Teens excited by research at CSI
Discovery Institute
Staten Island Advance
Sunday, February 1, 2004
On Saturday, Jan. 10, the gymnasium at the College
of Staten Island was filled with heated debate, enthusiasm, and
exuberance, but no athletic event was scheduled. Instead, over 600
New York City high school students, 50 public high school teachers,
and 30 teaching scholars from the Discovery Institute at the CSI
assembled to discuss research projects. The directors of the
Discovery Institute at CSI, Dr. Ciacco and Dr. Sanders, who
organized the event, were ecstatic.
The exposition is ranked second in New York City
Metropolitan area with respect to the number or participants. Mr.
Shimony of the Discovery Institute spent several months encouraging
the city high school teachers and students to develop independent
research projects. The topics of the research projects encompassed:
social research issues, engineering, evolution, space exploration,
dental technology and treatments, and infectious diseases.
After the event, we discussed the experience with my
colleagues at Tottenville High School in the Medical and Dental
Technology Program. We can see that our students were still excited
about the event. We also lamented that there was no media coverage
to capture the students' excitement and pride in their
accomplishments. So often, the failures and foibles of a minority of
teachers and students dominate the news coverage.
This Discovery Institute experience reaffirms our
belief in the unlimited potential of our city high school students.
Each day, we see an educational system working, and students
striving to achieve their dreams. This exposition affirms that the
city public schools are working, and providing the most opportunity
to a million students.
As New York State recently chronicles the widespread
failure of the charter-school initiative, and the relatively small
number of private and expensive educational institutions, city
public schools are our best and, for over a hundred years, only
hope! Research exposition, sponsored by the the Discovery Institute
of the College of Staten Island, represents the endemic excellence
of the silent majority in our public high school educational system.
Dr. Robert L. Marraccino
Ruthann Scott
Daniel Solomon
Reprinted here with permission from the
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