The meeting had two separate but related foci: to enhance place-based educational programs for students in grades K-12 by fostering learning opportunities for future teachers, and to expand utilization of the National Parks of New York Harbor resources to enhance teaching and learning for College students in a variety of academic disciplines. Goals and objectives set forth at this meeting, included ,allowing our faculty and college students to broaden their knowledge through a higher order of research and experimentation, and creating a collaboration between the National Park Service and two well known CUNY colleges that would lead to internships, and possible employment opportunities for the student body. The opportunities outlined in this faculty guide will introduce our faculty and students to place-based learning experiences that will engage College students across the disciplines and will, further, be aligned to the New York State curriculum and standards in the social studies, sciences, mathematics, arts, and literacy.
The
experiences noted above will create and sustain a viable connection
between institutions of higher education and the local, national and
international communities. These
experiences will be in the form of collaborative research projects in
multiple disciplines and interdisciplinary programs, assigned by the
faculty of both Brooklyn College and the College of Staten Island, and
facilitated by the NPS staff. Programs
may be extended to New York City schools (grades K-12) through class
room visits and projects, and through professional development programs
offered to K-12 administrators and their teaching staffs.
The Place-Based Faculty Guide will include a listing all of National Park Service sites in the New York Harbor area, including site addresses, contact personnel, and their contact numbers. It will include contact information for faculty participants from Brooklyn College and the College of Staten Island with a view to developing collaborations and promoting future conversations that will result in new and exciting learning, teaching and research experiences.
Special thanks go to each of the CUNY faculty from Brooklyn College and the College of Staten Island, and the NPS staff members who will be listed in our faculty guide. We wish to give special acknowledgement to the leaders of this exciting project who coordinated the events out of which this informative document emerged; Jeanette Parker (Assistant Director of the Education Center) and Patti Reilly (Program Manager for Partnerships) from NPS, Dean Deborah Shanley, Dean Donna Wilson, and Prof. Ellie Miele from Brooklyn College, and Dean Francisco Soto and Prof. Margaret Berci from the College of Staten Island.
We would also like to acknowledge the suggestions made by Rangers Dan Meharg and John Warren of the NPNH Education Center.
Michael
B. Schoenfeld,
Acting Project
Coordinator, summer 2008
