CIESE participates in first-ever NJDOE “Kid Tech Day”

HOBOKEN, N.J. — The Stevens Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) participated in the first-ever Kid Tech Day, April 22, hosted by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE). Fourteen school districts from across the state showcased their outstanding educational technology programs.

More than 100 students and teachers joined top NJDOE officials at the department to demonstrate and discuss their technology programs and explain how they have helped increase school performance.

In partnership with Newton St. School of Newark Public Schools, CIESE was on hand to present their online collaborative projects and the impact they’ve had on urban school children. Carol Shields, Senior Educational Technology Associate for CIESE, along with students Kareem McDonald, Marquis Bacon, LaQuan Rouse, their classroom teacher, Blanche Lassen, and computer teacher, Christie Mack (former CIESE High-Tech Workforce Excellence program participant), showed samples of their work from “Bucket Buddies” and “Square of Life” online collaborative projects. (See ciese.org/currichome.html for links to these and other CIESE online curriculum projects.)

Dr. Gayle W. Griffin, Assistant Superintendent, Department of Teaching & Learning for Newark Public Schools, commented on the intensive three-year professional development collaboration with the Stevens High-Tech Workforce Excellence program through which the students’ projects were developed, "We have seen dramatic increases in students' science achievement scores--averaging 10% growth sustained over three years--in those schools that worked with Stevens in this program." For more information on this NJ state funded and other CIESE programs, please visit the CIESE website at: ciese.org.

The showcase provided legislators, educators, business representatives and other guests a firsthand look at the creative programs New Jersey students are using, as well as to respond to federal cuts to the proposed 2006 budget. New Jersey stands to lose $9.8 million in educational technology funding this year if the budget is not amended.

“ Each of these projects is unique in its own right,” said Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey. “We continue to support them because we understand just how much the students learn by using them.”

“ We need federal support alongside our own efforts,” Commissioner of Education William L. Librera said. “We often talk about diverse and multiple paths to success, and not just because it is part of our mission statement. This day is about that and so much more. We have children who understand the importance of educational technology and their performance is buoyed by the programs they use.”

About CIESE

Since 1988, CIESE programs and activities have reached more than 20,000 educators worldwide through grants and contracts totaling more than $22 million. CIESE has received accolades from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Science Teachers Association, and others. CIESE’s projects were selected as one of only six technology demonstrations in the category “Improving Instruction to Meet High Standards,” at the 2001 National Education Summit.

In 1993, CIESE received one of the nation’s first grants ($2.9 million from the National Science Foundation Networking Infrastructure in Education Program) to explore Internet use in K-12 science education. This program reached approximately 3,000 teachers from nearly 700 schools in New Jersey with professional development that utilized unique and compelling Internet-based curriculum materials and provided a platform upon which CIESE has built national and international programs.

For more about CIESE, please visit ciese.org

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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