Date: Nov 17, 2011

Hofstra’s STEM Research Center wins $2 million NSF grant for a project to develop new high school technology courses

Since 1993, the Hofstra Center for STEM Research has won more than $27 million in NSF funding

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY --  The Hofstra Center for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Research has won a federal grant of nearly $2 million to develop high school courses focusing on three areas of technology: biochemical, information and communication, and materials and manufacturing.

The four-year grant from the National Science Foundation marks the tenth large-scale NSF-funded project conceived and managed by the Hofstra STEM Center. In all, the STEM Center has received a total of $27.2 million in NSF funding since 1993. The Center’s mission is to improve STEM teaching and learning for teachers and students  from kindergarten to college by establishing new visions, developing innovative curricula, and providing professional development driven by research-based best practices. The Center has been co-directed by David Burghardt and Michael Hacker for the past18 years.

The latest grant will underwrite a four-year-long project called Articulated Technological Education Pathways or ATEP, in which high school curriculum will be developed to match the technological skills and knowledge most in demand by industry, and to form an instructional bridge between high school and community college programs. The aim is to develop stronger technology skills and knowledge in students and teachers, and encourage students  to pursue further coursework leading to careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

Three year-long courses driven by experiential learning will be developed by Hofstra in collaboration with four NSF Advanced Technological Education Centers of Excellence in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Texas. All materials will be field-tested in 12 diverse school districts across the country.

According to Project Director Michael Hacker: “The ATEP Project will blend cutting-edge cyber-learning with contemporary face-to-face, pedagogically driven instruction. Because project materials will be published and disseminated by a highly-regarded commercial publisher with a national presence in STEM education, the impact of this work will be far-reaching.”

In June, Hofstra’s STEM Center also won a $250,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to expand and assess its WISEngineering project to create a hands-on, engineering-based curriculum for middle school students.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution of higher education where more than 12,000 full and part-time students choose from undergraduate and graduate offerings in liberal arts and sciences, business, engineering, communication, education, health and human services, honors studies, a School of Law and the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. The Hofstra community is driven, dynamic and energetic, helping students find and focus their strengths to prepare them for a successful future. Located in Nassau County, New York, on over 240 acres, the University is less than an hour from midtown Manhattan.

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