Teachers Mentoring Teachers in the Billion Oyster Project and Curriculum and Community Enterprise for the Restoration of New York Harbor with New York City Public Schools (BOP-CCERS) Fellowship

Abstract

The Billion Oyster Project and Curriculum and Community Enterprise for the Restoration of New York Harbor withNew York City Public Schools (BOP-CCERS)(NSF DRL 1440869/PI Lauren Birney) program is a National ScienceFoundation (NSF) supported initiative through collaboration by multiple institutions and organizations led by PaceUniversity. Partners on this initiatitve include Columbia Lamont Doherty, the New York Aquairum, the New YorkHarbor Foundation, the New York Academy of Sciences, the River Project, Good Shepher Services, SmartstartEvaluation and Research, the University Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Fearless Solutions. Inthis study, teachers from one cohort were paired with teachers from a succeeding cohort in order to facilitate amentoring process between the two cohorts. This allows for teacher ambassardors to have a support structurethroughout the program, seek integral feedback, modify teaching techniques, integrate project research and establishlong term partnerships within the project team.

Predictors of The Subjective Effectiveness of Emergency Remote Teaching During The First Phase of The COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Even without the challenges of the pandemic, many teachers struggle to meet the differentiated needs in their classrooms. Peer support and mentoring programmes offer help to teachers coping with these demands (White, 2018;Birney et al, 2018;Rachamim & Orland-Barak, 2018). Research reveals that competent support from colleagues predicted increases in teacher efficacy (Jungert et al, 2019).…”

Experiential and Real-World Learning for Teachers in the Billion Oyster Project and Curriculum and Community Enterprise (BOP-CCERS) for the Restoration of New York Harbor with New York City Public Schools Program

“…The theoretical framework for this study is grounded in Vygotsky's (1987) sociocultural theory, which is a social learning process collaboratively in the frame of a community of learners (Birney, Kong, Evans, Danker, & Grieser, 2017). Teachers guide learning through community of practice (Cobb, 1994;Cobb & Yackel, 1996).…”

“…The Billion Oyster Project and Curriculum and Community Enterprise for the Restoration of New York Harbor with New York City Public Schools (BOP-CCERS), funded by the National Science Foundation (Award Number DRL 1440869, DRL 1759006 and DRL 1839656), seeks to integrated harbor restoration activities with science teachers in order to provide their students with experiential learning through environmental impact in New York City (Birney, McNamara, Evans, Woods, & Hill, 2019). The vision for this project is that public school students in New York City can benefit from environmental science and experiential learning work through authentic research, data collection, and experimentation (Birney, Kong, Evans, Persaud, & Danker, 2018). BOP-CCERS is both an education and a restoration initiative with the purpose of educating New York City public school students about their harbor, but also to restore the harbor for future generations.…”