CITY-AS-LAB

Brooklyn College’s NSF GK12 Program

An Opportunity for Graduate Students of Science at Brooklyn College

Rationale for the Program and Program Scope:

        At the national level, there is increasing realization how much our nation depends on the quality of our scientists and engineers and having scientifically-literate citizens to maintain our place in the competitive global economy. As scientists-in-training, you help high school students understand that science is more than a collection of facts and can share that science is a powerful way of solving problems that results in cumulative progress. You may even help capable younger students choose a career in science by conveying to them the excitement of discovery that a scientist experiences. That our country’s students are not doing better in science and mathematics in international comparisons is in part based on the failure of higher education to fully participate in the training of future and current teachers. By becoming part of the GK-12 program, you can become part of the solution to an important national problem. 

        The NSF Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) Program supports fellowships and training for graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Through interactions with teachers and students in K-12 schools, graduate fellows can improve their own communication and teaching skills while enriching STEM content and instruction for their K-12 partners. NSF developed the GK-12 program recognizing that, in addition to being competent researchers, STEM graduate students must be able to communicate science and research to a variety of audiences. As the graduate students bring their cutting-edge research and practice into the K-12 classroom, they gain skills which enable them to explain science to people of all ages, ranging from students to teachers. As in much of your career you will be explaining your work and your field to those not as expert as you are (including in grant proposals), developing the talent to explain complex concepts in simple, accessible language will pay dividends for you. Further, your participation as a GK-12 Fellow in a nationally-recognized NSF-funded program is an activity that you can put on your CV for post-doctoral positions and academic and other jobs. GK-12 Fellowship status has become a recognized and respected credential indicating both experience and a commitment to training future scientists and educated citizens about science, engineering, mathematics and technology.

        The Brooklyn College CITY-AS-LAB project is a community-based initiative that focuses on opportunities to engage high-school students in science-experiences with Brooklyn’s parklands and urban neighborhoods. Accordingly, fellows will aid teachers in developing City-as-Lab research activities in which geospatial technology (GPS and GIS) will permit students and teachers to relate data to geographic position, and explore and analyze scientific data will engage students in authentic scientific problems activities that are relevant to the urban environment in which they live.