Scaling up from NYC to Upstate New York: The Importance of being Flexible. February 12, 2015

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1 Scaling up from NYC to Upstate New York: The Importance of being Flexible February 12, 2015

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5 SUNY Program Expansion Campus Started Program FT Undergrad FT Grads Location Population SUNY IT Spring Utica, NY 62,235 College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering Spring Albany, NY 98,424 Downstate Medical Spring (~ 70% MD) Brooklyn, NY 2.59 million SUNY ESF Spring Syracuse, NY 144,669 Oswego Spring Oswego, NY 18,126 Stony Brook University Spring Stony Brook, NY 13,740

6 SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Located in Syracuse, NY Founded 1911 as the State s Forestry School Small, specialized, Doctoral Granting College 1650 Undergraduate Students 600 Graduate Students Strong tradition of field, lab, and studio based learning

7 SUNY ESF Outreach Environmental Challenge 7 th & 8 th Grade Science Fair ESF S.C.I.E.N.C.E. ESF in the High School

8 Syracuse City School District One of the Big 5 urban districts in New York State 20,000+ students 30 schools 51.9% 4 year graduation rate, 55.7% August graduation rate 19 schools have been designated ESEA priority schools (bottom 5% of public schools in the state)

9 Syracuse City School District Program Partner Schools School ESEA Designation ELA Math Spring 2014 Fall 2014 Lincoln Middle School Priority 6% Proficient (Gr. 6 8) 2% Proficient Afterschool No longer a partner HW Smith K 8 School Priority 12% Proficient (Gr.3 8) 11% Proficient Afterschool Extended day in school enrichment Huntington K 8 School Focus 11% Proficient (Gr. 3 8) 12% Proficient Not a partner Afterschool

10 Outcomes: Location x Outcomes after 3 years 1,125+ middle school students in: 20+ out of school time programs 150+ SUNY volunteer mentors 6 inquiry based STEM curricula 13,500+ contact hours Science Education

11 Challenges We ve Faced Not in a science lab Or science class Or classroom Different levels of comprehension Resource restrictions Lack of authority (Who is this person?) Lack of (or lots of) energy!

12 Lessons Learned on Campus Challenges with 3 different schedules o ESF and ESC schedules differed by as much as 2 weeks o Schools are on their own schedule Afterschool programs don t start until October Holidays, and half days limit scheduling Extended school days boosts attendance and class size Limits time flexibility students have to go to their next class

13 Lessons Learned Across Campuses Each campus is unique level of community service differs importance of having a Champion on campus Populations vary widely returning to higher ed, medical track, student visa School calendars vary Mentoring and Teaching, not the same RCs and Grad Students can develop high quality curriculum Network of afterschool sites varies no network...local library Some mentors go into teaching after this experience! Online class interest importance of credit Cross campus registration, full time status

14 Recognizing Priorities Emphasis for students on gaining exposure to STEM and STEM careers Emphasis for mentors on having a positive experience Exposure is important, field trips to campuses, sites Goals of the program, and are tied to assessment, but mentors bringing their own input to enhance, difficult to measure, but important Support learning by connecting grad. students work with the interests and prior knowledge of middle school youth

15 Adding relevance and making time for student driven side tracks

16 Why do Grad. Students & Ph.Ds Volunteer?

17 Benefits for Graduate Student and Ph.Ds They need experience! Teaching, mentoring, communicating They re altruistic! They want to mentor youth in a similar way that they were once mentored. It s fun! Many universities are looking for these opportunities, but don t know how. Need to demonstrate an impact in their community

18 Working with Graduate Students and Ph.Ds Make it easy for them (schedule, location, flexible, provide materials, pair them with a peer) Make the introductions and match them with a staff member Prepare them with training and provide support along the way A lot of learning goes on during the mentoring

19 Graduate Students I have learned how to be a better listener from this experience and how to be patient. I feel this will help me to be a better mentor. Also sharing information about what I do and what I expect. I do not share what I do very often, in fact many of my friends do not really know what I do for work! I have learned that if I share some information with the students, they will share more information with me. Regan Mentor, Spring 2013

20 Graduate Students Once you participate as a STEM mentor you become a STEM mentor for life. When you realize the need in young students to discover the field of science, and see that you can be responsible for changing their perception towards it, your heart fills up with the desire to do mentoring every time you have the chance. Kaira Mentor, Spring 2014, Elementary Enrichment Fellow 14 15

21 I think what I drew the most happiness from in the program was engaging some students who previously said they would not like the class at all. In the end, they were the ones who were grasping the material the most and answering the most questions because I had made the class interesting and fun for them. Roland Mentor, Spring 2013 Graduate Students

22 STEM Mentoring has been a rewarding experience as it provides me with an opportunity to give back to my community. In addition, I always find myself having as much fun as my mentees are. Funmi Mentor, Spring 2014 and Fall 2014 Graduate Students

23 Contact Info Kristian Breton New York Academy of Brandon Murphy SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry The Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program is supported in part by the National Science Foundation (DRL ). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.