New York State Education Department (NYSED), My Brother’s Keeper Teacher Opportunity Corp II Grant, 2023 – 2028, PI, with Co-PIs: E. Sung, A. Douglas, E. Forman.
The Teacher Opportunity Corps II (TOC II) grant is significant for at least two reasons: (1) it represents a recognition of City Tech’s teacher education programs; and (2) it will provide financial support to teacher education students that can help with attracting and recruiting new and diverse teacher candidates. It will cover up to $3000 in tuition paid directly to the institutions for 39-50 teacher education students, will offer a one-year teaching residency with a $1500 stipend, and will provide professional development to math and CTTE teacher candidates for the next five years.
Engaging, Empowering, and Retaining New Scholars in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (NSF S-STEM Supported Program) 2019- 2024
PI: U. Ghosh-Dastidar, and Co-PIs: N. Kennedy, D. Samaroo, V. Acquaviva, A. Solis.
The program has the following objectives:
1) To recruit students in the targeted majors, focusing on:(a) Women, particularly in Computer Science and Applied Math, (b) Promising URMs from local minority-serving high schools, (c) Students from undeclared and associate degree majors with strong math preparation;
2) To retain and graduate academically talented, low income City Tech students through scholarships, and to offer a matrix of support that promotes timely progress to graduation;
3) To provide comprehensive support structures at critical junctures, academic advisement and mentoring by faculty, and career counseling, with a focus on developing a professional STEM identity;
4) To increase the transfer of students from associate to baccalaureate degree programs and beyond,
5) To evaluate the program and employ a cycle of continuous improvement;
6) To conduct a research study.
Preservice Mathematics Teachers’ Integration of Computing in Lesson Planning and Perceptions of its Potential in Mathematics Teaching (CITE grant, $25,000)
PI: N. Kennedy, Co-PIs: B. Kostadinov, A. Masuda
This research project is part of CUNY Computer Science Integration in Teacher Education (CITE). Computing Integrated Teacher Education (CITE) is a four-year initiative to support CUNY faculty at all ranks to integrate state standards and align computing content and pedagogy into required education courses, field work and student teaching. Supported by public funding from the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) Computer Science for All (CS4All) program and private funding from the Robin Hood Learning + Technology Fund, the initiative focuses on: a) Supporting institutional change in teacher education programs; b) Building faculty computing pedagogical content knowledge through the lens of culturally response-sustaining education; c) Supporting faculty research in equitable computing education, inclusive STEM pedagogies, and effects on their students’ instructional practices.
CUNY Computer Science Integration in Teacher Education (CITE) Research Practice Partnership
The CUNY CITE Research Practice Partnership (RPP) is a research team of selected CUNY faculty and outside CUNY researchers, which is engaged in research focused on the faculty and teacher candidate learning and pedagogy in the CITE initiative. I was invited to join the CUNY CITE RPP team as a Faculty Research Associate (starting November 2, 2022).
CUNY research associates contribute to the research practice partnership, whose goal is to establish a better understanding of the experiences of CUNY faculty and teacher candidates with computing integrated teacher education https://computinged.commons.gc.cuny.edu/our-team/.
Project: City Tech Summer Math Camps for Underrepresented Minority Brooklyn High School Students
(Director: N. Kennedy, Co-Directors: A. Masuda and Armando Cosme)
The City Tech Summer Math Camps are organized with the support of the City Tech, Science Skills High School, MAA (Mathematical Association of America) and Tensor SUMMA. The project includes the organization of the two weeks of math camps for high-needs high school students, and the collective planning of camp activities by the co-directors and the mathematics education students, who serve as camp coaches. It has multiple purposes:
1) to organize two weeks of enrichment math summer camps for high school students from the nearby Brooklyn high-needs public high schools; and
2) to provide prospective mathematics teachers from the Undergraduate Mathematics Education program in the Mathematics department an opportunity to participate in planning and facilitating activities for the math camps for diverse and under-represented high school students in Brooklyn (NY) School Districts 13 and 17.
The math camps offer activities for two groups of students—incoming Algebra 2 students and incoming AP Calculus students. They provide rich and intensive math experiences for the students, featuring activities that challenge and arouse curiosity, foster mathematical thinking, extend knowledge of mathematics, and help students appreciate their applications in the real world. The program are designed to help them prepare for taking an Algebra 2 and an AP Calculus class next school year.
