Work at the Museum

Paid Positions

Visitor Services Facilitator | Education Coordinator

POSITION OPENING: Visitor Services Facilitator (Temporary Position)

The MIT Museum seeks part-time visitor services facilitators.  Duties include: greeting visitors, selling admission tickets, ringing up museum store purchases and periodically restocking store, staffing reception desk and answering visitor questions, monitoring groups in the galleries during busy periods and other duties as assigned.  

Qualifications:  A high school diploma or equivalent education is required, Bachelor’s degree preferred.  Museum Studies/Arts Administration students encouraged to apply.   Applicants should enjoy working with the public, have an interest in science and technology and possess basic computer skills.  Retail experience desirable but not mandatory.  

Hours to include some weekday mornings/afternoons and at least one weekend day during the spring (approx. 16-20 hours).  Potential for hours to increase to approx. 30-35 hours during July and August.  Additional evening hours occasionally available during museum functions and programs.  

Please send resumes and cover letters to palane@mit.edu or mail to Patricia Lane, Visitor Services Manager, MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Bldg. N51, Cambridge, MA 02139.

 

POSITION OPENING: Education Coordinator

Position Overview:

Reporting to the Director of Education and Public Programs, the Education Coordinator is a critical member of a small team that produces the Museum’s programs in collaboration with faculty, staff, students, alumni/ae and community organizations.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

The MIT Museum’s Education Coordinator will:

• Identify, develop, promote and deliver appropriate new educational offerings and enhance current educational programs for middle and high school (grades 6-12) and general audiences.
• Ensure that educational program content and interpretation is consistent with the Museum’s mission and goals and meets best practices. 
• Design and develop engaging and appropriate hands-on elements for use in school workshops and public programs for general and family audiences.
• Develop relevant pre- and post-workshop resources for educators.
• Recruit, train and supervise part-time instructors, summer educators, undergraduate interns, and education volunteers.
• Develop appropriate assessment tools and conduct regular evaluation of educational programs and participants.
• Be familiar with federal and state curriculum standards and create connections for the Museum’s educational offerings.
• Be knowledgeable and keep up-to-date on research and events at MIT.
• Design and lead professional development for middle and high school educators.
• Maintain educational programs website, ensuring current content and accessibility of educational resources.
• Collaborate with the Programs administrative team to oversee promotion and booking of educational programs and management of teaching spaces.
• Contribute innovative ideas for development and maintenance of new educational spaces.
• Act as a Museum liaison with school districts, middle and high schools, MIT/Museum staff, community organizations, and area educators.
• Work with Museum staff, faculty, alumni/ae, students, and volunteers on content development and delivery of educational programs.
• Contribute to research (e.g., based on program evaluation) that advances the state of professional knowledge of informal science education in museums.
• Contribute to Museum volunteer team recruitment, training and assessment.
• Lead tours of the MIT Museum galleries.
• Assist with the organization and implementation of large-scale annual events (e.g. the Cambridge Science Festival, National Engineers Week), and general audience programs on weekdays, weekends and evenings as needed (e.g., Second Fridays).
• Assist the Director of Education and Public Programs in the development of long-range departmental plans, policies and programs for the Museum.
• Other duties as needed or required.

Qualifications & Skills:

REQUIRED: Undergraduate degree in a STEM field and minimum of three years experience teaching middle or high school students in a formal or informal setting. Familiarity with informal science program delivery to school, family and community audiences. Comfort with state and federal curriculum standards. Enthusiasm for the development and delivery of hands-on programs in engineering, art and technology, as well as practical skills (e.g., in mechanical, electrical or electronic model-making). Must show a considerable degree of creativity and initiative, and have excellent organizational and interpersonal skills. As a representative of the Museum, must be able to communicate effectively with MIT faculty, staff and students, as well as visitors and community organizations.  Excellent written, oral, research, and computing skills are essential. Must be able to work during school vacation weeks, and occasional evenings, weekends and holidays.

PREFERRED: Graduate degree in science, technology, engineering, math or education. Familiarity with audience evaluation techniques is an advantage. Bilingual facility helpful.

Application Instructions:

Applicants must apply online through the MIT Human Resources website, job #mit-00009679.

Volunteer Positions

Education & Public Programs

The MIT Museum is currently accepting volunteer applications for the Education & Public Programs department. Volunteers (ages 17+ only) must make a 50 hours/year commitment to the Museum, weekend and vacation availability preferred. Please click here to fill out an application.

Internship Opportunities

The following internships are open to undergraduate or graduate students, or graduates. Internships typically start three times per year: with the Fall or Spring semester, or in the Summer. Internships are unpaid. If course credit is offered by a student intern’s academic institution, we’re happy to discuss terms with the intern’s academic advisor. Résumé and cover letter required for all applications. Collections internships are available during Museum business hours only (Monday through Friday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.).

Move Project Internship (Collections Department)

The MIT Museum is seeking a highly motivated, detail-oriented intern to assist with a large multi-phased collections move. The candidate will be a highly organized, proactive, flexible individual with excellent analytical, problem solving, communication, and interpersonal skills and the ability to work productively in a collaborative environment. Computer experience with collections databases preferred. The position requires interest or experience in museum studies, archival storage practices, fine art packing or related field. Knowledge of current registration and collections management practices, especially information management, is an advantage. This position involves physical activity. To apply, fill out the online application listing "Move Intern" in the Opportunity field.

MIT General Collections Internship

The MIT Museum is seeking interns to work with materials related to the institutional history of MIT for semester-long internships. The intern will inventory, arrange and describe small collections of mixed papers and objects from MIT faculty and alumni. The intern will assist in the production of finding aids as appropriate, using the museum's standard format. The intern will learn standards and procedures for safe object handling and will assist with collection inventory and packing as needed. As time allows and based upon the interests of the intern, the intern may learn the basics of cataloging objects in the local database system, marking objects for tracking and research and scanning for reference requests. To apply, fill out the online application listing "MIT General Collections" in the Opportunity field.

Architecture & Design Internships

The MIT Museum is seeking interns for semester-long internships to work with materials in the Architecture and Design Collections. Projects may include inventory, arrangement, and description of architectural drawings and papers, and production of finding aids as appropriate. The intern will learn standards and procedures for safe object handling and may learn the basics of cataloging objects in the local database system, and assisting with research requests. Additional responsibilities may include projects for current or future exhibitions in the Museum. Interns should have a background in art history, architectural history, architectural design or related fields. To apply, please fill out the online application listing "Architecture and Design" in the Opportunity field.