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Putting the Spotlight on NYC Innovation

The New York Academy of Sciences’ Scientist-in-Residence Student Showcase is an opportunity to explore scientific innovations taking place in New York City.

Published June 25, 2025

By Jennifer Atkinson
Program Administrator

Photo by Nick Fetty/The New York Academy of Sciences.

Students of all ages buzzed about posters and 3D dioramas of every shape, size, and color. In the air was a sense of nostalgia, one that harkened back to school science fairs from our youth. Students dressed in costumes for their presentations, some looking like the stereotyped “mad scientist” in white lab coats and goggles. Others took a different approach, dressing to resemble their projects, with one student wearing a sleep mask with “Nap Queen” embroidered on it.

The Scientists-in-Residence program, created in cooperation with the New York City Department of Education, offers public school students in elementary through high school the chance to bring their scientific imaginations to life by matching them with a scientist from The New York Academy of Sciences’ (the Academy’s) distinguished roster of graduate students and STEM professionals. The scientist works with a partner teacher to devise a project for their school group to work on throughout the year, culminating in a showcase each May to present their findings.

This year’s showcase, which was held on May 29th and 30th, brought nearly four hundred students from 41 schools across NYC together to celebrate their scientific discoveries. Special guest speakers, all of whom shared powerful messages of encouragement and inspiration, included:

  • Seema Kumar, CEO of Cure and member of the Board of Governors at The New York Academy of Sciences
  • Rita Joseph, New York City Council Member
  • Roy Nachum, Co-Founder of Mercer Labs
  • Cindy Lawrence, Executive Director of MoMath
  • Magdia DeJesus, Director of Scientific Strategy and Business Operations, Pfizer
  • Will Lenihan, Curator, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
  • Susanna Ling, Senior Vice President Sponsorships, Partnerships and Industry Programs, Cure

Scientific Innovation Has No Bounds

Photo by Nick Fetty/The New York Academy of Sciences.

During the poster sessions, older and younger students engaged with each other by listening to their peers’ presentations, providing an opportunity for students to learn from one another, not just a teacher or a scientist. Each student was provided with a scavenger hunt sheet to take specific notes about other groups’ projects, many of which ranged in complexity and subject.

Some projects tackled intricate topics such as bacterial growth in fermented foods, growing crystals from DNA, planarian secrets on regeneration, the study of sleep, and the Urban Heat Island Effect. This also gave students a chance to better understand their own home, New York City—as several school groups studied subjects that directly impacted their lives as New Yorkers, such as how air pollution affects the pH of drinking water.

The engagement between schools and students of different age groups provided an ideal opportunity for students to learn something new about a subject they had already studied. On numerous occasions, different school groups chose the same project but approached their experiment using distinct methods. They were encouraged to think outside the box—showing that science and creativity go hand-in-hand, but also that one scientific question can have endless answers.

Learning Valuable Lessons

Mentor scientists and teachers also had their own roles to play. Scientists were tasked with teaching their students the rigorous steps of the scientific method, creating hypotheses and sourcing data through surveys, physical collection, or other means. Teachers worked alongside scientists to guide their classes throughout the year. At the showcase, they were given forms to provide feedback to their students about their presentation and public-speaking skills.

In tandem with their mentor scientists and teachers, students learned valuable lessons about how scientific field work is performed and later communicated to the public, thereby developing a well-rounded toolbox of skills to bring with them into their own future careers as scientists.

The students themselves were even able to teach both their peers and adults valuable life lessons. One student from Urban Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science described their project on social media and its effects on mental health: “We learned that while it’s so addictive…silencing notifications and using screen time apps helps to moderate social media use. It is crucial to learn how to manage pleasure without the addiction.”

Inclusion in STEM

Photo by Nick Fetty/The New York Academy of Sciences.

A big takeaway from this program is that younger generations are passionate about solving everyday problems and making the world a better place for all—and it shows in their hard work.

“One of the things I like most about the program is that students get a chance to know a real scientist—someone who is actively working or studying in a STEM field and isn’t just a name in a textbook or a figure on TV,” said Adrienne Umali, associate director of education for the Academy.

“As they get to know their scientist over the course of a school year, the students start to humanize what it means to be a scientist and in turn begin to build their own STEM identity. A key goal of our program is to foster the idea of belonging in the scientific world—there is no set criteria and you don’t have to look a certain way. Students start to see themselves as scientists, too,” Umali said.

