This grant supports K-12 STEM education for schools in district 24 and is supervised by the NYCDOE Department of Mathematics and Science, Linda Curtis-Bey, Director.
Grant Coordinator: Rhenaye Hornsby
rhornsby@schools.nyc.gov
718-252-7307 x7 (phone)
718-252-8286(fax)
Primary Partner Institutions
- Queens College
- Stevens Institute of Technology CIESE
- New York Hall of Science
Grant Description
At the onset of this process, we recognized the need to improve the life options of our students, all of our students. Schools have to improve the lives of their students through the areas that they control. To do that we propose improving teacher content knowledge, and their ability to translate that improved knowledge into pedagogy that promotes student engagement and facilitates student learning of higher levels of content knowledge and skills (higher order curricular content). That higher level of content knowledge and skills is not a more abstract curriculum; rather it is more concrete or applied in which discipline areas are merged into a practical, sophisticated, real-world contextualized curriculum. The project has to improve teacher content knowledge in both applied mathematics and science in order to improve the quality of instruction in an integrated math-science curriculum. Teachers also need how to use the advanced Web 2.0 tools to engage students, supplement the curriculum with web-based resources, and foster global communication and collaboration with peers and content specialists. Queens College School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Professor Alan Ludman, Director, GLOBE NY Metro are partnering with this grant, working with our our secondary schools. We will place over 200 teachers in one of three professional development cohorts, allowing them to cycle through several professional development tracks over the course of the the grant. To do that, the project will provide content focused professional development in environmental sciences, applied mathematics, and core science areas to all participating teachers, regardless of whether they teach math or science. The tracks include: Track 1 - NASA GLOBE Training; Track 2 - Environmental Symposia; Track 3- Integrating Technology into the Science and Math Classroom; and Track 4 - Graduate Certificate Program in Earth Science Environmental Science/Environmental Engineering Conference Symposia on Robotics and Engineering and Robotics and Engineering.
Grant Activities
Summer Institutes, On-line Coursework, College Courses, Videoconferences, Field Trips, Curriculum Development, Coaching, On-site professional learning experiences, Study Groups, P-Credit Courses, and Curriculum Mapping
Benefits of Participation
Over the three years of the project, teachers will deepen their content knowledge and learn how to develop technology-rich inquiry based projects that help students scaffold their understandings about the earth and its environment and see the relevance of what they are learning in school. In order to help them to transition to this new teaching environment, the project will provide the same teachers with the pedagogic knowledge and skills to draw down that improved content to enrich and extend their teaching. In order to enhance the probability that this will become part of the teachers' professional practice, the work will provide a project based framework, informed by research and enriched by cutting edge instructional technology within which teachers can first practice, then master cross-content instruction using a unifying applied science, in this case, Environmental Engineering. Teachers will use online communication and collaboration tools to share content knowledge, resources, and best practices, while deepening their own understanding of how to effectively use web 2.0 tools to provide increased opportunities for themselves and their students to interact with peers and content specialists worldwide.
Commitment Required by Participants
Each teacher is required to receive 60 hours of training per year, and participate in pre- and post-testing.