Duties

Summary

This position is located in the imagiNATIONS Activity Center (IAC), National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Smithsonian Institution (SI). The employee has primary responsibility for implementing established programs and interaction with children under 12 years of age and their families.

More than one selection may be made from this announcement.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

• Maintains the operations of the Activity Center by staffing the imagiNATIONS Activity Center, opening and closing the space, providing safe and secure crowd control, assists in maintaining the interactive components of the Activity Center, stock and resupply, hygiene and cleaning, and operational integrity of the activities, preparing supplies and workspace, and cleaning up.
• Facilitates programs with dialog on topics that are by and about Native cultures of the Western Hemisphere, American Indians and Alaskan Natives. These programs include, but not limited to, storytelling activities; educational craft workshops; presentations with a focus on Native communities, programs for school classes in the imagiNATIONS Activity Center.
• Mediates the experiences for visitors in the imagiNATIONS Activity Center, by interacting-primarily with children 0 to 12 years of age-thru facilitation of interactive areas; helping visitors to use interactive stations and explore handling collections and discovery boxes; and providing additional resources to answer visitor queries.
• Presents and supports established educational programs, to children 0 - 12 years, school groups and families in the imagiNATIONS ACTIVITY CENTER. Supports the imagiNATIONS ACTIVITY CENTER Coordinator in program development and other related activities including collaboration and implementation of age appropriate and inquiry based educational programs. Assists Native demonstrators and storytellers with set-up and operational needs.
• Initiates the appropriate action to respond to the visitor's question, resolve the visitor's problem, or to de-escalate more serious issues in the entrance line, on the floor, or anywhere within the activity center or museum public spaces.

Travel Required

Not required

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
07

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• Pass Pre-employment Background Investigation
• May need to complete a Probationary Period
• Maintain a Bank Account for Direct Deposit/Electronic Transfer
• Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.

Qualification requirements, including one year time-in-grade at the next lower grade level for promotion candidates, must be met within 30 days of the job announcement closing date.

For information on qualification requirements, see Qualification Standards Handbook for General Schedule Positions viewable on the web at http://www.opm.gov/qualifications.

Qualifications

Experience:

3 years General Experience (1 year of which was equivalent to at least GS-4).

General experience is 3 years of progressively responsible experience, 1 year of which was equivalent to at least GS-4, that demonstrates the ability to:

Analyze problems to identify significant factors, gather pertinent data, and recognize solutions;

Plan and organize work; and

Communicate effectively orally and in writing.

Such experience may have been gained in administrative, professional, technical, investigative, or other responsible work. Experience in substantive and relevant secretarial, clerical, or other responsible work may be qualifying as long as it provided evidence of the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) necessary to perform the duties of the position to be filled. Experience of a general clerical nature (typing, filing, routine procedural processing, maintaining records, or other nonspecialized tasks) is not creditable. Trades or crafts experience appropriate to the position to be filled may be creditable for some positions.

Or Education:

4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree

Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in any field leading to a bachelor's degree, in an accredited college or university, meets the GS-5 level requirements for many positions covered by this standard.

One year of full-time undergraduate study is defined as 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours.

Or a Combination: Education and experience may be combined to meet the basic qualifications. For a full explanation of this option please see the Qualification Standards . Special Instructions for Foreign Education: If you are qualifying by education and/or you have education completed in a foreign college/university described above, it is your responsibility to provide transcripts and proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study. For instructions on where to fax these documents, see the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

BASIS OF RATING: Once the announcement closes, your application will be automatically evaluated and rated by the system and a Human Resources Specialist. To determine if you are qualified for this job, a review of your application and supporting documentation will be made and compared against your responses to the occupational questionnaire. The numeric rating you receive is based on your responses to the questionnaire. The score is a measure of the degree to which your background matches the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of this position. If, after the Human Resources Specialist reviews your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that the score you have received is not a true reflection of your qualifications and/or experience, your score can and will be adjusted to more accurately reflect the information you provided that support your abilities. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating. Your resume should provide detailed information regarding how your education and experience relate to this position, including the major duties and qualifications criteria listed.

Veterans Employment Opportunities Act (VEOA): If you are applying for a VEOA appointment, you must be a veteran and must be honorably separated and either a preference eligible or have substantially completed 3 or more years of active service. ("Active Service" under this law means active duty in a uniformed service and includes full-time training duty, annual training duty, full-time National Guard duty, and attendance, while in the active service, at a school designated as a service school by law or by the Secretary concerned.) A veteran who is released under honorable conditions shortly before completing a 3-year tour is also eligible.

Noncompetitive Appointment Authorities: The following links contain information on the eligibility requirements to be considered under a noncompetitive appointing authority:

• Primary Appointing Authorities for Career and Career-Conditional Appointments
• Hiring Authorities for Veterans
• People with Disabilities

Important Note:

Your resume and supporting documentation will be compared to your responses to the occupational questionnaire or other assessment tool for consistency. If a determination is made that you have rated yourself higher than is supported by your resume, you will be assigned a rating commensurate to your described experience. Your resume should provide sufficient information regarding how your education and experience relate to this position, including the major duties and qualifications criteria listed.

Education

Additional information

Flexible Spending Accounts - http://www.fsafeds.com/fsafeds/index.asp
Health Insurance - http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/index.asp
Leave - http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/index.asp
Life Insurance - http://www.opm.gov/insure/life/index.asp
Long Term Care Insurance - http://www.ltcfeds.com
Retirement Program - http://www.opm.gov/retire/index.asp

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Your application will be evaluated first for the basic qualifications described above. The applications that meet the basic qualifications will be evaluated further against the following criteria:

• Ability to work simultaneously on and prioritize many different and complex issues to complete various assignments and projects.
  
• Ability to answer content related questions that require knowledge of indigenous, American Indian, Alaska Native, and First Nations diversity, history, social and material culture, and contemporary life, and topics related to the Museum's and Activity Center collections and exhibitions.
  
• Knowledge of strategies used to engage young learners and familiarity with educational methodology for school-age children.
  
• Strong verbal and presentation skills in order to present programs that engage families with children in discourse on cultural issues and topics that may be unfamiliar or difficult content.
  
• Ability to maintain diplomacy and sensitivity with people from multi-cultural backgrounds.
  

To preview questions please click here .

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Not Required

Drug test required
No

Required Documents

Your application package should include the following documents:

• Resume - Your resume can be uploaded and attached to your application or created using the USA Jobs on-line resume builder. If you want to receive full credit for relevant experience your resume MUST contain the job title (including the occupational series and grade if it is Federal), duties, starting and ending dates (month and year), hours worked per week, and salary.
• USAJOBS has guidance on how to ensure that you submit a complete resume: If you have not written a Federal resume before, you may watch this Resume Writing Tutorial video on the USAJOBS YouTube channel , or read through a helpful Resume Writing FAQ article on the USAJOBS Help Site to learn what details you should, and should not, include in your resume. If any of the above information is not included in your resume we may not be able to fully credit you for your experience.
  
• Proof of prior federal service such as the latest SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action.
• A recent performance evaluation.
• Proof of Veteran's Preference - DD214 (Member 4 Copy) if you are requesting a special appointment authority, such as VRA or VEOA.
• Proof of severe disability if you are requesting special placement consideration.
• Proof of eligibility for a military spouse appointment, such as a permanent change station military order.
• Proof of eligibility for any other special appointing authority not specifically mentioned here

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education .

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.