NYC Schools Chancellor to Help Celebrate 5 Years and 22,000 Young Minds Introduced to STEM in NYU Tandon’s Summer Programs

BROOKLYN, New York – This morning New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña will join hundreds of students, educators, and community leaders to celebrate five years of cutting-edge instruction in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics as part of NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s STEMNow summer program.

Since its inception, STEMNow has educated more than 360 teachers and affected the lives of more than 22,000 New York City public school students, in large part because of the lasting influence of the participating teachers. STEMNow includes the largest tuition-free university-run summer program of its kind in New York City — organized by the NYU Tandon Center for K12 STEM Education — and hosts sessions by Girls Who Code, college courses for high school students who want to get a jump on their baccalaureate degree, and Tech Kids Unlimited education for young people with learning disabilities.

This year alone, STEMNow will host 120 K-12 teachers and nearly 750 middle and high school students in 19 different programs and 24 research laboratories.

On Friday morning, July 21, 2017, Chancellor Fariña will keynote the invitation-only celebration, which is expected to draw to the school more than 500 attendees supporting the programs that open engineering horizons to middle and high school students from diverse backgrounds. Many of the STEMNow students are from communities typically under-represented in STEM fields, and at a time when women comprise only 24 percent of those in STEM careers, a groundbreaking 60 percent of STEMNow students are female.

One of the STEMNow courses for instructors is the National Science Foundation-funded Discovery Research for Teachers, where middle school science and math teachers spend three weeks as part of a comprehensive year-round STEM professional development program.

“We warmly welcome Chancellor Fariña once again this summer, along with all the educators who join us in our mission to educate the next generation of engineers and scientists who will take on the most pressing challenges facing our world,” said NYU Tandon Dean Katepalli R. Sreenivasan. “We are proud that STEMNow introduces young students to activities relevant to their future, and we hope these classes will spark in them an interest in pursuing a career in STEM. We’re pleased to collaborate with the New York City Department of Education and its cadre of dedicated teachers who prepare students to contribute to society, build communities, and transform nations.”

“As we work to ensure equity and excellence for all of our 1.1 million school children and prepare them for college and careers in the 21st century, it is essential that they have exposure to hands-on, high-quality STEM instruction,” said NYC Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña. “I thank NYU Tandon for its partnership in expanding access to STEM programs for New York City’s students and for its work supporting our dedicated educators.”

STEMNow includes classes, workshops, labs, and field trips that center on robotics, entrepreneurship, mechatronics, smart cities, 3D printing, integrated circuit design, cybersecurity, and laboratory research. The summer program, which runs through August, engages middle and high school teachers, students from middle school to those in graduate school who act as teachers, NYU faculty, and mentors from the school’s Future Labs network of business incubators.

STEMNow includes two brand-new programs:

• The National Science Foundation-funded Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) gives teachers, each joined by two of their students, a deep-dive into robotics as well as business planning, new-product development, intellectual property, and even fundraising. 
• The popular middle school program Science of Smart Cities expands this year to challenge high school students. Innovation, Entrepreneurship and the Science of Smart Cities (ieSoSC) introduces them to innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as the technology of connected cities. After five weeks of hands-on instruction and mentoring, participants enter a three-week team-based workshop to create smart-cities devices or ideas that offer solutions to urban challenges.

Another cornerstone STEMNow program, ARISE (Applied Research Innovations in Science and Engineering), returns as a seven-week immersion that involves college-level coursework and lab research in civil and urban engineering, composite materials, mechanics, molecular design, robotics, and sensors.

Founded in 2013, STEMNow provides students of all backgrounds access to high-quality instruction, enabling them to set a course toward success in STEM higher education and, ultimately, the competitive global economy.

For more details, visit our June 28 Press Release.

Note: Images available at http://dam.engineering.nyu.edu/?c=1970&k=ab29689836

About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, the country’s largest private research university, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu.