What Happens Here Matters
CSI Snow Grant
The School of Education received a Snow Grant from the Independent College Fund of New York to implement a special project at a school with a diverse student population that involves Manhattanville faculty and undergraduate students. This project is entitled CSI-White Plains: Science, Literacy, and the Arts. It is part of Manhattanville’s Changing Suburbs Institute initiative where the College reaches out to changing suburban districts that have had an influx of 7% or more Hispanic students in the last four years. One goal of CSI is to form Professional Development Schools within CSI districts so that college students have the opportunity to learn to teach effectively with diverse student populations.
The Snow grant involved a group of 16 Mville students and three faculty: Jane Gangi and Mary Ann Reilly from the School of Education, and Annemarie Bettica from the Biology department. They worked with all five fifth grade classes (approximately 100 students) in the George Washington Elementary School in White Plains, which now is a Professional Development School.
During the months of February, March and April, the fifth graders received an interdisciplinary lesson inspired by the board game “Clue.” Professor Gangi incorporated the literacy part of the lesson by teaching the children the basics of story telling, how to find clues in a story, and how clues can help you reach answers. Professor Bettica incorporated the science section of the lesson by teaching them the basics of forensics, such as hair and fiber analysis, blood typing and spatter analysis, and fingerprinting.
Then the children used what they learned to solve a “Clue” type mystery set up by the College students and faculty. Professor Reilly incorporated the arts section of the lesson by helping the kids use makeup and costumes to dress up as the different characters from the “Clue” game. When the mystery was solved, she also taught the children how to use painting to communicate how and what they learned, instead of using words.
“The children absolutely loved this type of hands-on lesson,” said Professor Bettica. “They were always excited to start the lesson, and when it was time to pack everything up, they would be reluctant to stop. Making it a game for them made it less likely that they would worry about how much we were asking them to remember, or to have self-doubts about their ability to learn the material. They ended up learning and retaining so much because they were so wrapped up in the game. That is why getting the Snow Grant was so important to us.”