PRISE awarded $1.45 million grant for PRNP-Scholarship and Internship Program!
In 2018, PRISE (formerly Philadelphia Regional Noyce Partnership – PRNP) after awarded funding from NSF Noyce Program, entered into a partnership with Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) to run 4 summer internship program with a total of 24 interns. The goal of this program was to inspire students who may not have thought about it before to go into STEM teaching. The program included a 2-week pedagogy course with a 3-week field experience in which the interns were able to practice what they learned about STEM teaching with a group of campers. The 3-credit pedagogy course, ED224, was based on the Temple TUTeach Step 1 course and upon completion, the CCP interns could transfer the credits to the Temple program allowing them to enter the program having completed Step 1.
The first Summer internship took place in June-July 2019. This inaugural program had six CCP interns participating. The course was taught by two Philadelphia School District teachers and the program partnered with the YES! (Youth Engineering and Science), a long time summer STEM program in Philadelphia. In addition to the 6 CCP interns, the YES program recruited 6 high school students and together they learned how to teach a variety of STEM lessons to young people attending camps run by the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department. Every day for 3 weeks, the 12 interns traveled to two recreation centers, toting materials and enthusiasm to share what they had learned about material science, astronomy, biology and chemistry.
In 2020, the COVID Pandemic did not allow PRISE to run this program, and although we were still in the throes of COVID in 2021, which made it difficult to recruit, the program came back with 5 CCP Interns and a new partner for the field experience, La Salle University Summer camp. CCP interns in this program again attended a 2 week pedagogy course, this time taught by a CCP Biology Professor. A School District of Philadelphia teacher guided the CCP interns through the field experience. The interns learned about the engineering design process and engaged campers in building with Strawbees. Campers had such a great time in these classes that they sometimes did not want to go to their next camp activity! On the last day, the campers held a special exhibition of the cities they created and what features they thought a good city would have. They shared some great ideas!
In 2022 the final PRNP-S Internship took place, again at the La Salle University Summer Camp. 9 CCP students participated in the 2 week pedagogy course and 3 week field experience. The focus on this camp experience was on the Watershed and water cycle. The interns not only learned about how to teach but also had, in some cases, to learn about the content they would be teaching. During this summer camp, local school district teachers who were part of the La Salle CLES-C PASmart grant, also taught. The PRNP-S Interns were able to observe these veteran teachers and learn from them as well. This summer experience motivated five interns to go into education! As one intern put it……
I enjoyed every moment of it and I just felt extremely happy teaching, talking with the students, with our peers, all of it. I’ve learned a lot from this program and I believe I’ve grown as an individual, I can’t thank this program enough for everything it’s done for not only me but the kids.
