Minority Access/Graduate Networking in the Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (MAGNET-STEM II

Cuny Graduate School University Center, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The CUNY AGEP Program, MAGNET-STEM, was launched in 1999 to produce a significant number of underrepresented minority doctoral students in science and engineering fields and to prepare them for academic careers. The major goal of this project, MAGNET-STEM II, is to build on previous gains and institutionalize effective practices by strengthening the alliance's undergraduate-to-graduate- to- post graduate infrastructure. This goal is in accord with the NSF priority to "catalyze changes in institutional, departmental and organizational culture and practices that will result in significant increases in the recruitment, retention, degree conferral and STEM career (especially academic) entry of minority students." Activities will include: (1) undergraduate /graduate summer research and internships; (2) mentoring and mentoring training; (3) conference presentations; (4) colloquia and seminars on teaching, science and mathematics education, and on communication technologies. MAGNET-STEM II will comprise an inclusive scholarly community of STEM faculty and students from diverse ethnic, racial, and geographic backgrounds, as well as persons with disabilities. Students will be guided by experts in their scientific field to engage in research activities that enable them to master the knowledge and investigative approaches in their chosen areas of specialization. The project will promote the social as well as academic integration of all AGEP students within departments and the improvement of advisement, in addition to offering financial support. Informal and formal interaction between faculty and students to socialize AGEP scholars to the academic profession increases the likelihood that they will graduate and move into postdoctoral and faculty positions. The intellectual merit of MAGNET-STEM II derives from the acquisition by AGEP scholars of a broad background of knowledge that enables them to relate issues in science, mathematics, and technology education to one another and to specialize in one of these areas. To increase the knowledge base and to develop further their research interests, AGEP scholars will have access to affiliated institutions such as Bell Laboratories, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the Center for the Analysis and Research of Spatial Information (CARSI), a large state-of-the-art GIS and Remote Sensing Laboratory considered to be one of the finest on the East Coast. The City University of New York Graduate Center offers to AGEP scholars training in mentoring, and enrollment in the Colloquium on College Teaching and in the Science, Mathematics, and Technology (SMT) in Education Seminars, which focus on college teaching and STEM education from K-12. SMT seminars address contemporary research issues in the fields of mathematics, science and technology in education. This includes the education of students about technology in society and its relations to science and mathematics. The CUNY Graduate Center, as lead institution, conducted the prior AGEP research project, MAGNET- STEM I (1999-2004), which resulted in increases in the number of minority applicants, enrollments and degree conferrals. The broader impacts of MAGNET-STEM II will occur through the production of an increased number of doctoral students from underrepresented populations trained in their academic specialties working in our nation's laboratories and classrooms and who have developed mentoring experience. Moreover, as a result of participation in the Science, Mathematics, and Technology in Education Seminars offered by the CUNY Graduate Center's Ph.D. Program in Urban Education, AGEP graduates will have knowledge of effective forms of curriculum articulation and partnerships in STEM education that extend to university, school, community, and corporate partnerships, and that move along the urban-education K-16 continuum. In this connection, AGEP scholars will work to prepare teachers of STEM education, leading to an improvement of student achievement in STEM education within culturally diverse urban populations and, hence, to systemic reform.