Two Pace students inspecting oysters in New York Harbor as part of the BIllion Oyster Project
Billion Oyster Project

Achievements

STEM Education

New York City public school students benefit from enhanced STEM education programs thanks to the latest grant of $2 million from the National Science Foundation to Pace University. Pace and a consortium of organizations and STEM Industry leaders have implemented an initiative for New York City schools to incorporate STEM education into curriculum.

Science Programs

The grant will expand the Billion Oyster Project of the New York Harbor School to include K-12 science programs with the New York City Department of Education.

Environmental Restoration

Environmental restoration through waterfront field research enhance education in New York City’s lowest-income and most under-resourced public schools.

“Citizen Science”

New York City Public School students actively engage in research with scientists and teachers gaining the necessary technical skills and tools to eventually enter STEM fields.

  • Students grow new oysters on oyster shells collected from top New York City restaurants.
  • The project collaborates with area restaurants that contribute shells weekly.
  • Students wade in New York Harbor waters with educators and scientists to collect data on water quality and conditions, offering hand-on lessons on how to collect and use data for scientific research.

Teacher Training

Comprehensive teacher training and professional development with scientists enables STEM professionals to partner with schools to develop field-based collaborations and citizen science data collection efforts. An online Digital Platform has been developed for the students, scientists and teachers to enter and use the New York Harbor data to collaborate globally with other scientists and researchers in similar fields.

Partners

The grant builds on the work of the Billion Oyster Project (BOP) and Curriculum and Community Enterprise for Restoration Science (CCERS) which is a New York City based consortium led by Pace University (School of Education and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems and the STEM Collaboratory NYC®), The Billion Oyster Project, the New York City Department of Education, Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the New York Aquarium, the New York Academy of Sciences, the River Project, Good Shepherd Services, York College/CUNY, and the University of Maryland Environmental Center for Sciences. This collaborative community of students, educators, scientists, volunteers, schools, universities, businesses, and community organizations are working together to conduct scientific research for oyster restoration to restore New York City Harbor.