Pathways to Interdisciplinary Science, Engineering and Mathmetics

Cuny City College, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

-- The project is developing a program to attract more promising undergraduates to STEM majors and to establish a solid foundation for the student participants' future careers. The City College of New York (CCNY), the Bronx Community College of New York (BCCNY), and Lehman College have diverse student bodies and the majority of the students are under-represented minorities. These partners are creating an institutional culture and infrastructures that ensure students work with faculty as a community of scholars throughout their undergraduate experience. This interaction is facilitated through a Science Community Center, which is being established at CCNY to provide ample space, powerful computational facilities and state of the art multi-media devices to facilitate student research, presentations and communication. The emerging interdisciplinary field of bioinformatics is used as a unifying theme to integrate study and research in biology, chemistry, biophysics, biomedical engineering, computer science and applied mathematics. Students participate in the program as Pathway Scholars in three sequential modes: as a Peer Leader Scholar, as a Bioinformatics Scholar, and as a Research Scholar. Promising CCNY, BCCNY, and Lehman undergraduates at the freshman level are recruited to the Pathway program as leaders of Peer-Lead Team Learning workshops in the introductory science courses for majors. By serving as Peer Leader Scholars and participating in the activities of the Science Community Center, they begin to appreciate a scholarly learning atmosphere and get a sense of belonging to this science community. During the second semester of their sophomore year, the Pathway Scholars learn more computer skills and are introduced to bioinformatics. In the summer of the sophomore year, there is a three-week workshop on bioinformatics. After that training, the Pathway Scholars work in research laboratories for their junior and senior years.