National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Recognizes Poly Research Initiative
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in Washington, D.C., as part of their congressionally-mandated report about methods to improve K-12 STEM education, named the Poly Research Initiative (PRI), and its four spaces—Biological Research, Summer Research, Senior Biological Research and Neuroscience & Humanities: Food—that help students add value to the real world, as a model of “successful evidence-based education innovations in the country.”
The model programs selected in this consensus report were evaluated based on four criteria:
- Spread or number of students impacted by an innovation.
- Depth or the extent to which the program shifts the educational status quo.
- Sustainability or endurance over time.
- Ownership or extent to which knowledge of an innovation is expanded to new enactors and deepened further with time.
Starting with three students in the summer of 2022, the four spaces of the research initiative had 45 students this past year.
To share the PRI research model with the broader community, an article about its design, implementation background, challenges, solutions and growth was published in Global Online Academy’s Insights Blog and as a news report by the National Association of Independent Schools.
The further growth of this model depends on building more sustainable real-world partnership spaces in schools for students. And to this end, we invite you to consider sharing your expertise or suggestions by reaching out to Dr. Selvakumar, Founding Director Biological Research Initiative, at bselvakumar@polytechnic.org – he’d love to have a conversation.
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