High School Initiative in Remote Sensing of the Earth System Engineering and Sciences (HIRES): Experiential Learning and College Readiness Program for NYC High School Students

The success of the United States, its economy, and its human welfare fundamentally depends on the knowledge and skill-sets of its citizenry and future generations, particularly our K12 student community. Although educators, stakeholders and decision-makers across the nation are seeking for pragmatic methods and strategies to bolster scientific capabilities and the capacity of our K12 students to succeed and pursue STEM careers, there is still dearth of STEM learners and lack of experiential learning environments and hands-on opportunities for our K12 audience- particularly in Earth System Science and Engineering.

CUNY CREST High school Initiative in Remote Sensing of the Earth System Engineering and Sciences (HIRES) is a unique K12 Education Model that aims at creating experiential learning and college-readiness opportunities for students particularly from underrepresented and underrepresented groups of HS students within the five boroughs of the New York City Schools. The program recruits, motivates, inspires and engages HS students (Grades 10 to 12) in a 7-week summer internship program. Critical elements of the program include - integration of research into curriculum in the field of Earth System Science and Engineering (ESE) that includes introduction to GIS, MATLAB, and Python, hands-on research projects related to NOAA’s missions science and social science, and 3 college credits on ESE Curriculum, and 70 hours of authentic science research and college-ready skill-sets training. Through this paper, the author will share the recruitment and selection strategies, best practices, challenges and outcomes of the HIRES 2014 through 2018