back

Quality of Life - Bronx River Research Program at SCRL

Quality of Life

The School for Community Research and Learning (SCRL) SCRL is a New Century High School located at Stevenson High School in the South Bronx. We opened our doors to the first class of 105-9th graders and anticipate expanding by this number to 420 over the next four years. SCRL is the result of two years of intensive planning, preparation, and partnership building. The ninth grade class is a diverse group of youth of which approximately 55% are Hispanic, 44% African American, and 1% made up of Asian and Eastern European.

SCRL is built on the premise that students will learn best when they proactively identify and investigate social, environmental, political, public policy and education problems and issues in their local communities and are able to see the constructive and positive results of their research. In collaborative teams students and their teachers are brought into the world of real research as apprentices, working with their teachers and experts, such as historians, investigative reporters, mathematicians, professional writers, artists, doctors, and scientists. The school’s culture is characterized by academic achievement that contributes to the health and progress of the local community.

A major research program involves SCRL students is a local investigation of local problems and issues identified by SCRL students, their families, and neighbors. This project is conducted in conjunction with the SCRL Bronx River Research Program. Geographically, the students conduct community research along a one (1) mile distance on Lafayette Avenue, the end of which is the Bronx River.

Students complete the Bronx River Community Research Program Survey for each community member and are thus able to identify the most important issues and problems. The specific components include:

  1. Administering the Bronx River Community Research Program Surveyto students, family members, and neighbors to identify community a. problems, b. probable causes, and c. possible solutions. Each student to collect four sources of data: student, family member, neighbor, and other
  2. GIS (Geographic Information Systems) mapping. Student map the exact position of identified problems and addresses of respondents (waypoints)
  3. All data to be compiled on Excel, statistics analyzed per location and types of problems,
  4. causes and solutions.
  5. Based on the analysis of the collected data, students propose possible solutions.
  6. Students meet with local organizations and agencies to address their findings.

Identified Issues/Problems

Over the past year, based on their survey analysis, a number of community issues and problems have been identified:

  • Lack of sufficient number of trees to provide shade along sidewalks
  • Lack of sufficient number of park benches to provide older residents with resting points as they walk
  • Lack of sufficient number of garbage containers; garbage is thrown onto the sidewalks
  • Broken sidewalk sections needing repaired
  • Motorists not stopping at particular stop signs near the school
  • Gang activity along the route that some students have to follow to travel to school and to return home

Learning Standards.

Listed below are several of the major learning goals addressed in this program across the semesters..

Social Studies

Standard 3. Geography

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface

  1. Understand how to develop and use maps and other graphic representations to display geographic issues, problems, and questions
  2. Describe the physical characteristics of the Earth's surface and investigate the continual reshaping of the surface by physical processes and human activities
  3. Investigate the characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on the Earth's surface (National Geography Standards, 1994)
  4. Plan, organize, and present geographic research projects
  5. Locate and gather geographic information from a variety of primary and secondary sources (National Geography Standards, 1994)
  6. Select and design maps, graphs, tables, charts, diagrams, and other graphic representations to present geographic information
  7. Analyze geographic information by developing and testing inferences and hypotheses, and formulating conclusions from maps, photographs, computer models, and other geographic representations (Adapted from National Geography Standards, 1994)

Standard 5. Civics, Citizenship, and Government

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.

  1. Understand how citizenship includes the exercise of certain personal responsibilities, including voting, considering the rights and interests of others, behaving in a civil manner, and accepting responsibility for the consequences of one's actions (Adapted from the National Standards for Civics and Government, 1994)
  2. Explore how citizens influence public policy in a representative democracy
  3. Evaluate, take, and defend positions on what the fundamental values and principles of American political life are and their importance to the maintenance of constitutional democracy (Adapted from The National Standards for Civics and Government, 1994)
  4. Take, defend, and evaluate positions about attitudes that facilitate thoughtful and effective participation in public affairs
  5. Consider the need to respect the rights of others, to respect others points of view (Adapted from The National Standards for Civics and Government, 1996)
  6. Participate in school/classroom/community activities that focus on an issue or problem
  7. Prepare a plan of action that defines an issue or problem, suggests alternative solutions or courses of action, evaluates the consequences for each alternative solution or course of action, prioritizes the solutions based on established criteria, and proposes an action plan to address the issue or to resolve the problem
  8. Explain how democratic principles have been used in resolving an issue or problem

Mathematics, Science, and Technology

Standard 1. Analysis, Inquiry, and Design
Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.

