Poly Awarded $200K to Bring FIRST to Bed-Stuy
Continued from the September 2007 Newsletter
Dr. Noel N. Kriftcher, CBRI project director and executive director of Polytechnic's David Packard Center, added, "Children in the central Brooklyn area will get to experience the hands-on, minds-on process of technological innovation. Teachers will learn new skills and content, and engineering students here at Poly will add experience in community service and project management to their academic preparation for the future."
This past summer and during the 2007-08 academic year, teachers from the participating schools will receive training at Polytechnic to enable them to serve as teacher-coaches for FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge teams. Poly engineering students will serve on site at participating schools as team mentors and technical resources to teachers. Evaluation of the project will focus on the degree to which FIRST participation influenced students' motivation to pursue studies in science and mathematics.
Following their FIRST participation this year, the initial group of teachers is expected to spend the summer of 2008 developing curricula to enable the integration of FIRST activities into the instructional day. Plans call for these curricula to be tested during the 2008-09 school year and then offered to other teachers across the New York City school system.
"CBRI is a wonderful example of how technical institutions like Polytechnic can build partnerships that impact not only engineering education, but learning in the K-12 sector, in general," added Randy Schaeffer, FIRST regional director.
For more information about the Central Brooklyn Robotics Initiative, please contact Dr. Noel Kriftcher at [email protected]. |
