
• Strong communication skills with a focus in teamwork.
• Diverse and exciting club proposal!

Speaking Spanish is not a requirement. However, we do encourage you to try to immerse yourself in the culture and tradition of your host city.  

• CdeCPeru organizes clubs in both Spanish and English and students are notified ahead of time to increase their appealing to take your Club.
• Spanish is recommended as it facilitates interaction with instructors from Peru, however we will try our best to match you with someone able to translate.  
• You may need the language in case you want to impart a Club in collaboration with an instructor who only speaks Spanish.

1. First of all, you must wait for the launch of the call for instructors in our website. Here!
2. Fill out your application in which you will describe your «Club» proposal.
3. Wait to hear from us!

The application to our program is competitive. The number of clubs we accept is limited to the financial support that CdeCPeru receives, which means that unfortunately we can only accept 5% of the instructors who apply.
That’s why you must  apply with a super rad idea!

Some suggestions to improve your chances:

• Focus on exciting, super awesome activities non-traditional to a conventional classroom! Use experiments and programming, apply critical thinking, and help students to appreciate new approaches to tackle problems.

• Think of an innovative science topic that you would like to teach, and think about it creatively. This is your opportunity to design a course you would have wanted to receive while in high school or college!

• Simple activities that help students to understand advanced scientific concepts in your field. The Higgs Boson as an energy piggy bank, viruses as infiltrating agents, entropy in a salt shaker, etc.

Yes! For on-site events, if you are selected, CdeCPeru can cover a round trip flight cost of USD $900. We will pay up to $1200 USD in exceptional cases. If there is a remaining amount it can be covered by 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 also provide contact with potential sponsor entities to cover that extra amount, if it is necessary.

For online-events, big YES. Online activities permit us to not online have the participation of instructors for all over the world but with students of all the cities of Peru.

Yes! Please, apply. We encourage applications from Peruvians around the world.

*Adapted from C. Márquez, S. Cantú, H. Arellano, P.Hernández, P. Andrade, members of the CdeCMx team. Thanks!