How to Make the Most of Your Time as a Team Advisor

Whether you’re a first timer or a seasoned veteran, being a Team Advisor is challenging, exciting, and, of course, rewarding. Leading your team or teams to discover the difference they can make in their community through STEM is world-changing work, and we hope you remind yourself often of the significance of your impact. But being a Team Advisor isn’t always super serious, it should be fun too! At eCYBERMISSION, we want you to be able to enjoy your time as a Team Advisor. That’s why we’ve created free resources to support you throughout the eCYBERMISSION process. Whether your team is coding an app to help the blind or studying household water usage, we have what you need to make the most of your time as a Team Advisor!

If You’re Using eCYBERMISSION as an Extracurricular:

Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent, teacher running an after-school club, or after-school program volunteer working a 9-to-5, Team Advisors using eCYBERMISSION as an extracurricular have a lot on their plates beyond the program. If you’re not an educator, you may also not feel as comfortable with the teaching aspect of the program. But don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Our Student Help Center contains a wealth of knowledge for students, including project inspiration, help with selecting a topic, and guidance on writing an abstract. Our free video lessons and abbreviated Short Cuts series help your students learn the STEM concepts they’ll need while working on their projects.

If you find your students need more specific help, that’s where our CyberGuides come in! CyberGuides are real professional scientists or engineers that are available to help students with their projects. If your students prefer a face-to-face learning style, they can join our CyberGuide Live Chats, a Zoom call where a CyberGuide presents information on what they do, followed by a Q&A session where they are available to answer student questions. You are welcome to join this call with your student or students, but rest assured that eCYBERMISSION staff are also in attendance. If your student is unable to attend a Live Chat, they can also post their questions to our online Message Board, which is also closely monitored by staff. You can also utilize the Team Advisor threads within the Message Board, which are private from students, to ask questions, get support, or exchange ideas with other Team Advisors!

If You’re Using eCYBERMISSION in the Classroom:

Classroom teachers turned Team Advisors have a unique set of needs. You may have 5, 10, 15, or even more teams under your guidance, which means that you need to tailor your instruction to meet the needs of a variety of different projects, learning types, and interests. It also means that, chances are, you’ll be grading your students on their projects. The good news is that eCYBERMISSION was built with classroom teachers in mind, so we’ve got you covered!

For a classroom teacher, the most useful eCYBERMISSION resource is our lesson plans. Each of the 9 lesson plans have a one-day and multi-day format. Some lessons, including Teamwork; Identifying a Community Problem; Conducting Research; and Working with Data, are meant for all project types. The other lessons, including Writing a Hypothesis; Constants, Controls, and Variables; Setting Up an Experiment; Engineering Design Process; and Building a Prototype, are geared towards either science or engineering projects. These lesson plans were designed and written for eCYBERMISSION by actual 6^th-9^th grade classroom teachers and align with NGSS, CC, and state standards, so you can relax and focus on what you do best, teaching!

Teachers know that the actual lesson is only half of the battle. What about practice, keeping students on track, and grading? Good news, we’ve thought of that as well! Our downloadable activity sheets allow students to practice what they’ve learned. They come with an answer key to help you get that daily grade requirement crossed off your list. Grading the whole project can, at first, seem puzzling. How do you grade students on community impact? You use our free rubrics, of course! We provide two separate rubrics for the science and engineering Mission Folders that are easily customizable to fit your needs. Plus, you can use our 6-month, 4-month, or 2-month suggested timelines to help keep your students on track. All of these resources are available for free download in our Team Advisor Help Center.

Having a variety of teams under your belt can seem daunting due to the variety of projects. But never fear, our CyberGuides are here! CyberGuides are professional scientists and engineers that volunteer their time to answer student questions and provide support. Students can contact these mentors at any time through our safe, monitored Message Board, but they’re also available on a larger scale through our Classroom Live Chats. Our Classroom Live Chats were created specifically for classroom teacher Team Advisors whose classroom has completed registration and occur during the school day. To sign up, email us at missioncontrol@ecybermission.com.

eCYBERMISSION Team Advisor and student registration is open now! Visit www.ecybermission.com/register to get started. For questions about eCYBERMISSION or help registering, email missioncontrol@ecybermission.com.

Faith Benner
Senior Communications and Marketing Specialist