The Scientist-in-Residence program provides the opportunity for scientific exploration and growth for teachers, scientists, and students alike. It serves as an inclusive space for anyone interested in STEM and shows that we are never too old or young to learn something new about our world.

Learn more about the Scientist-in-Residence Program. Applications for scientists and teachers interested in participating are open each Spring. 

More photos from the 2025 Scientist-in-Residence Student Showcase:

Bringing Science to Life with Artificial Intelligence

NYC teachers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to transform STEM education. The New York Academy of Sciences (the Academy) is supporting this effort.

Published May 14, 2025

By Meghan Groome, PhD
Senior Vice President, Education

Image courtesy of shevchukandrey via stock.adobe.com.

Since 2012, The New York Academy of Sciences’ Scientist-in-Residence (SiR) program has paired STEM professionals with public school teachers across New York City to co-design and lead inquiry-based projects in the classroom. Created in partnership with the NYC Department of Education, the program brings authentic, hands-on science learning to students from grades 3 through 12.

For the 2024–2025 school year, SiR is serving 50 classrooms across the five boroughs as well as five classrooms in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The program engages a diverse range of schools—80% Title I—and spans disciplines from biology and chemistry to physics and computer science. The teachers and their scientist partners are transforming the way science is taught and experienced, one classroom at a time.

This year, with support from pilot funding, the Academy launched a new initiative to explore how GenAI tools can elevate classroom projects. Through dedicated workshops, expert coaching, and a “sandbox” where educators can try out new tools, teachers began integrating AI into their existing projects, not for efficiency, but for enhancement. Rather than using AI to automate grading or lesson planning, teachers used it to elevate students’ engagement and understanding.

Tools and Trends from the AI in Classrooms Pilot

1. Elevation over Efficiency

Teachers are not turning to AI to save time—they’re using it to go deeper. By integrating AI into content-specific teaching, educators are enhancing students’ conceptual understanding and critical thinking. One physics class compared AI-generated simulations to actual physical laws, exploring both scientific accuracy and technological limitations.

2. Word of Mouth Matters

The most effective tool adoption happens through trusted networks. Our teacher working group acts as a grassroots recommendation engine. When a tool proves successful in one classroom, it’s shared, tested, and scaled by others.

3. Accessibility and Advocacy

Because many AI tools require approval at the school or district level, teachers are learning how to advocate for access. They share success stories and “tips and tricks” to help one another navigate approval processes—critical as federal AI-in-education guidance and local policies evolve.

4. Ethics as a First Filter

Teachers weigh tools through ethical lenses—considering intellectual property, bias in training data, and environmental impact—often mirroring their students’ own concerns. In the Academy’s high school programs, students consistently prioritize ethical considerations over convenience, a trend echoed by their teachers.

5. Data Analysis is a Gateway

Teachers working with large data sets—from air quality sensors to robot logs—are exploring AI-enabled data visualization tools like Tableau Public, PowerBI, and Google Colab (though the latter is difficult to use in-school). Even simple tools like Google Sheets + Explore are making an impact.

6. Image Analysis Expands Possibilities

From observing plant growth to studying telescope images, teachers are excited by how AI can quantify what once required hours of manual observation. Tools like NASA’s public image analysis platforms, QuPath, and Phyphox are transforming how visual data supports experimentation.

As the Scientist-in-Residence program evolves, it’s clear that NYC teachers are not just ready for the future of education—they’re building it. By fostering innovation, collaboration, and ethical engagement with AI, they’re giving their students the tools—and the inspiration—to become the next generation of scientific leaders.

Learn more about the Academy’s Scientist-in-Residence program.

Recognizing the STEM Teacher and Mentor of the Year

This year’s award-winning teacher-mentor duo has been inspiring young minds and promoting STEM education for three years. They were recently honored by The New York Academy of Sciences for their work.

Published April 30, 2025

By Brooke Elliott
Education Communications Intern

Megan C. Henriquez (left) and Brittany Beck pose with their awards during the Spring Soirée hosted at the University Club of New York on April 22, 2025.

The New York Academy of Sciences’ (the Academy’s) Scientist-in-Residence (SiR) program was proud to announce this year’s STEM Teacher of the Year: Brittany Beck, biology teacher at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology; and Mentor of the Year: Megan C. Henriquez, who just defended her PhD in biological anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center in April and will graduate in June.