Mathematics

Scientific Inquiry

  1. Hone ideas through reasoning, library research, and discussion with others, including experts
  2. Work toward reconciling competing explanations; clarifying points of agreement and disagreement
  3. Devise ways of making observations to test proposed explanations
  4. Refine their research ideas through library investigations, including electronic information retrieval and reviews of the literature, and through peer feedback obtained from review and discussion
  5. Use various means of representing and organizing observations (e.g., diagrams, tables, charts, graphs, equations, matrices) and insightfully interpret the organized data
  6. Based on the results of the test and through public discussion, they revise the explanation and contemplate additional research
  7. Develop a written report for public scrutiny that describes their proposed explanation, including a literature review, the research they carried out, its result, and suggestions for further research

Standard 2. Information Systems
 Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies.

  1. Understand and use the more advanced features of word processing, spreadsheets, and data-base software
  2. Prepare multimedia presentations demonstrating a clear sense of audience and purpose
  3. Access, select, collate, and analyze information obtained from a wide range of sources such as research data bases, foundations, organizations, national libraries, and electronic communication networks, including the Internet
  4. Utilize electronic networks to share information
  5. Explain the impact of the use and abuse of electronically generated information on individuals and families

Standard 3. Mathematics

Students will understand mathematics and become mathematically confident by communicating and reasoning mathematically, by applying mathematics in real-world settings, and by solving problems through the integrated study of number systems, geometry, algebra, data analysis, probability, and trigonometry.

Standard 4. Science

Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science.

Physical Settings

  1. Use the concepts of density and heat energy to explain observations of weather patterns, seasonal changes, and the movements of the Earth's plates

Standard 6. Interconnectedness: Common Themes

Students will understand the relationships and common themes that connect mathematics, science, and technology and apply the themes to these and other areas of learning.

Standard 7. Interdisciplinary Problem Solving

Students will apply the knowledge and thinking skills of mathematics, science, and technology to address real-life problems and make informed decisions.

English Language Arts

Standard 1:   Language for Information and Understanding

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Listening and Reading

  1. Interpret and analyze complex informational texts and presentations, including technical manuals, professional journals, newspaper and broadcast editorials, electronic networks, political speeches and debates, and primary source material in their subject area courses
  2. Synthesize information from diverse sources and identify complexities and discrepancies in the information
  3. Make distinctions about the relative value and significance of specific data, facts, and ideas
  4. Make perceptive and well developed connections to prior knowledge

 Speaking and Writing

  1. Write and present research reports, feature articles, and thesis/support papers on a variety of topics related to all school subjects
  2. Present a controlling idea that conveys an individual perspective and insight into the topic
  3. Use a wide range of organizational patterns such as chronological, logical (both deductive and inductive), cause and effect, and comparison/contrast
  4. Support interpretations and decisions about relative significance of information with explicit statement, evidence, and appropriate argument
  5. Revise and improve early drafts by restructuring, correcting errors, and revising for clarity and effect
  6. Use standard English skillfully, applying established rules and conventions for presenting information and making use of a wide range of grammatical constructions and vocabulary to achieve an individual style that communicates effectively

Speaking and Writing

  1. Make effective use of details, evidence, and arguments and of presentational strategies to influence an audience to adopt their position
  2. Monitor and adjust their own oral and written presentations to have the greatest influence on a particular audience

Standard 4:   Language for Social Interaction

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction. Students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.

  1. Use standard English, a broad and precise vocabulary, and the conventions of formal oratory and debate

Listening and Speaking

  1. Engage in conversations and discussions on academic, technical, and community subjects, anticipating listener's needs and skillfully addressing them

Reading and Writing

  1. Use a variety of print and electronic forms for social communication with peers and adults
  2. Make effective use of language and style to connect the message with the audience and context

New Century High Schools are an initiative of New Visions for Public Schools. For complete information on New Visions and New Century High Schools, please see http://www.newvisions.org/ and http://www.newvisions.org/newcenturyhs/index.shtml respectively.

back