Students in Lehman's Bronx Institute GEAR UP program traveled to San Francisco this summer to present their research work at the program's annual conference.

As part of the Institute's new Science Initiative, students from various Bronx middle schools and high schools worked with major science and research institutions in the area, including the Bronx Zoo's Wildlife Conservation Society, the New York Botanical Garden, Wave Hill Public Garden and Cultural Center, and Lehman's Middle and High School Education Department.

The goal of the initiative is to increase the number of Bronx students seeking careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The participating institutions are committed to offering the students ongoing, multi-year, in-depth opportunities.

Tenth graders enrolled in Lehman's physics workshop with Professor Angela Kelly learned about gravity and viewing the formation of color as part of a spectrum. At Wave Hill, seventh graders served as citizen scientists in the New York City Parks Department's ongoing Woodland Salamander Monitoring Program. There they learned about salamanders as biological indicators of environmental health.

The Botanical Garden's GardenWorks program engaged eighth graders interested in learning about plant research. They worked with ethnobotanists and horticulturalists as they studied plant specimens. Students in the Bronx Zoo's Wildlife Career Ladder Program learned first-hand what goes into maintaining a rich and sustaining lifestyle for zoo animals.

Posted on: September 17, 2009
   Original article published on: September 10, 2009 | by: Lehman Today