A Queens native, Henriquez’s interest in STEM began when she was a kid. She remembers coming home from school and watching wildlife documentaries. “Those shows made studying wildlife seem so exciting and foreign, and yet so out of reach for a city kid like me” she recalled. “But through a network of mentorship and opportunity, I ended up becoming a wildlife ecologist doing field work in some of the most remote parts of the world.”

Brittany Beck grew up in rural Missouri. She completed her undergraduate degree in biology and her master’s in science education at Truman State University in Missouri. She has been teaching biology in NYC public schools for 14 years, with 13 of those years at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology. Additionally, she serves as Coordinator of Student Activities, running the Student Government, managing over 30 clubs, and overseeing school events.

This is Beck’s fourth year as a teacher in the SiR program, working with scientists and building novel research projects with her students. Henriquez started working with the program about three years ago as a way to provide students with the same experiences and opportunities that inspired her interest in STEM in her youth.

Engaging Young Minds

Beck considers herself both a scientist and a teacher. Before joining the Scientist-in-Residence program, she was a national Evolution Education fellow in a program where she developed live organism research experiments for her classes alongside scientists at the University of Virginia and the Mountain Lake Biological Station. During that program, she developed a protocol in which students spend a year caring for mealworms, pupae, and darkling beetles in different treatments of Styrofoam to see how these treatments affect their growth and development. When the formal evolution education program ended, she continued this important work with students through the Academy’s SiR program.

Brittany Beck poses with Nick Dirks, President and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences, during the Spring Soirée hosted at the University Club of New York on April 22, 2025.

What makes Beck and Henriquez such a good team? Trust in not just each other, but in their students. The pair has always let students pick and develop their projects, come up with their research questions, design their experiments, collect data, and decide how they organize and visualize on their own. At times, this may also mean allowing them to learn from mistakes.

The “ABC+M Pedagogical” Model

In terms of teaching technique, Beck often cites the “ABC+M” pedagogical model, which was developed by Rhonda Bondie and Akane Zusho. It requires that all lessons should include an opportunity for student Autonomy and choice. Teachers should build classroom environments where students know they Belong. They should provide opportunities for students to build their Competence, and that all lessons should be Meaningful to students. The work that Beck and Henriquez do with their students exemplifies this thinking.

Henriquez began her work as a mentor for the Academy as a way to pay back the early help and inspiration she received from mentors. Her first experience doing any sort of field work or experimentation was in her high school AP biology class, which makes it all the more meaningful that she gets to work with Beck’s Advanced Placement (AP) Biology class.

This made such a lasting impression that she ended up pursuing a career in biology. “If I could inspire at least one other student to pursue a career in STEM by providing them with the opportunity to see themselves as creative, serious, and legitimate researchers, I feel as though I would have done my part,” she said, adding she feels her work with students makes her own research both more meaningful and impactful.

“I think it’s one thing to read about the scientific method in a textbook, and it’s a completely enhanced experience to go through the process yourself. To develop your research questions, learn about your study system, try something out, revise and draw conclusions,” said Henriquez. “It works a part of your brain that so many people don’t get the opportunity to access.”

Inspiration

Megan C. Henriquez poses with Nick Dirks, President and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences, during the Spring Soirée hosted at the University Club of New York on April 22, 2025.

Henriquez, who defended her PhD dissertation earlier in the month, feels the characteristics of a good mentor center around excitement and compassion. “No one is doing this for pay, so if you’re not going in excited about your work and what you’re going to share with your students, they’re going to sense that and not be excited either,” she said. She also loves providing interested students with additional opportunities. If a student is particularly interested in ecology fieldwork, she might find a program at the Bronx Zoo or the Junior Academy to keep the student engaged.

“Watching our SiR students make those connections and learn through experience has been one of the most rewarding parts of this program,” she continued, “Having students run up to us and say things like, ‘Look at what happened!’, ‘Look at how much our organisms have grown!’, ‘Our results are refuting or supporting our hypotheses!’ is just so exciting. Seeing them experience new things, overcome challenges, and grow confident in their skills and their problem-solving abilities has been amazing and so rewarding.”

Improvisation

Being able to improvise is another important skill for the mentor and teacher team. “A memory that sticks out is how, during Megan’s and my second year, we had collected water from a local pond and were unsure if we would be able to keep the microorganisms within the water alive. We not only kept them alive, but we also discovered a colony of snail eggs had hatched and grew and which our students then did microplastics experiments on,” Beck recalls.

