NOAA‐CREST Partners with the NYC Department of Education‐ Department of English Language Learners and Student Support

Posted on January 13, 2015

On December 16, 2014, a group of 16 NYC school  teachers visited. The City College of New York and met with Dr. Shakila Merchant, Assistant Director of NOAA‐CREST Program to learn about the NOAA‐CREST program and develop a strategy to engage K12 community in NOAA related sciences and missions.       

The Department of English Language Learners and Student Support  (DELLS),  a new STEM initiative at the  NYC Department of Education invited NOAA‐CREST members to join their new  initiative in creating a unique STEM project as part of their afterschoo program by using NOAA’s educational resources and assets. The objective is to teach and “empower” the teachers with the right inquiry‐based learning tools to engage their students in this   afterschool  program  and  thus inculcate an interest in STEM early‐on. Such initiatives and informal approaches to engaging students in STEM fields may have life‐long implications for students who are struggling to communicate in English and underrepresented in the STEM fields due to lack of basic verbal and written communication skills. With the growing population of the underrepresented minority students especially Hispanic and Latino group, it is imperative that United States must address the problem of educating the  K12 students in STEM fields to prep and groom them for a STEM career and build a robust US STEM workforce. During this event,   several teachers commented that their students are creative thinkers and have an interest in science and math – all they need is the right opportunity and NOAA‐CREST could bring that opportunity  to them.  It is believed that fostering critical and creative thinking and advancing student interest in engineering and technology will ultimately be  beneficial to both society and the economy.

 

NOAA‐CREST is one of the five research centers identified by NYCDOE DELLSS to  work  on this unique afterschool STEM program. We would design some cool science projects to align with NOAA’s Environmental

Science, Service, and Stewardship mission. The project will be 60 after school hours mostly on the Saturdays before the end of the spring semester.   

This initiative will also include another project interdisciplinary lesson plan.  We are planning  on doing something like Marine Debris Tracker. This entire project will culminate in creating a STEM project for the “STEMtastic”    event that will be hosted by NYCDOE on June 11, 2015.       

For more information about this program contact: 

Mr. Miguel Cordero

Director of Secondary Mathematics/STEM Programs

MCordero@schools.nyc.gov

Dr. Shakila Merchant

Assistant Director, NOAA‐CREST center, The City College of CUNY 

smerchant@ccny.cuny.edu