Northeast Science Teachers Recognized At The Bronx Zoo, Mercy College

DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. -- Mercy College recently hosted this year’s Wipro Science Education Conference, with the two-day conference being held on campus and an evening reception at the Bronx Zoo.

Science teachers from across the northeast gathered at Mercy College and the Bronx Zoo to receive recognition for their work.
Photo Credit: *Contributed*

John Haffey

Content Partner: Mercy College

The conference, which brings together K-12 teachers from New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, is part of the Wipro Science Education Fellowship. The fellowship is a five-year science teacher leadership program funded by Wipro Ltd. The program is run collaboratively by Mercy College, University of Massachusetts Boston and Montclair State University.

Presentations were on display during the conference, showcasing the culminating work of the senior fellows. They shared their leadership projects and how they changed their schools with the first-year fellows.

Some examples of the projects include:

Helping Students Engage in Argument Based on Evidence by Katherine Hohman, Port Chester
Book It: Supporting the Literary Journeys of Young Scientists and Engineers with No Reservations by Carmen King, White Plains
Science Exchange Adventures: Students see that science is attainable, interactive, and 'cool' by Mayerlin Strippoli and Abbey Gilligan, Tarrytown
Infusing STEM into the Elementary Curriculum by Karen Lent, East Ramapo
Integrating Biotechnology and Engineering into the Biology Curriculum by Amanda Dillingham, Boston
Girls in STEM by Alison Mahfouz, Paramus

Dr. Amanda Gunning and Dr. Meghan Marrero, of the Mercy College School of Education, were awarded the $1.19 million grant to lead the New York arm of the Wipro Science Education Fellowship.

This spring, Mercy College was awarded a major grant of just over 1.1 million dollars from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. The grant is for a project to advance mathematics education, with a particular emphasis on veterans retraining for new careers as secondary mathematics teachers.

Farber, who is also a United States Navy Veteran said: “As a veteran of the Navy who transitioned to teaching, I believe in the reciprocal strengths that veterans bring to the profession, and that teaching brings to veterans’ lives.”

Mercy College will recruit 10 veterans who have strong math backgrounds to qualify for full scholarships in a 14-month master’s degree program, with the intention of assisting 20 veterans over the period of the grant to complete their coursework and support their introduction into teaching. Mercy will collaborate with the Yonkers Public School District to train the program’s students.

For more information or to apply, contact Dr. William Farber, Program Director, Mercy College at wfarber@mercy.edu or 914-674-7675.