“There hasn’t been one visit where we haven’t laughed together or enthusiastically yelled about the progress of a group’s experimental organisms. The sea monkeys, the pitcher plants, the butterflies, and especially the snails. We like to challenge ourselves as well as the students, and each year we add a level of complexity to the experimental process,” Beck added.

A snail students raised in 2023-2024, with green microplastics seen in the distance.
Brittany Beck and Megan C. Henriquez, PhD, in front of their SiR poster for 2023-2024.
With one of their SiR classes in 2022-2023, running student-led experiments on the impact of microplastics in local parks.
Brittany Beck and Megan C. Henriquez, PhD, with student presenters in front of their SiR poster for 2022-2023.
Looking at Prospect Park aquatic microorganisms together in 2023-2024.
Student presenters with Brittany Beck and Megan C. Henriquez at the SiR showcase in 2024.
A poster designed by Brittany Beck, Megan C. Henriquez, and their students for the SiR showcase during the 2023-2024 school year.
Megan C. Henriquez with students this year, excited to see sea monkeys living among microplastics.
Megan C. Henriquez and Brittany Beck in 2022-2023, examining HSTAT’s school garden for microorganisms and microplastics.

A Celebration of Hard Work

Beck feels the Scientist-in-Residence program has strengthened her students’ scientific identity, and graduates have told her they have notably more experience in lab skills than their peers in college, especially in designing laboratory protocols. “My students love it when Megan comes in, and they have a deep sense of ownership over their experimental ‘babies,’ whether they are plants, microorganisms, or bugs,” Beck said.

The duo were formally honored for their hard work during the Academy’s Spring Soirée which took place at the University Club of New York on April 22. When she heard she was named Mentor of the Year, Henriquez said she was in disbelief. From “early mornings jumping fences to get pond water to late nights setting up pitfall traps to catch bugs,” Henriquez feels good that her hard work is acknowledged.

Likewise, when Beck heard the news, she was at the National Science Teachers Association national conference in Philadelphia. “I whooped out loud in the busy exhibit hall and immediately called Megan, and we got to celebrate together,” she said with a laugh.

Learn more about the Academy’s Scientist- in-Residence program.

Scientist-in-Residence

Applications for the Scientist-in-Residence program from 2025 through 2026 are open until June 13, 2025.

Overview

A Partnership Between Teachers and Scientists

Studies have continually shown that young people who are exposed to science through active, inquiry-based learning are more likely to pursue a STEM career. And one of the most effective ways to engage students in this type of learning is to give them the opportunity to conduct genuine scientific research with a real scientist!

Created in cooperation with the New York City Department of Education in 2012, the Scientist-in-Residence (SiR) program matches scientists with NYC public school teachers to bring scientific inquiry to life in the classroom. By combining their content and pedagogical expertise, each scientist-teacher pair will develop and implement a year-long project that prepares students to engage in authentic research and spark their interest in STEM learning.

For Scientists

Are you a scientist interested in sharing your passion for research with the next generation? The SiR program offers you a unique opportunity to collaborate with an NYC public school teacher, bring your work into the classroom, and help students experience the excitement of real scientific discovery.

Learn More

For Teachers

Are you a NYC public school teacher eager to deepen your students’ engagement with science? Partnering with a scientist through the SiR program gives you the chance to co-create and deliver a hands-on, inquiry-based science project tailored to your curriculum and students.

Learn More

Our Impact

Since our launch, we have paired over 300 teachers and scientists, and impacted 17,000+ students! Check out the map below to see some of the schools where we’ve put a Scientist-in-Residence.

Check out highlights from our May 2023 SiR Student Showcase:

Become a Scientist-in-Residence
Become a Host Teacher
Program Sponsors

Stay Connected

To receive the latest news and important announcements for our education initiatives, including Scientist-in-Residence, please log in. Navigate to My Account and, under Contact Preferences, select STEM Education Updates to subscribe to our newsletter.

Contact Us

For more information, contact sir@nyas.org.

Good Mentors are Key to Student Interest in STEM

A young woman examines a specimen under a microscope.

The Academy’s Scientists in Residence initiative aims to jumpstart student interest in STEM.

