Project Profile

The New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) will host a community-based convening, and a series of follow-up to advance the knowledge base and increase the capacity of educators who support STEM pathways for STEM opportunities. The objective of the NYSCI Neighbors STEM Collaborative will be to engage principals, parent coordinators and parents, science cluster teachers, and English Language Learner instructors from schools in Corona, Queens, to help guide NYSCI staff in developing a framework for integrating museum activities aligned to the newly implemented New York State Science Learning Standards. The convening will help develop the foundation for building a national community of practice that will serve to amplify work on STEM and first-generation immigrant students.

There are very few places where first-generation immigrant families can go that provide opportunities for an intergenerational approach to learning, where families and children learn together. The NYSCI STEM Collaborative will lead to a community of practice where teachers, parents, ELL instructors, and museum staff co-develop activities to strengthen teaching and learning in STEM between the school and the museum. This work will also contribute to a small, but growing body of research literature examining the role that science centers can play in impacting local communities and extend this work by anchoring it deeply in the lessons learned throughout the NYSCI Neighbors initiative. The Institute will combine research projects, the development of methodologies for the study of diverse families and youth, training graduate students and disseminating research findings. The project will disseminate the lessons learned in this initiative through two major organizations. First, NYSCI is partnering with the Institute for Immigration, Globalization and Education. Second, NYSCI has been invited by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to engage a group of science museums across the country all of whom are working to deeply engage first-generation communities.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.