Columbia’s Department of Science and Mathematics was awarded a two-year grant for $250,000 from the National Science Foundation, which will fund the “Scientist for Tomorrow” project.

The “Scientist for Tomorrow” project is an outreach program coordinated among Columbia and eight community centers in 15 locations to help elementary students from the Chicagoland area with science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Columbia has hired Master of Art in Teaching, graduate students in the education department at Columbia who will help educate the children.

This grant is valid through August 2013 and will help pay for transportation, materials, teaching resources and human resources. As part of the grant, Columbia is partnering with the Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive.; The Museum of Science and Industry, 5700 S. Lake Shore Drive., and the Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 Central Park Ave., to further the students’ education and have days of science with the students and their parents.

“[‘Scientists for Tomorrow’] is one of many outreach programs at Columbia,” said Deborah Holdstein, dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “What is significant about this one is that Columbia is recognized not only for its excellence in arts and media, but it also recognizes that we have an outstanding school of liberal arts and sciences and an outstanding faculty in the department.”

According to Marcelo Caplan, associate professor in the Science and Mathematics Department, there are other afterschool programs, like Junior Resource Scientist and Informal Science Exploration, that Columbia has been providing for students for the past 20 years.

Inner-city students have been showing interest in these programs, according to Caplan. Once these two original programs reached five community centers, the Science and Mathematics Department wanted to make the program even bigger and better, he said.

According to Caplan, the big idea of the “Scientist for Tomorrow” program is to go to the community center and teach different science modules in 10-week periods. There are 15 to 20 students who participate in each program in the different community centers.

After the module is over, the program organizes a “Day of Science” for the students and their parents, where everyone from the community centers goes to one of the museums and gets to see science in action, Caplan said.

This fall, the program is working with 15 different locations on a module of alternative energies, and at the end of December, the “Day of Science” will be held in The Field Museum.

“We will repeat the same frame in the winter,” Caplan said. “We will finish the module of musical instruments, and we are doing our ‘Day of Science’ in the Field Museum.”

In the spring, the students will work on a plant and people module and have a “Day of Science” in the Garfield Park Conservatory.

According to Virginia Lehmkuhl-Dakhwe, coordinator of science outreach programs, the collaboration with these museums is important in order to provide exposure to the students to the different type of science providers in the area.

Everyone who is a part of this program will benefit from it, according to Constantin Rasinariu, professor and chair of the Science and Mathematics Department. The Master of Art in Teaching student teachers will gain professional development and experience in teaching science and mathematics to a general public, he said.

“The human resource of this project is Columbia alumni, students and undergrad students,” Caplan said.

The younger students will gain more education in these community centers, rather than just do the same old things, according to Rasinariu.

“The students have an opportunity to [learn] fundamental things about several scientific ideas,” he said.

According to Caplan, the Science and Mathematics Department applied for this grant to continue the outreach programs and academically enrich students’ lives. This grant, which is the smallest version of the grants that the National Science Foundation can give, is for testing and developing ideas.

“Our ambition is that if this grant will be successful, then next year we would like to apply for an extension grant,” Caplan said.

If the department gets the extension grant, then this will help continue the program in Chicago, but also expand it to other cities, he said.

“We would like the community centers that we are working with to continue this type of program, even if our funding isn’t available anymore,” Lehmkuhl-Dakhwe said. “It’s planting that seed in their community center that STEM education is important.”