Published May 1, 2020

By Adrienne Umali, M.S.B.S., M.S.Ed.
Associate Director, In-Person Education Programs

Kathrin Schilling, Ph.D.
Associate Research Scientist Geochemistry, Columbia University

Regardless of the field you’re in, it is likely that if you looked back at your career path, you could identify at least one person who has helped guide you to where you are today. Whether this person was a teacher, family member, coach, or supervisor, mentorship has always been an incredibly important part of not only exposing individuals to new ideas and opportunities, but in encouraging them to their full potential.

When the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores in math and science showed the United States ranked 13th, behind several Asian and European nations, it was once again demonstrated that the U.S. needs to raise its investment in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to remain globally competitive. These fields are core to almost every industry, but a 2017 poll found that only 38 percent of middle and high school teachers see their students as being “naturally interested” in STEM.

Cultivating a Love of STEM

Most students rarely have the opportunity to meet a working scientist, so developing programs that expose students to science professionals is proving to be a critical way to cultivate a love of STEM in the next generation. It’s what brought Emily Bohonos, a middle school science teacher in Brooklyn, N.Y., to join The New York Academy of Science’s Scientist-in-Residence (SiR) program.

SiR brings together scientists and NYC middle and high school teachers for a year-long collaboration that aims to jumpstart student interest in STEM through real-world projects and the opportunity to “humanize” a scientist.

Emily Bohonos
Science Teacher, Elijah Stroud Middle School, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bohonos along with her partner Kathrin Schilling, Ph.D., an associate research scientist of Geochemistry from Columbia University, have spent the last few months creating a project focused on something that most students already have an interest in: food. Building off of Schillings’ expertise — she has degrees in geology, soil science and microbiology — the two are challenging students to research diet variations around the world and create experiments that explore the effects of different conditions on plant growth. Their project pushes students to practice thinking critically, creatively, and globally.

Thinking Outside the Box

Schilling loves sharing her passion for science with students and is thrilled when she sees them thinking outside of the box. The benefits of programs like this, however, are not limited to added content expertise — they also provide tangible examples of people who have found success in STEM.

In fact, Schilling notes that many of the questions she gets are far removed from her area of expertise. With the title of “Dr.“, the students see her as an expert in all science-related fields, a factor she recognizes may be one of the reasons that science can seem inaccessible to some students. “It feels like you have to be a genius in every field [to be a scientist] and we are definitely not.” Schilling admits that she herself wasn’t a great student until she was able to start specializing in her post-secondary education.

To this end, Bohonos creates time during each lesson to allow students to interact one-on-one with their Resident Scientist and get to know her on a personal level. In this way, students can hopefully begin to see STEM as a career path not just limited to those who have already been labeled as “smart”. Fostering this type of environment is particularly critical at schools like Bohonos’, where students of color make up almost 90 percent of the student body, a group which still remains significantly underrepresented in the number of individuals receiving undergraduate STEM degrees.

Mentoring takes time and it comes with its own challenges, but despite this, Schilling remains optimistic about her role in fostering a positive outlook regarding STEM. “Even if I can change the mind of just a few [students] it’s more than before the program.

Science State: From New York City to Syracuse

The New York Academy of Sciences’ (the Academy’s) Scientist-in-Residence Program now extends beyond the bounds of New York City.

Published June 09, 2017

Published March 1, 2017

By Marie Gentile and Robert Birchard
Academy Contributors

Image courtesy of leungchopan via stock.adobe.com.

Over the past nine months, Erin Barta has been diligently working to implement the Academy’s Scientist-in-Residence Program (SiR) in Syracuse, New York. While this is a first for Barta after graduating in 2014 from Clark University’s Master’s Program in International Development and Social Change, it is also a first for the Academy. Syracuse’s SiR Program is the first expansion of the program outside of New York City.

The guiding principle behind SiR is that students who are exposed to science through inquiry-based learning techniques are more likely to succeed in—and be engaged with—science. SiR matches a scientist with a public school teacher and the teacher’s students, and advises them on developing a science project that follows the scientific method. The scientist will act as a mentor to both teacher and students and share their insights on the scientific method, project design and presentation of results.

A Crash Course in Program Management

Barta’s work is primarily concerned with building and supporting these budding partnerships. She collaborates with the scientists and staff at the SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, and with the dedicated teachers and administrators in the Syracuse public school system, to ensure that students are learning the techniques that will allow them to thrive in the STEM fields.

