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Fostering Careers in Engineering: Our Experiences in Developing Collaborations with the Schools Dr. Leonard Ciaccio and Dr. James Sanders. Co Directors of the Discovery Institute College of Staten Island The Discovery Institute seeks to enlist the resources of the College of Staten Island to assist teachers in the preparation of their students for college. Over the last few years, these efforts have included initiatives focussed on science and engineering. One of the most successful of these has been two projects that have resulted in participation by two high school teams in the important FIRST program. This presentation will present the preliminary or start up activities that were essential to the development of a collaboration or true partnership involving school and college faculty. We will discuss the contributions made by each of the partners including workshops for teachers and for college faculty and for participating students. Our efforts included significant efforts to monitor the project in ways that had the potential to develop additional funding. Finally, we will discuss how the participants at every level changed as a result of the process. Participants from the school teams and from the college will be available for discussion.
About The Discovery Institute College of Staten Island/CUNY
The Discovery Institute seeks to develop the COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND into a total resource for the renewal of teaching and learning in local community schools. To accomplish this, the Discovery Institute mobilizes the College's resources to assist in the professional development of teachers, focusing on three key elements: recruitment of future teachers, education of pre-service teachers, and continuing renewal of in-service teachers. The Discovery Institute works in close cooperation with the College's Department of Education and also with all academic departments. During the last two years, the Institute has supported a collaboration that brings together the faculty of the Engineering Department and science and math teachers of three area high schools.Through this effort, approximately 60 high school students have participated in a program to design, build and test robotics projects that have been entered in the FIRST competition. Because the Discovery Institute endorses an experiential approach to education renewal, at every step it ties the professional development of teachers to the actual world of the classroom. Teacher renewal is accomplished in the context of working with students in their own classrooms and laboratories. College faculty work side by side with teachers in formulating and testing classroom exercises reflecting the Institute's fundamental educational philosophy: that students learn best when allowed to become active in directing their own learning (discovery) and when they see the interrelationships among the subjects they study (interdisciplinary). For more information call (718) 982-2325 or Ciaccio@postbox.csi.cuny.edu
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