NYU Provides College-Level STEM Research Courses to Middle, High School Students

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It’s never a surprise to New York University staff when, every summer, thousands of applications flood in from middle and high schoolers eager for admission to the Center for K12 STEM Education. 

Part of NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, the center offers roughly a dozen summer courses that engage students in advanced STEM research before they graduate from high school. Half of the classes are free — an effort to reach those underrepresented in STEM fields, such as students of color or youth from low-income families.

Each program provides experience that can’t be found in the typical classroom, said center director Ben Esner. The courses tap into research that’s externally funded and managed by NYU undergraduate and graduate students. 

“There is nobody teaching chemical engineering at a New York City public high school, right? Nobody’s doing protein engineering,” he said. “Kids get coding experience, software development experience, but even if you’re getting that in school, and even if you go to a top [STEM] high school, it’s still limited in what they’re teaching.”

Over the last five years, the center has served more than 3,000 middle and high school students from around the U.S., Esner said. In 2023, there were more than 2,855 applications for roughly 587 openings, according to the latest annual report. Just under half of the students took classes for free.

Last year, the number of applications jumped to more than 4,800.

The center used to offer professional development programming at all grade levels, including for elementary teachers, but now it focuses on grades 6 through12.

Students have programmed robots to operate more like humans, analyzed local traffic to make transportation more efficient and experimented with proteins that deliver cancer drugs. The courses last several weeks and include subjects like noise pollution, digital media, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and computer engineering. 

One of the center’s most popular programs is Applied Research Innovations in Science and Engineering (ARISE). The 10-week, tuition-free course allows high school students to conduct research among university students in NYU professors’ labs.

In 2023, one ARISE lab studied ancient technology in Africa, and students used stone tools to learn about human history and behavior. Other previous projects include researching a link between cerebral spinal fluid and depression in elderly adults and analyzing data-driven cyberattacks.

LuAnn Williams-Moore, the center’s assistant director, said one of her favorite programs is called Innovation, Entrepreneurship and the Science of Smart Cities. The free course teaches students how to apply engineering skills like circuitry, electronics and coding to challenges in urban areas — and how to market the solutions they come up with. Students learn the process of product development, from building their idea to creating pitch presentations for patents and copyrights. At the end of the program, they participate in a Shark Tank-style event and showcase their projects to entrepreneurs.

One product that students helped develop is a sensor network called FloodNet NYC, which monitors water levels and collects readings in all five New York City boroughs. The project received more than $7 million in city funding in 2023.

“A lot of our programs are about teaching students to think about innovations they want to bring based on the training that we are giving them,” Williams-Moore said. “Okay, now that we’ve trained you, what smart innovation would you bring to your community? What are the problems you see in your community?”

New York City classroom teachers are also involved. Williams-Moore said the center turned to local educators to help create lesson plans and curriculum for last summer’s programming, and teachers act as program supervisors or evaluate course content. It’s one of the ways, Williams-Moore said, that she tries to keep the center’s courses relevant and up to date with current STEM education practices.

“We go to conferences. We look at research papers. I’m thinking about the latest trend, or what’s the latest issue that’s happening or developing in education and what’s happening on the ground in the schools,” she said. 

When sifting through middle school applications, Esner said, the center looks for students with an extreme interest in STEM, as shown through personal essays, teacher recommendations and in-person interviews where candidates complete hands-on activities while being observed by professors. For high schoolers, the center also looks at academic records, extracurricular interests and prerequisite STEM classes.

“We want students who ask questions,” he said. “You’re going to come here and we’re going to teach you this. Why do you want to learn it?”

Esner said it’s important to expose young people to in-depth STEM education before they graduate from high school because it’s easy for them to dismiss those fields before they realize what kind of potentially interesting jobs are out there.

“When students say, ‘Why do I need to learn this?’ Well, you need to learn it because you want to build a robot that helps care for elderly people, or you want to discover a protein that can efficiently deliver a chemotherapy drug to the cells that are damaged,” Esner said. “It’s showing a connection between basic science and math skills and the kinds of fabulous and important things you can do that are socially relevant and personally important to a lot of these young people.”

Application deadlines fall between February and May, depending on the program.

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