“Adapting the SiR program to Syracuse has been a crash course in program management. I have a front row seat to what it means to build a program from the ground up,” said Barta. “As the academic year draws to a close so will this year’s program. After celebrating our participants’ efforts and successes, the upcoming months will be spent exploring ways to make SiR even more rewarding for students.”

Paying it Forward

Erin Barta

Barta believes in SiR because she understands the importance of a mentor. As a college student she was inspired by faculty who were generous with their time and feedback. According to Barta, a good mentor can help a person, “gain a better sense of self, and radically reframe notions of our own capabilities. In my case, I was emboldened to pursue scholarships, internships and graduate school opportunities that I previously thought were out of my reach.”

According to Barta, mentorship provides a model for, “existing and engaging” in the world. A good mentor can provide an example of how to navigate all the competing factors between personal goals and obligations, versus those of the professional career. “Mentorship makes us privy to the experience of wisdom of those who have gone before us, which reconfigures our vision of what is possible.”

Barta and SiR are a well-made match. SiR seeks to encourage high school students to pursue their scientific interests in an academically rigorous manner, while providing their teachers with a resource to help their students succeed.

When she completes her VISTA service in September, Barta will continue to build her experience in project management and development in the nonprofit sector in Syracuse.

Learn more about the Academy’s Scientist-in-Residence program.

The Need for Afterschool STEM Opportunities

Dr. Meghan Groome was recently asked to provide City Council testimony on the success of the Academy’s Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program.

Published October 19, 2012

By Meghan Groome, PhD
Senior Vice President of Education

Meghan Groome, PhD

On Tuesday, October 16, 2012, Meghan Groome, PhD, was asked to provide testimony for the New York City Council on the topic of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) opportunities in afterschool programs. Dr. Groome runs the Academy’s Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program, which aims to create a replicable, scalable program model that can be instituted in communities near and far. Below is a transcript of Dr. Groome’s testimony.

Testimony Transcript:

Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me to testify before the Committee on Youth Services. My name is Meghan Groome and I am the director of K12 Education and Science & the City at the New York Academy of Sciences. For nearly 200 years the New York Academy of Sciences (or the Academy) has brought together extraordinary people working at the frontiers of discovery and has promoted vital links between science and society. The Academy has a history of building new scientific communities, constructing innovative connections among an extensive scientific network, and driving path-breaking initiatives for scientific, social, and economic benefit.

Since the 1940s, the Academy has made investments in K-12 (Kindergarten through 12th grade) science education, with programs like the New York City Science & Engineering Fair, capacity-building programs to support outreach in other institutions, and mentoring programs for top performing students in New York City. As a result of these investments, the Academy has increased the City’s ability to nurture top scientific talent.

In recent years, the Academy has redoubled its efforts to bring New York’s wealth of scientific resources to bear on the needs of the City’s schools, with a focus on improving science education for all students, especially those traditionally underrepresented in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. The New York City Science Education Initiative has a simple mission:  to identify high-impact, scalable pathways for scientists to directly improve the number of children who are STEM-literate. Our theory of change relies heavily on the core competencies of the Academy – to serve as a connector between the well-resourced scientific community and the under-resourced education community (including high-need students and teachers).

The Academy’s Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program

In 2010, a group of Deans and Faculty affiliated with the City’s research and medical universities asked the Academy to create a program to provide their top young scientists with an opportunity to learn how to teach science/STEM.  At the same time, The Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) approached the Academy to find a partnership opportunity to provide more STEM education in the OST and Beacon Programs. 

Launched in Fall 2010, the Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program was designed to satisfy both requests by recruiting graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from the Academy’s Science Alliance[i] program to volunteer to teach in DYCD funded afterschool programs.  When hired, I myself had a hard time understanding why a young scientist, mathematician, or engineer would take an afternoon a week to volunteer to teach 4th through 8th graders, but it becomes easier to understand when you learn that this generation of young people believe it is their obligation to serve as role models and mentors. They have grown up in a culture of service learning. They also face a tough job market where teaching, interpersonal, and mentoring skills are at a premium and can result in increased job opportunities. 

Now, as we begin our 6th semester of mentors, we’ve worked with nearly 400 young scientists, 7,000 children, and delivered more than 80,000 hours of instruction in all 5 boroughs (Exhibit 1). In Fall 2011, we expanded to Newark, NJ, and recently received a $2.95 million grant from the National Science Foundation to scale this program through the State University of New York system which will serve close to 200 young scientists and 3,000 children.

