Council Member Joseph C. Borelli (R-South Shore) and Borough President James Oddo are providing $350,000 in funding from their capital budgets this year to create a STEM lab for P.S. 1 in Tottenville. The STEM lab will provide a scientific environment where students will be engaged in specific science and technology coursework to answer specific questions through research, experimentation, and simulation in a controlled environment. The environment will challenge students to engineer solutions to complex problems, utilizing their critical thinking skills, proposing hypotheses and verifying them.
$150,000 is coming from Council Member Borelli’s office, with the remaining $200,000 coming from Borough President Oddo’s office.
“Every parent today knows how critical these STEM skills are to the future workforce and students understand that the focus on hard sciences is for their benefit,” said Council Member Borelli. “It’s critically important that schools and teachers have the resources to make the curriculum fun and engaging, and that’s what this lab is meant for, to provide a really engaging way for our kids to learn the complex but foundational skills that are going to help them to succeed later in life.”
“Starting STEM education at an early age will give these students the foundation they need if they choose to pursue a career in the sciences, as well as important critical thinking skills that will be useful in any field,” said Borough President Oddo. “I believe that if we invest in our students, we will create the talented leaders Staten Island needs, which is why I am so pleased to be able to allocate taxpayer funds to this project. I look forward to seeing this STEM lab come to life at P.S. 1.”
“Our PS1 family was thrilled to be generously awarded $350,000 to fund the development of a STEM Lab from Borough President Oddo and Councilman Joe Borelli! With their support we are able to provide our students with the necessary resources to learn about Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics as well as the Arts and Health! Our lab features brand new technology including laptops, computers and iPads which will engage our students in Computer Science and required skills for 21st century learning,” said Grace Silberstein, Principal of P.S. 1. “We plan to further develop the Lab with Maker Space for continued enrichment and advancement opportunities for our students!”