BRONX SCIENCE EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the applicants abstract): The Bronx Science Education Partnership (BxSEP) is a collaboration between the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and its School Health Program, ten Bronx public and one parochial school, the Office of School Health Programs of the New York Academy of Medicine, and the New York Hall of Science. The goals of the Partnership are to develop and evaluate a model science education partnership that strengthens teaching skills and practice in health education and the health sciences, empowers teachers to bring science resources to the classroom, and builds collaboration between teachers and school-based health clinic staff to improve student health and learning. The Partnership seeks to motivate and engage students of color in learning the science of personal health, improve student attendance and academic performance, and stimulate interest in the health sciences. BxSEP will contract with the Academy of Medicine to train teachers at participating schools along with the staff of their school-based health clinic. The Hall of Science education staff will be integrated into this training and will provide coordinated field trips and traveling laboratory kits in microbiology and immunology that reinforce the lesson plans of the health curriculum. Montefiore and Albert Einstein will create a speakers bureau that will provide clinicians and research scientists to come to the trained teachers' classrooms to further enrich the curriculum and, when possible, host class field trips to the hospital, health centers, and laboratories. Teacher self-assessments and activity logbooks and student attendance and performance will be used to evaluate the impact of the training Partnership over three years. Phase II will concentrate on dissemination. The partnership will train 50 teachers and 45 clinicians starting in year 01 and 40 new teachers in years 02 and 03.