NYU Poly Gets $3.5 Million To Train 500 NYC STEM Teachers
The New
York University Polytechnic School of
Engineering (NYU Poly) has received two gifts totaling $3.5 million that
represent the start
of a five-year $10.5-million fundraising campaign to support the NYU Center for
K12 STEM Education's initiative to train 500 New York City
teachers in science,
technology, education and math (STEM). Those 500 teachers are expected
to reach
50,000 public school students over the next decade.
NYU Poly won a $2.5-million National
Science Foundation (NSF) Discovery
Research grant that will allow it to build a year-round teacher training
program in the field of robotics. The program will be developed by a
team of
experts in robotics, engineering, curriculum design and assessment.
"This program is particularly innovative in enhancing
the
teacher professional development necessary for the disciplined use of
robotics
and engineering in teaching middle-school math and science," said John
Cherniavsky, a senior advisor to the NSF's division of research and
learning.
At the same time, technology venture capitalists Fred
and
Joanne Wilson gave NYU Poly a $1-million gift to seed an additional $7
million in
fundraising over the next five years to equip New York City public
school
teachers with the skills to prepare their students for further STEM
studies in
college. The Wilsons' gift is expected to kick off the campaign to raise
money
for a professional development program that will give teachers the
opportunity
to learn robotics, computer science and cybersecurity.
"By focusing on teacher development, we will be able
to impact
so many more students than we could ever reach directly," said NYU
School of
Engineering Dean and President Katepalli R. Sreenivasan.
The announcement of the gifts came at the beginning
of the NYU Poly's Summer of STEM, in which the first group of 44
teachers
from 22 middle schools began training in how to teach robotics and the "Science
of Smart Cities" to their students.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.