Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership in Western New York
Buffalo, NY
About
ISEP focuses work in the Buffalo Public School District in Western New York. Using an extensive ecosystem of partner organizations, ISEP seeks to link teacher professional development using interdisciplinary research opportunities with student support at the early middle school to high school levels. ISEP provides STEM graduate students, service learning students and corporate partner staff as STEM mentors in the classroom and in after school programs. Teachers develop new inquiry based lesson plans and after school programs with support from higher education, informal STEM education and corporate partners. Middle and high school students and their families have access to summer STEM camps, research opportunities and internships organized and managed by ISEP participants. A key focus on families and parent participation through efforts with engaging district wide parent leadership, school based leadership and ISEP’s own Parent Professional learning community provide the means for families to engage in ISEP leadership.
Key Programs
Teacher Professional Development Improving classroom and after school activities in formal and informal learning environments with interdisciplinary research based teacher experiences that inform inquiry based classroom materials. Parent Participation Collaborating with parent leaders and families to focus on policies in ISEP that make STEM education accessible to all students in Buffalo Public Schools. Classroom, after school and summer support from STEM Graduate students, service-learning undergraduate students and corporate partner staff for STEM mentoring and implementation of new learning content and activities.
Partners
Buffalo Public Schools: Departments of Science, Math, CTE, Special Education and Multilingual Education (Kelly Baudo, Director of Science)
Buffalo Museum of Science (Karen Wallace, Director of Science Learning)
University at Buffalo, SUNY (Professor Joe Gardella, ISEP Director, Professor Luke Ziarek)
SUNY Buffalo State College (Professor Dan MacIsaac)
Praxair Research Laboratory (Dr. Larry Megan)
Buffalo District Parent Coordinating Committee (Samuel Radford)
Buffalo Parent Teacher Organization (Larry Scott)
Roswell Park Cancer Institute (Dr. Wesley L. Hicks, Jr., Dr. Richard Herschberger) Cradle Beach (Summer Camp), Ms. Ann-Marie Orlowski, CEO
Contact
Joseph Gardella
SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Director, ISEP University at Buffalo, SUNY
gardella@buffalo.edu