- Year 2017
- NSF Noyce Award # 1540780
- First Name Jeanne
- Last Name Weiler
- Discipline Other: Sociology and Education
- Co-PI(s)
Dennis Robbins, drobb@hunter.cuny.edu
- Presenters
Hunter College Noyce Science Scholars:
Dylan Bryant (Dylan.Bryant18@myhunter.cuny.edu)
Jabari McGreen (Jabari.Mcgreen31@myhunter.cuny.edu)
Jorge Torres (Jorge.Torres60@myhunter.cuny.edu)
Need
A central goal of the Hunter College Noyce Science Scholars program is to prepare and support new science teachers to teach with modern learning technologies. This poster focuses on one programmatic feature of the Hunter College Noyce Science Scholars Program, a bi-weekly Professional Development (PD) seminar that offers continuous professional development to Noyce Scholars to teach science process and content (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Earth science) through the educational use of various technologies such as ‘probeware’ and robotics. A secondary goal of the PD series is the creation of a professional learning community (PLC). As an urban commuter college, Hunter students typically have little time to congregate and reflect outside of campus. Thus the goal of the PLC is to ‘de-isolate’ the Scholars’ teaching and learning experiences.
Goals
A central goal of the Hunter College Noyce Science Scholars program is to prepare and support new science teachers to teach with modern learning technologies. Scholars are prepared to teach generalized STEM principles that emphasize computer programming, quantitative reasoning and engineering design by using educational robotics. Regular hands-on ‘probeware’ workshops that use data-collection sensors and real-time graphing software are provided during the school year along with a weeklong summer institute and weekend outdoor environmental research (Black Forest Consortium, north of New York City).
Approach
The PD sessions provide support for implementing new learning technologies such as probeware and robotics in summer programs and in formal classroom practice. Scholars are assisted and encouraged to use these technologies in their methods courses as sample lessons and in their student teaching. Educational robotics has wide presence in New York City schools and scholars assume highly needed summer internships at STEM programs as one of their early teaching experiences before their mandated student-teaching. Through a one-week summer institute in June, Scholars and Associate Scholars (younger college students interested in science education and paired with a Scholar) create and refine the Robotics curricula they will implement in their summer internship sites in July and August with middle school and high school NYC students.
Outcomes
Only in our second year, we have had success with our PD sessions. Scholars are enthusiastic about learning new technologies such as using probeware that they have made use of in the field during several outings to Black Rock Forest. Scholars are preparing to teach robotics classes in summer academic programs for NYC adolescent students. A key preliminary finding is that bringing Scholars together on a regular basis and introducing them to exciting teaching and learning technologies that can be transported to 7th-12th classrooms creates a learning community that is supportive, leads to innovative ideas and builds close interpersonal relationships.
Broader Impacts
The schools in which Noyce graduates will teach serve thousands of students from low-income populations who live in high poverty communities. Through innovative teacher preparation practices such as training Scholars in the use of hands-on modern learning technologies, they are likely to improve the motivation, engagement and learning achievement of NYC students.
