University Partnership with the
California Academy of Math and Science
The California Academy of Mathematics and Science (CAMS), located on the campus of CSU Dominguez Hills, is a comprehensive public, four-year high school which seeks to increase the nation's pool of graduates in mathematics and science. CSU Dominguez Hills partners with the Academy through programs that offer college-level courses to CAMS students:
American Honda Science Opportunity Program
American Honda Motor Co., Inc. has donated $100,000 to California State University, Dominguez Hills to create an endowment fund that will support the university’s Science Opportunity Program, which provides college-level science courses to students of the California Academy of Math and Science high school on campus.
CSU Dominguez Hills established this innovative program in 2009 to expand on the mostly humanities-based college course it offers to CAMS students. Prior to implementation of the American Honda Science Opportunity Program, few of the university’s science courses were available to CAMS students due to class and lab time requirements.
Through the program, CSU Dominguez Hills and CAMS officials have developed a cohort model curriculum that provides the opportunity for students to take a full complement of college-level science courses beginning with an introduction to college chemistry in the summer of the students’ sophomore year, and continuing with the addition of biology and physics classes in subsequent summers and throughout the semesters in their junior and senior years.
The program proved popular the first year, with more than 100 students applying for the 48 slots in the intensive six-week summer chemistry class. More than 80 percent of the first cohort has continued in the program, and a second cohort began this past summer. Upon graduation, these CAMS students will have earned up to 45 units of college credit, mostly in the sciences.
HP's Catalyst Initiative
A proposal submitted by California State University, Dominguez Hills in collaboration with the California Academy of Math and Science, was one of only 30 from 11 countries to be approved to participate in HP’s Catalyst Initiative, a global social innovation program designed to develop more effective approaches to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education worldwide.
With the grant, the School of Education at CSU Dominguez Hills and CAMS will develop the Virtual Exchange Program: Connecting, Collaborating and Constructing STEM+ Learning to address the persistent challenge of helping students connect the dots between what they’re learning in STEM classes with other disciplines, as well as between school and their lives. The program will accomplish this through training of aspiring and current teachers to become interdisciplinary leaders, thereby influencing systemic change in the overall learning environment in their schools and districts. The CSU Dominguez Hills-CAMS team of professors and teachers will also be collaborating with schools in India on this project to promote bidirectional learning that enriches the teaching experience in both countries.
Using the technologically advanced equipment supplied by HP through the Catalyst Initiative, the program will mobilize educational professionals across disciplines and countries to develop a way of teaching that is multicultural, inherently interdisciplinary and that encourages students to be both creative and analytical.
If you have any questions about university partners, please contact the Office of Development at (310) 243-2182.