Bard College has been awarded a $500,644 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to develop accelerated, early college science instruction at its four Bard Early College public high schools in New York City. This grant enables Bard Early College to create the infrastructure for a more robust science program and deeper engagement with the sciences for Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) students and faculty across its Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, and Brooklyn campuses. With its first campus opened in Manhattan in 2001, BHSECs currently serve 1,600 New York City Public Schools students across four boroughs with plans to serve 2,200 students by 2028.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant will provide funding for the design of a new laboratory, and, through it, the development of a new set of teaching plans and instructional resources for use at BHSECs across New York City.
The laboratory will feature new biotechnology equipment, which allows students to perform procedures and get hands-on experience with laboratory techniques as part of Bard’s early college biology curriculum. Specific laboratory equipment supported by this grant will include PCR machines, gel electrophoresis apparatus, centrifuges, micropipettes, incubators, and spectrophotometers. Additionally, this new equipment will allow faculty to design and develop biotechnology-based elective courses and further enhance the early college curriculum. With this enhanced science infrastructure, students will graduate from Bard’s public early college high schools better prepared for ongoing engagement in the sciences in their future lives in academia, in the workforce, and as citizens.
“We seek to strengthen the Bard Early Colleges as an ecosystem for serious and sustained study in the sciences, particularly for underrepresented students. To that end, the overarching goal of this project is to develop robust and connected opportunities in the classroom, the lab, and the community,” said Bard Early College Vice President and Dean Dumaine Williams.
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