Curriculum and Community Enterprise for New York Harbor Restoration in New York City Public Schools

研究一直表明，有机会积极调查自然环境并参与以问题为基础的学习的儿童从这些经历中受益匪浅。他们获得技能、兴趣、知识、抱负和学习更多的动力。但是，我们如何才能在人口稠密的城市地区提供这些丰富的机会，因为这些地区的资源和进入自然区域的机会有限？该项目将开发和测试一个课程和社区企业的模式，以解决全国最大的城市学校系统中的这个问题。中学生将研究纽约港和流入该港的广阔分水岭，他们将进行实地研究，以支持恢复本地牡蛎栖息地。该项目建立在现有的十亿只牡蛎项目的基础上，将通过机构和社区资源的广泛合作来实施，包括佩斯大学、纽约市教育部、哥伦比亚大学拉蒙特-多尔蒂地球天文台、纽约科学院、纽约港湾基金会、纽约水族馆等。该项目专注于地质、环境和生物科学中的一个重要概念：分水岭。这个项目是在纽约港学校的亿万牡蛎项目的基础上进行和扩展的。该项目模式包括五个相互关联的组成部分：教师教育课程、学生学习课程、项目资源数字平台、水族馆展览和课后STEM指导计划。该项目的目标是低收入社区的中学生和英语学习者人数较多的群体，以及STEM领域和教育途径中代表性不足的学生。该项目将在三年内直接涉及40多所学校、80名教师和8,640名学生。将使用准实验、混合方法研究计划来评估五个项目组成部分的个人和集体效果。回归分析将被用来确定有效的计划方面，并评估参与五个计划组成部分的不同组合的个人有效性。社交网络地图将被用来进一步评估整体的“课程+社区”模式。

Research consistently shows that children who have opportunities to actively investigate natural settings and engage in problem-based learning greatly benefit from the experiences. They gain skills, interests, knowledge, aspirations, and motivation to learn more. But how can we provide these rich opportunities in densely populated urban areas where resources and access to natural areas are limited? This project will develop and test a model of curriculum and community enterprise to address that issue within the nation's largest urban school system. Middle school students will study New York harbor and the extensive watershed that empties into it, and they will conduct field research in support of restoring native oyster habitats. The project builds on the existing Billion Oyster Project, and will be implemented by a broad partnership of institutions and community resources, including Pace University, the New York City Department of Education, the Columbia University Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the New York Academy of Sciences, the New York Harbor Foundation, the New York Aquarium, and others.The project focuses on an important concept in the geological, environmental, and biological sciences that typically receives inadequate attention in schools: watersheds. This project builds on and extends the Billion Oyster Project of the New York Harbor School. The project model includes five interrelated components: A teacher education curriculum, a student learning curriculum, a digital platform for project resources, an aquarium exhibit, and an afterschool STEM mentoring program. The project targets middle-school students in low-income neighborhoods with high populations of English language learners and students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields and education pathways. The project will directly involve over forthy schools, eighty teachers, and 8,640 students over a period of three years. A quasi-experimental, mixed-methods research plan will be used to assess the individual and collective effectiveness of the five project components. Regression analyses will be used to identify effective program aspects and assess the individual effectiveness of participation in various combinations of the five program components. Social network mapping will be used to further asses the overall "curriculum plus community" model.