The Misconceptions of What a Scientist Is

For the students in the programs, the benefits are obvious. As one of our mentors recently wrote, “Learning comes pretty easily when people enjoy what you’re asking them to learn!” Moreover, our mentors deliver high quality, inquiry-based math, science, and robotics courses while serving as role models and demonstrating to the students that scientists aren’t at all stereotypes.

For example, all of the mentors do the same activity on the first day:  they ask the students to “draw a scientist”[ii]. It’s a research protocol that allows the mentors to understand that most kids hold the same misconception of a scientist; invariably the students almost all draw an older white man with crazy hair, a bowtie, and often an evil glint in his eye. It doesn’t take long after the students meet their mentors to understand that today’s scientists used to look just like them. This realization is the beginning of the development of a scientific identity. When students are again asked to draw a scientist on the last day of class, they often draw their mentors or themselves in a lab coat.

In addition to attitudinal changes, children in our program receive at least 12-15 hours of enrichment programming over the course of a semester. While this may not sound like a lot of time, consider that the average student receives 2.3 hours of science instruction a week[iii] and that many of our mentors report that they are the sole source of science in a child’s day.

Serving the Needs of Young Scientists

We are often asked why we don’t work directly with schools and the answer is that we do – we have nearly 1,400 public school teachers engaged in programming designed for them.  However, through the STEM Mentoring Program we realized that we had a great opportunity to serve the need of our young scientists to learn in an environment where the children’s social, emotional, and educational well being were top priority while hewing to the hands-on, activity learning spirit of afterschool programs.

  Afterschool programs typically offer smaller class sizes, freedom from state and local academic standards, reduced anxiety over tests and performance indicators, and more fluid uses of time free from the traditional school day structure. The Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program takes advantage of the existing infrastructure of OST programs, which include hundreds of community-based organizations charged with the safekeeping and, increasingly, the academic enrichment of the children in their care. 

As science continues to be marginalized in formal classrooms, the role of afterschool programs is increasingly viewed as an important arena for academic enrichment[iv]. Expanding the school day through afterschool programs offers the opportunity to increase a student’s exposure to high-quality STEM education by providing three elements that lead to an individual’s persistence into a STEM career: engagement, continuity, and capacity[v].

The Importance of Engagement

While continuity and capacity are important factors, there is evidence that engagement is potentially more important than achievement or course enrollment[vi]. By infusing STEM into existing community-based afterschool programs with strong curriculum partners, the proposed program can bypass the constraints of the formal classroom structure by providing relevant, hands-on curriculum; opportunities to interact with young, diverse scientific role models; and additional content knowledge and resources[vii]. Afterschool programs reach large swaths of urban students and provide safe and structured informal learning environments that allow for creative and enriching STEM programming[viii].

As a result of the success we’ve had with the current Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program, the Academy will pilot this program with the State University of New York (SUNY) in six communities, including an expanded partnership with SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn. Additionally, we have a partnership with the Girl Scouts of the USA to scale this program through their council system.

With the generous and sustained support of our funders and the Department of Youth and Community Development, we aim to deepen our commitment to the students of New York and create a model by which any region with an abundance of scientists and students with an enthusiasm for STEM can adopt this new model for delivering high quality STEM education via afterschool programs.

Sources:

[i] www.nyas.org/sciencealliance

[ii] http://www.ecu.edu/ncspacegrant/docs/RESTEPdocs/DASTRatingRubric.pdf

[iii] http://www.csss-science.org/downloads/NAEPElemScienceData.pdf

[iv] http://afterschoolscience.org/pdf/coalition_publications/afterschool%20advantage.pdf

[v] http://www.smm.org/static/about/ecc_paper.pdf

[vi] Maltese, A. V. and Tai, R. H. (2011), Pipeline persistence: Examining the association of educational experiences with earned degrees in STEM among U.S. students. Science Education, 95: 877-907. doi: 10.1002/sce.20441

[vii] Coalition for Science After School. (2007). Science in after-school: A blueprint for Action. Retrieved from http://www.greatscienceforgirls.org/files/Science-in-Afterschool.pdf

[viii] Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education. (2010). Out of school time STEM: Building experiences, building bridges. B. Bevan, V. Michalchik, R. Bhanot, N. Rauch, J. Remold, R. Semper, & P. Shields (Eds.). San Francisco, CA: Exploratorium.