Teacher-Scholar Program at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute

For a decade, the Teacher-Scholar Program has helped New York City teachers bring neuroscience into their classrooms in engaging ways.

See, for instance, what Brooklyn teacher Sean McFadden is teaching his seniors when he cranks up the volume in his classroom and asks them to try to memorize words.

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) supports a triptych of initiatives at the Zuckerman Institute: the Teacher-Scholar Program as well as the public SNF Brain Insight Lecture and the BRAINYAC program for New York high schoolers.

Around 200 teachers have participated so far, mostly from public schools in Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx serving lower-income students. Teachers receive a stipend for completing the program, as well as credit that counts toward their ongoing certification requirements.

Participants attend SNF Brain Insight Lectures on topics like nature vs nurture, how animals experience the world, or what music does to our brains. Then, a week later, they join a seminar where they workshop ways to weave what they’ve learned into their classroom curriculum.

The program reaches beyond each year’s cohort of Teacher-Scholars through the teacher-developed BrainSTEM classroom resources it makes available and through half- or full-day BrainSTEM in Action program on a designated public school professional development day.

“Having been a part of this program is one of the most fulfilling experiences of professional development in my 18 years of teaching,” said one participant.

“I really love it so much. I feel treated like a professional, which is not always the case with PD,” said another referring to professional development. “I always leave with lots of things to think about and new questions, which is one of the best feelings.”