The Billion Oyster Project (BOP) model of environmental restoration education in New York City public schools has been awarded a three-year, $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation for full scale implementation and educational research in NYC middle schools to commence on Wednesday, Oct. 1.
Former President Bill Clinton spoke at the announcement of the launch of the Billion Oyster grant on Friday, Sept. 5 at the New York Harbor School on Governors Island off the southern tip of Manhattan.
The project, entitled “Curriculum and Community Enterprise for New York Harbor Restoration in New York City Public Schools,” will be led by Pace University’s School of Education and implemented by a consortium of partners.
Building on the partners collective expertise in marine science education and restoration ecology, the grant will significantly expand the Billion Oyster Project’s existing middle school program by creating an accredited math and science teacher training program at Pace University, an interdisciplinary Harbor Literacy and marine STEM-C curriculum for NYC schools, a wrap-around model of afterschool STEM mentoring through the New York Academy of Sciences, museum and aquarium based programming and a state of the art digital platform to support field science teaching and learning.
This award is a critical investment in the tools and processes needed for urban public schools to meaningfully connect curriculum and student learning experiences to the study of their local environment, the practice of restoration ecology, and the principles of scientific inquiry and stewardship.
The project will provide teachers and after school educators equipment and resources to conduct oyster restoration research and environmental monitoring projects on and around the New York Harbor-Estuary.
It will provide BOP focused classroom activities and curricula for teaching grades 6-8 math and science, as well as an interdisciplinary “Harbor Literacy” guide to enable grade level team teaching, out-of-school-time (OST) activities and wraparound programming.
For more information, visit www.billionoysterproject.org.