The Billion Oyster Project and Curriculum and Community Enterprise for the Restoration of New York Harbor withNew York City Public Schools (BOP-CCERS) seeks to integrate harbor restoration activities with science teachers inorder to provide their students with experiential learning through environmental impact in New York City with thevision that public school students in New York City can benefit from environmental science and experiential learningwork through authentic research, data collection, and experimentation. The purpose is to engage science teachers withexperiential learning opportunities in the New York Harbor that helps them create engaging lessons for their ownstudents. It was found that teachers responded most positively to workshops that included hands-on activities,specifically the oyster restoration station trainings, classroom oyster tank setups and activities with scientists. Teachersreported that the BOP-CCERS program prepared them to support student learning of the program content and scientificresearch activities. Students who engage in real-world science are more likely to see the relevance of science and seethemselves working toward a career pathway in STEM.
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If You Give a Kid an Oyster: Refections on Collaborations in PlaceBased STEM Education Through Oyster Restoration Science in New York City
Many urban New Yorkers believe that the Hudson River is so polluted that nothing could possibly live there. In reality, the estuary is thriving, and The River Project (TRP), a marine science field station in lower Manhattan, exists to showcase its vast biodiversity through place-based education. In 2014, TRP began collaborating on a city-wide initiative with the Billion Oyster Project and nine other partner organizations to integrate restoration science into Title I middle school curricula through the Curriculum and Community Enterprise for Restoration Science (CCERS). Teachers in the fellowship program attend science workshops and professional developments opportunities to bring the locally relevant topic of oyster restoration into their classrooms. Through this partnership, TRP has expanded its reach beyond the typical 90-minute field trip experience, fostering relationships with teachers through professional developments workshops and in-classroom lessons to support their students’ project-based learning explorations. This confluence of educational activities created a richer, more meaningful learning experience for teachers, students, and TRP educators.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1440869
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10074641
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of STEM outreach
- Volume:
- 1
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2576-6767
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 24-34
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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The Billion Oyster Project and Curriculum and Community Enterprise for the Restoration of New York Harbor (BOP-CCERS) program is a National Science Foundation (NSF) supported initiative and collaboration of multiple institutions and organizations led by Pace University and is in collaboration with New York City Public Schools. This large-scale project, Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST), generated a large amount of data through programming that engaged both teachers and students. This article presents the third part to the study with focus on the Digital Platform and results from the student Symposium presentations. Part 1 focused on Underrepresented Minority (URM) student interest in STEM as motivated by the original project. Part 2 focused on URM student engagement with teachers to support students in teaching science through experiential learning and lessons that connect science to the real world, particularly through science in the New York Harbor. Moreover, the second part of the study focused on teacher engagement in the program, and what the researchers had learned in the process. The third aspect of the study, and primary focus on this paper, had found additional positive results cited by the teachers in the study both using the Digital Platform and after the project outcomes from the student Symposium presentations.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.15695/jso.v1i2.4510
