Scientific Frontiers Program

The MRSEC supports the SFP, which strives to enrich science education and instill excitement about science in the K-12 sector.  Students participate is dynamic scientific demonstrations in the MDI and the CSMR.

Scientific Frontiers Program. The MRSEC supports the SFP, which strives to enrich science education and instill excitement about science in the K-12 sector. The MRSEC has moved the SFP beyond its Physics-centered pilot phase to the other MRSEC-affiliated departments, introducing K-12 students to an interdisciplinary mix of science that reflects MS&E. During the 2009-2010 academic year, center participants impacted nearly 1,000 K-12 students in various activities, described below.

New Explorations in Science, Technology and Mathematics, the School of the Future and the Spence School. In Year 2, the Center continued to host laboratory visits by third-graders, their teachers, administrators and some parents from New Explorations in Science, Technology and Mathematics (NEST+m), a public magnet school located in New York City's Lower East Side that serves students from all socioeconomic backgrounds with an institutional focus on science, technology and mathematics. Nest+m is one of the few NYC public schools encompassing all grade levels from K through 12. The students studied a module on sound and waves at their school, and then visited the MRSEC facilities for a tour that included demonstrations illustrating the relevance of their class work to MRSEC funded research. Students from the School of the Future (http://www.sofechalk.org), a small, innovative public 6-12th grade school, also participated in these lab visits and demos. Through 2009-2010 the Center hosted over 950 visitors, including students, their parents, and teachers. Lab tours consist of interactive demonstrations which are conducted by MRSEC investigators, post-docs and graduate students in the CSMR and the MDI. In addition, students from the Spence school, an all-girl K-12 school in New York City, participated in these visits. During the past two years Chelsea Powell, a high school student at Spence, has been performing research in the NYU MRSEC laboratories (Ward). Chelsea will begin her undergraduate career at Stanford in Chemical Engineering beginning September 2010. We anticipate expanded participation of Spence high school students in MRSEC research.