Last year, Girls Prep announced an innovative, three-year partnership with BioBus, a non-profit that engages PhD and Masters-level scientists to share their expertise and knowledge by creating hands-on learning experiences that can inspire young women’s interest and passion for STEM-related careers.

Over the next three years, Girls Prep and BioBus will have a multi-faceted partnership that includes the following components:

• Beginning in 2017-18, BioBus and Girls Prep will launch an afterschool science program for Girls Prep Lower East Side and Girls Prep Bronx middle school scholars.
• BioBus scientists will develop the curriculum and the class will be led by Girls Prep staff.
• BioBus will provide Professional Development for facilitators, visits to Girls Prep from BioBus scientists, and host field trip visits to BioBase community labs for girls to conduct experiments using state-of-the-art equipment.
• BioBus mobile labs will make site visits at each of the four Girls Prep elementary and middle school campuses, which will provide hands-on lessons aboard the BioBus in subjects such as comparative anatomy, micro-biology, ecology and cell biology.
• A BioBus Living Environment Regents Prep Course will be offered at Girls Prep middle school campuses, providing scholars with the opportunity to use advanced, compound video microscopes while working alongside research scientists in preparation for the Living Environment Regents Exam.

As part of a unique collaboration between district and charter schools, girls in District 1 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan will be invited to participate in the Girls Prep/BioBus partnership. Daniella Phillips, District 1 Community Superintendent said, “Whether it is the District 1 Middle School Regents Academy in which Girls Prep scholars were invited to participate, or this wonderful BioBus/Girls Prep collaboration in which District 1 female scholars will do hands-on science, it is important that public charter and district schools find ways to partner in service to our students."

Cornell Tech (Roosevelt Island) has selected Girls Prep to be an inaugural partner in its Teacher-In-Residence program, providing us with a content coach whose focus is to build a teacher’s capacity to integrate computer science into the classroom. Over the year, our coach will work with every science teacher to integrate computer science. All scholars in grades 5-8 will benefit from the integration of comp science/coding in their science classrooms this year. Our coach focuses on modeling instruction, providing professional development, coaching teachers and working with them to develop curriculum.

Watch the video below to learn more about our yearly partnership with Leave It Better, a nonprofit organization that provides year-long education programs that empower our scholars to heal the environment.

Trout in the Classroom, TIC, is an interdisciplinary educational program where students raise trout to learn about the environment and life cycles. During the semester, our middle school scholars at Girls Prep Lower East Side Middle School:

• raise trout from eggs to fry
• monitor tank water quality
• engage in stream habitat study
• learn to appreciate water resources
• begin to foster a conservation ethic, and
• grow to understand ecosystems

TIC engages our future scientists in understanding where NYC drinking water comes from and establishes a connection to why water conservation is extremely important to our environment.

The project ends on a bittersweet note when scholars release the trout into a stream near a watershed in Pound Ridge, New York.

The Bubble Foundation is an organization that implements a comprehensive wellness program for the whole school community, including proven curriculum in nutrition and wellness.

Since 2016, Girls Prep Lower East and Bronx Middle School scholars have been invited by the US Naval Academy STEM Center for Education & Outreach to attend an all-day, Girls Only STEM workshop in Annapolis, Maryland. The girls work with female faculty and cadets to experience hands-on science activities at one of the finest engineering institutions in the world. This partnership, like our relationships with Cornell University and Stephens College, allows our girls, and soon boys, to have immersive college experiences and help demystify what it takes to ultimately be successful in college.

Each year, 40 Girls Prep scholars travel to West Point, NY for civil engineering workshops to build truss bridges and cantilever structures. Beginning in June 2018, a group of Girls Prep 6th and 7th grade scholars will participate in the rigorous West Point Middle School STEM Workshop, a three-day, residential program of hands-on STEM activities taught by cadet mentors.

Public Prep Academies are inclusive schools and actively seek to recruit and serve students in need of additional services. We serve students with special needs in a variety of settings, including:

• Inclusive classrooms are called Integrated Co-Teaching Classrooms (ICT). Two teachers lead ICT classrooms, one special educator and one general educator. ICT classrooms use all six co-teaching models, including parallel teaching, team teaching, one teach/one observe, one teach/one assist, station-teaching, and alternative teaching. We use flexible grouping, so that students work with both teachers and with both special education and general education students.
• Full-time Licensed Clinical Social Worker
• We also partner with:
  • Speech Therapists
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Physical Therapists

Our network is a member of the NYC Charter School Special Education Collaborative, where staff members can access professional development and resources for instruction.

Our schools have talented English Language Learner Specialists who provide services to students and provide teachers and families with ELL resources and strategies to support students. Instruction focuses on helping students develop their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. We do this by providing our students with frequent feedback, enhancing students’ vocabularies, and immersing students in language and story-telling.

Public Prep Network’s Director of Special Populations coordinates and guides Public Prep Academies’ implementation of Response to Intervention and Child Study Teams by creating plans that support a range of student needs and building capacity within each school to improve outcomes for all students. The Director of Special Populations and Reading and Learning Specialists at the school level connect all students with a range of social, emotional, behavioral, and academic supports.