The Academy Launches Pathways to Science
A new online hub for science teachers extends the reach of the Academy’s K-12 Science Education Initiative.
Published February 15, 2011
By Diana Friedman
The New York Academy of Sciences today unveiled Pathways to Science, a web portal designed to provide science educators with access to stellar scientific content and to enable teachers to meet and converse online with science education colleagues worldwide.
Pathways to Science is the online extension of the Academy’s K-12 Science Education Initiative, which offers an array of programming to encourage science educators to exchange information, build collaborations, and spur new thinking. By connecting teachers with the larger scientific community, the Academy is creating linkages between students, teachers, and working scientists, helping educators make science more relevant and exciting—a critical step for improving achievement in science around New York City.
A Cooperative Effort
Since the launch of the K-12 Science Education Initiative one year ago, the Academy, in cooperation with the NYC Department of Education, has given memberships to more than 1,100 New York City science teachers; hosted more than a dozen events and field trips exclusively for teachers; coordinated with Dean Kamen’s FIRST organization to host a Robotics Scrimmage at the Academy; and, in partnership with the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, engaged more than 100 early career scientists in an Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program serving high-needs K-12 students in the five boroughs. Funding for the Science Education Initiative and Pathways to Science is provided by the Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon.
Pathways to Science will, for the first time, enable the science education community to freely access the proprietary digital resources of the New York Academy of Sciences, including hundreds of multimedia reports from cutting-edge scientific meetings. Users will have access to digital multimedia recordings of live events and discussion boards that extend the conversation from the Academy’s auditorium to the web. Teachers can also use the site to register for Academy events and webinars. For easy searching and inspiration, scientific content from the Academy is organized by subject area and grade level. Other areas of the web portal are designed to help parents, teachers, and afterschool programs find great science teaching resources for any setting.
A Valuable Resource for Science Educators
The web portal also features 15 unique blogs authored by science education leaders, a Teachers Forum discussion board, links to additional resources for teachers, parents, and afterschool programmers, and an exhaustive calendar of upcoming science, math, technology, and engineering events for teachers in the New York metro region. The diverse group of bloggers includes teachers, teacher educators, and scientists discussing pedagogy, scientific content, professionalism of teachers, education policy, and other topics of global interest to science teachers. Guest bloggers will be invited to submit commentary about topical issues in science education.
“The Pathways to Science program uses the extraordinary capacity of broadband to enhance the teaching and learning of science in New York,” said Verizon New York Region President Jim Gerace. “Verizon is proud to partner with the Academy on this important mission.”
Utilizing technology to advance education is a key mission of the Verizon Foundation. The Foundation’s support of Pathways to Science is the latest in Verizon’s efforts to provide valuable, free resources to teachers to increase interest in STEM subjects. In addition, the Verizon Foundation provides thousands of educational resources including include K-12 lesson plans, podcasts, and interactive online materials through Thinkfinity.org, an online educational tool for parents, teachers, and students.
