Volunteer

Are you good with people and interested in "space/science stuff"? A "docent" is a volunteer that acts as a guide for the Discovery Center Museum gallery. Docents regularly provide tours of the gallery, introduce artifacts and exhibits to visitors, answer visitors' questions, assist with school and public visitation groups, and overall act as a steward of the museum labs and gallery. To be successful in this role you must be friendly and enjoy working with people of all age groups, abilities, and backgrounds. Having an interest in space is recommended, but if you enjoy STEAM in general you will thrive here! An important factor to keep in mind for this position: you need to be able to learn, retain and relate information effectively (the information will be provided to you). 

Do you like to work with your hands and teach others? Our Mars Robotics Laboratory is an immersive experience which allows public and school groups to navigate mini rovers on rugged Martian terrain. You will oversee helping our guests operate the rovers, assign missions to skilled drivers, and rescue rovers that get stuck. To operate the rovers our "joysticks" are on iPads- which also require a bit of functional training for our interested Mars explorers. 

This area is perfect for those who enjoy hands on experiences, robotics, and smaller groups of people. 

Science on a Sphere is one of our most desired attractions at SFDC! Donated to us by Northrup Grumman and created by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), SOS is a global display system six feet in diameter that illustrates Earth System science to audiences of all ages. SOS works in conjunction with computers and projectors to show various datasets related to planetary sciences by illuminating the sphere in the middle of our amphitheater style room while visitors are seated all around.  

When presenting in SOS, you are the one to bring this enticing sphere to life! We have an assortment of different topics to present including: Tour of the Solar System, Rocketry, Mars, Artemis Program, Search for Life, Astrobiology, and many more. This area is ideal for those who are a natural, or perhaps want to gain public speaking skills.

This area supports the registrar with the museum collection. Volunteering in this area includes working behind the scenes with artifacts, databases, cataloging, photographing, processing donated items, and research. While we have some artifacts displayed on the gallery floor, most of our artifacts are stored securely in collections. This area is made up of a smaller volunteer group, with limited spots available. Ideally, a collections volunteer will have previous museum and collections or database experience. Having great attention to detail, organization, carefulness, and following policies and procedures is a must. 

This area has very limited positions and requires previous museum collections experience or current college studies.