The New Jersey MARE Regional Training Center
The Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University has been a MARE Regional Training Center since 1995. Starting with Robert Hunter School in Hunterdon County, MARE has been implemented in over 50 schools in New Jersey, providing hundreds of educators with the skills to practice interdisciplinary learning in creative and innovative ways with over 20,000 students.
Top Five Reasons Your School Should Adopt the MARE Program in New Jersey
- MARE is taught by leading educators and scientists from New Jersey’s state university. The program is fun, informative, and uses lessons and resources to effectively communicate the nature of science to K-5 students.
- Teacher professional development and curriculum focus on the integration of literacy with science. MARE offerings emphasize language acquisition and development techniques for including English language learners.
- MARE is a whole school program, allowing a school to create positive change across grade level and even within the community. With a relatively small amount of support and facilitation, school sites can become powerful agents of grass roots educational change. MARE has documented surprising improvements in teacher collaboration and collegiality and school climate and culture in schools using the program.
- The program is aligned with and supports the New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards for math, science, language arts literacy, social studies, arts, and physical education. Rutgers has done extensive independent evaluation on the impacts of MARE.
- Teachers at MARE schools can use the thematic program at their own pace throughout the year as a vehicle to coordinate and integrate their science instruction in the school. At each grade level, MARE focuses on a different marine habitat and provides inquiry-based, hands-on activities, covering an integrated treatment of earth & physical science.
Professional Recognition of the MARE Program
“Promising Practice in Mathematics and Science Education” (1995, Eisenhower Regional Consortia)
“Idea That Works in Science Professional Development” (1999, National Clearinghouse in Mathematics & Science Education)