Science Education Overview

Science education is a central component of the Dominican Republic Project (DRP) at The City College, City University of New York (CUNY). DRP research and education are uniquely matched to The City College's location, demographics, and mission. First, The City College is located in Manhattan near the largest concentration of Dominican Americans in the United States. Second, CUNY enrolls more Dominican American undergraduates than any other university. Third, local K-12 schools (in Community School District 6) enroll the highest percentages of Dominican American students in New York City. Currently, more than 100,000 Dominican American students are enrolled in the New York City school system.

     The overarching goal of the DRP education program is to increase minority participation in the sciences and improve the quality of science education in New York City 's Dominican American community. This goal is being accomplished by using four major approaches:

• (1) Involving minority undergraduate students and teachers in Dominican Republic Project field and laboratory research;
• (2) Involving minority K-12 students in Dominican Republic Project laboratory research;
• (3) Developing innovative and culturally relevant K-12 science curricula for local schools;
• (4) Providing professional development workshops for teachers who work with Dominican American students.

These goals are tied to new institutional collaborations within The City College. Collaborative research interactions have now been established between the Division of Science, the School of Education , and the Dominican Studies Institute . These new institutional collaborations have been facilitated by Prof. Ross Nehm's (Project PI) academic appointment in the Division of Science and the School of Education at CCNY. An overview of the structure of the project is shown below. DRP research at The City College is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.