Since 2015, Fearless has supported The Billion Oyster Project (BOP) and their goal of broadening STEM education and oyster restoration efforts in New York Harbor.
The research-based partnership initiative —Billion Oyster Project Curriculum and Community Enterprise for Restoration Science (BOP-CCERS) — aims to improve STEM education in public schools. It does so by linking teaching and learning to ecosystem restoration and engaging students in hands-on environmental field science during their regular school day. The project strongly emphasizes the use of computer science and digital tools for environmental monitoring, citizen science, and stewardship.
We’re currently working alongside Morgan Stanley and Hutch graduate company XCell on a 3-year contract with the Billion Oyster Project.
We created an easy-to-customize curriculum builder.
Through Fearless’ work with BOP, our team created an easy-to-customize curriculum builder for teachers. This provides a basic lesson structure and allows for collaboration and sharing between teachers.
We also developed a metrics dashboard that allows teachers and administrators to view data on:
- Community members,
- Curriculum usage,
- Restoration efforts,
- Events at a glance.
With this contract, the team will build a digital platform for teachers to enter scientific data on their Oyster Restoration Station, such as oyster measurements and water levels. They can also download various curricula.
The data collected is used to monitor the health and effect of oysters in the New York Harbor. And it's available to community scientists who perform additional research on the Harbor and surrounding environments.
"This is one of the first projects I worked on as a Fearless contractor before joining Fearless in 2016," said former Fearless team member and XCell founder Felix Gilbert. "It's a full-circle moment. It's awesome to see how the product, and the BOP Curriculum, and Community Enterprise for Restoration Science (BOP-CCERS) have matured since."