The overall aim of this project is to increase the number of New York City Technical College (City Tech) students who continue their education and pursue a baccalaureate degree of science. The Research Double Bridge to the Baccalaureate program is a student research transfer oriented collaborative involving City Tech, which grants the Associate in Science degree, and two science baccalaureate-granting institutions, Brooklyn College (BC) and City College of New York (CCNY); all are part of the City University of New York (CUNY). The major focus of this project are: 1) from a significant pool of City Tech students to increase the number who transfer to science baccalaureate degree programs at the partner institutions, 2) to increase City Tech faculty research capability, and 3) to enrich the science/research skills of City Tech students. These goals will be achieved by the implementation of specific activities involving City Tech and the partner colleges. The enrichment component includes a pre-research course and summer research work, access to financial aid (including MARC) as well as a home base at the senior colleges upon transfer, and a transition program to facilitate transfer. It becomes obvious that this project is very well thought out and expresses a high level of cooperation between the institutions. A faculty research program will be established to increase the cadre of faculty researchers as well as increase the number of student research opportunities. In addition, the student participants will make oral presentations and write up their research work for college journal publication. The students will also participate in field trips that include visiting research laboratories. The twelve students who have completed the pre-research course will be selected to start the research project as research assistants in the summer of their sophomore year, this continues to their senior college. The students are expected to put in up to 260 hours of laboratory work over the 8-week summer project. These students will be paid salaries for the experience. The students will be allowed to continue this experience even during the academic year to strengthen their transfer process. The faculty members of the N.Y. City Tech will also conduct research in these two colleges, during the summer time and will be paid salaries. The participants will be taught to do scientific literature search and write up their work to be presented in mock seminars. Students will be encouraged to select research topics and formulate hypotheses, discuss outcome and write up a report for oral presentation. At the end of each year, quantitative data will be gathered from the Bridge students which includes the number of students that are retained in the program, advised by their mentors, applying to baccalaureate programs, accepted into transfer science programs.
