US Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski announced that Johns Hopkins University will be awarded a $7.4 million grant to be used to implement a new science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program serving 1,600 elementary school students in Baltimore City. The School of Education is participating in the program, called STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools (SABES), along with the Whiting School of Engineering and the Krieger School of Arts and Science. Carolyn Parker and Yolanda Abel, both assistant professors at SOE, will be working on the project.
According to Parker the program targets students in grades 3-5 in nine high minority, low-income neighborhoods. “SABES establishes Mutually Beneficial Partnerships (MBPs) in three low-income, majority-minority communities,” she added.
“[It] employs three main strategies to obtain its goals of broad participation in science, increased student achievement in STEM, and increased teacher proficiency. These strategies are: (1) sustained/collaborative professional development including professional learning communities, (2) scaffolds that bridge school learning with applications of STEM in the community including biannual community STEM Recognition Events featuring students’ STEM projects, and (3) STEM visiting experts from JHU and high-tech industries and field trips linked to careers in action”.
