The Billion Oyster Project and Curriculum and Community Enterprise for the Restoration of New York Harbor with New York City Public Schools (BOP-CCERS) program is a National Science Foundation (NSF) supported initiative and collaboration led by Pace University. One of Pace University’s NSF projects is STEM+C (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics plus Computing) designed to work with teachers and students in New York City public schools. This article presents results of a study conducted on the STEM Summer Institute at Pace University in Summer 2022. The purpose was to engage both teachers and students in harbor restoration and experiential learning in New York City including learning about vital ecology projects related to New York’s harbor such as oyster restoration, which is critical to cleaning pollutants in the New York Harbor. Findings revealed that students indicated improved oyster knowledge and restoration skills, scientific skills, collecting and analyzing data, and knowledge about STEM careers. Participating teachers indicated a positive impact on their knowledge of content and harbor restoration, pedagogical knowledge used to engage students in hands-on scientific learning, and methods of engaging and motivating their own students. Moreover, teachers indicated a positive outcome for exposing their students to STEM career options.
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TransFAT: Translating Fairness, Accountably and Transparency into Data Science Practice
Data science holds incredible promise for improving people's lives, accelerating scientifi c discovery and innovation, and bringing about positive societal change. Yet, if not used responsibly -- in accordance with legal and ethical norms -- the same technology can reinforce economic and political inequities, destabilize global markets, and reaffirm systemic
bias. In this paper I discuss an ongoing regulatory effort in New York City, where the goal is to develop a methodology for enabling responsible use of algorithms and data in city agencies. I then highlight some ongoing work that makes part of the Data, Responsibly project, aiming to operationalize fairness, diversity, accountability, transparency, and data
protection at all stages of the data science lifecycle. Additional information about the project, including technical papers, teaching materials, and open-source tools, is available at dataresponsibly.github.io.
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- PAR ID:
- 10111425
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 1st International Workshop on Processing Information Ethically, PIE@CAiSE 2019
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Global amphibian populations are declining rapidly, due largely to infectious diseases such as chytridiomycosis caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). The Herpetology Department at the Sam Noble Museum has screened for Bd prevalence among amphibian communities across Oklahoma for over five years, providing ongoing data about the disease’s prevalence and distribution. Recently, the museum partnered with other Oklahomans through a citizen science project allowing participants to sample their local amphibian communities for Bd. Our project targeted K–12 students in Oklahoma to promote curiosity in science and to foster an interest in pursuing career paths in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The multi-year baseline citizen science dataset we obtained shows a lower Bd prevalence compared to samples collected from trained researchers. In this study, we juxtapose the two datasets and make observations on the feasibility of the citizen science program. Results from the program suggest that kit return rates were average for a project of this scale, and many participants could correctly identify amphibian species. Our findings indicate that the citizen science initiative is successful in increasing statewide amphibian disease sampling range and heightening the public’s awareness of this global amphibian epidemic.more » « less
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The Billion Oyster Project and Curriculum and Community Enterprise for the Restoration of New York Harbor with New York City Public Schools (BOP-CCERS) program is a National Science Foundation (NSF) supported initiative and collaboration of multiple institutions and organizations led by Pace University. The NSF project, Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST), had generated a large amount of data through engagement with teachers and students throughout New York City public schools. This article presents the second part to a large data collection study with focus on Underrepresented Minority (URM) student interest in STEM and engagement with teachers to support them in teaching science through experiential learning and lessons that connect science to the real world, particularly through science in the New York Harbor. The first component of the study focused on URM student interest in STEM. This second component of the study focuses on teacher engagement in the program, and what the researchers had learned in the process. Overall, teachers reported very favorable options on the impact of the BOP-CCERS activities as ways to generate student interest in STEM majors and careers. Teacher participants were generally positive about the amount of support and resources they received as members of the project, as well as the oyster-related knowledge and practices they learned to use with their own students in oyster field research. Data from the study provided evidence that the teacher activities were successful and met the project’s goals to provide support and resources for teachers to engage students in oyster restoration research.more » « less
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The Billion Oyster Project and Curriculum and Community Enterprise for the Restoration of New York Harbor with New York City Public Schools (BOP-CCERS) program is a National Science Foundation (NSF) supported initiative and collaboration of multiple institutions and organizations led by Pace University. The NSF project, Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST), had generated a large amount of data through engagement with teachers and students throughout New York City public schools. One purpose of this project is to engage with middle and high school science teachers to assist them in using project-based learning and real-world data collection in their classrooms with their students through harbor restoration initiatives. It was found that Underrepresented Minority (URM) students reported having higher levels of interest in STEM and science than did the non-URM students. While this is a success, it was found that the URM students had lower expectations for success in STEM courses and interest in STEM careers. It was concluded that URM students may need additional support in order to build their confidence and help them to become aware of opportunities in STEM education and careers.more » « less
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