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The bus, a partnership between the Westchester County Youth Bureau and Tarrytown-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, is an effort to promote STEM education - science, technology, education and math. The bus made a stop last week at the Fox Fire School in Yonkers. Stops in Hartsdale, Sleepy Hollow, Peekskill, Mount Vernon and other locations throughout Westchester are scheduled for this month.
"Science has the power to awe and inspire kids when it's presented in the right way," County Executive Rob Astorino said. "Our partnership with Regeneron and the BioBus will help to spark an interest in science for so many kids. This is not only an end in itself, but it will be increasingly important as the economy continues to shift toward the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and math."
Regeneron has teamed up with WCYB Executive Director Iris Pagan, who has a doctorate in science education from Columbia Teachers College, to bring the county's STEM initiatives as deeply into the grassroots community as possible.
"Regeneron is committed to advancing STEM, particularly science education, in order to deepen the pipeline of students prepared to compete and excel as our future workforce," said Peter Dworkin, vice president of corporate communications at Regeneron. "Companies, like Regeneron, that are driven by science have a responsibility and opportunity to address the STEM achievement gap. We collaborate with educational organizations and government to increase the number of students excited, engaged and educated in STEM. Collaborative approaches like this create shared value and generate greater innovation and growth for companies, and also greater benefits for society and our economy."
The BioBus reaches more than 18,000 people each year, visiting schools, summer camps, parks, museums, festivals and after-school programs across New York City and the country. Visits give students a chance to explore the microscopic world around them in an inquiry-based, hands-on setting aided by state-of-the-art science equipment and supervised by Ph.D. level scientists.
"Students tell us they find scientists 'cool,' 'fun,' and 'interesting' after they've boarded the BioBus," said Ben Dubin-Thaler, who founded the BioBus in 2007 only weeks after presenting his Ph.D. thesis on cell biophysics at Columbia University. "Here they can get the experiential learning they can't get from a textbook. The BioBus transports them to a new world – filled with complexity and beauty – that was once invisible to them. We've observed a three-fold increase in students highly interested in a science career, based on feedback they provide after visiting the BioBus."
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