Misión
Educar a jovenes talentosos para estudios universitarios en las ciencias naturales, las matemáticas, la ingeniería, y salud.
Desarrollar a los futuros lideres innovadores que promuevan el desarrollo económico, social y humano de la provincia y del país.
Desarrollar a los futuros lideres innovadores que promuevan el desarrollo económico, social y humano de la provincia y del país.
Perfil InstitucionalEnseñando a Pensar, Enseñando a Innovar
El Liceo Científico Dr. Miguel Canela Lázaro es una iniciativa de la Provincia Hermanas Mirabal, de la Oficina Técnica Provincial y del Ministerio de Educación dentro el marco del Plan Estratégico de Desarrollo de la Provincia Hermanas Mirabal para fortalecer la enseñanza pública en el nivel medio. El Liceo Científico Dr. Miguel Canela Lázaro es la primera institución pública, especializada y selectiva, de Ciencias, Tecnología, Ingeniería y Matemáticas (CTIM/STEM) de la República Dominicana. Atiende las necesidades de jóvenes talentosos, para contribuir en formar los futuros líderes de la región. El Liceo ofrece un currículo avanzado e innovador dirigido a los estudiantes que demuestran talento académico y potencial para estudios universitario. El Liceo abrió sus aulas en enero de 2013, con 94 estudiantes de primero de bachillerato. Actualmente cuenta con una matrícula de casi 540 estudiantes, cubriendo todos los cursos del nivel secundario, antiguos séptimo, octavo hasta cuarto de bachillerato. Cuenta con 51 profesores, 11 administradores y personal de mantenimiento. Apoyando la innovación y globalización del programa académico, el Liceo cuenta con profesores y voluntarios internacionales de Puerto Rico, Estados Unidos, Italia, Canadá, Chile, Venezuela, España, México, Haití, Alemania, Rumanía, Reino Unido, Brasil, India, Suiza, Escocia, Francia, Lituania, Japón y Corea del Sur que, junto con profesores dominicanos, proveen un programa educativo único, riguroso e innovador. El Liceo ofrece un horario extendido con 8 horas lectivas al día (8 am - 4:50 pm). El calendario de clases se ha alargado a unos once meses, e incluyen un innovador minisemestre de cursos multidisciplinarios temáticos en el mes de Julio. El Liceo además ofrece, academias sabatinas enfocada en lenguas extranjeras (Francés e Inglés), Ciencias Naturales, Matemática avanzada y deportes. El liceo dispone de 16 aulas, 2 laboratorios de ciencia e ingeniería, 4 canchas al aire libre de baloncesto y voleibol, fútbol y balonmano, dos centros de informática, invernaderos y amplios espacios verdes para la recreación. El campus del Liceo es un espacio abierto a la comunidad. El Liceo además, ha adoptado, la Reserva Científica La Salcedoa, 42 km cuadrados de Bosque Kárstico, para ayudar a desarrollar su plan de manejo y de educación a la comunidad. Nuestro currículo aspira a ser de calidad internacional y un modelo de innovación para la República Dominicana. Incluye cursos de: Ingeniería, Ciencias Naturales (Biología, Química, Física y Ciencia Ambiental, todas con laboratorio), Electivas en Artes Creativas, Educación Física, Tres Lenguas (Francés, Inglés y Español), Programa de Experiencias de Trabajo Cívico Comunitario, Programa de Excursiones Ecológicas y Culturales, Mini-talleres Interdisciplinarios, Mini-semestre Expedicionario (en Julio), y un programa de Internados vocacionales y profesionales en asociación con industrias, negocios y ONG's de la región. |
VisiónEl Liceo Científico forjara estudiantes que:
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Liceo Científico (2014-15 - Y2) - School Profile (English version)
The Liceo Cientifico is Dominican Republic’s first public STEM + Green magnet school. It is also the island’s first public school with a extended day (8 am – 4:50 pm) and an enhanced year calendar (almost 200 school days), and that has province-wide enrollment (virtually all schools in DR are municipal). Designed to serve highly talented, but low income, rural students, it has a selective admissions process that uses middle school grades and scores from a specialized admissions test. The Liceo Científico thus serves a much neglected population in developing countries: gifted, low income students, whose incredible talents would be lost in the low quality, comprehensive public schools, which barely manage to provide a basic education. The school has a unique STEM curriculum that greatly supersedes the national curriculum in terms of both depth and breadth. Our students take more than twice the course time of regular schools, can choose from a range of over two dozen electives and physical fitness courses, take three languages, and in addition to 4 year history, math, science, social studies sequences, take philosophy, engineering and civics. The school suffers none of the behavioral problems besetting many island schools. Nor is our school affected by the student and faculty absenteeism that plagues Dominican public schools: during our first two years of operation, attendance has been in the 95% range, likely the highest in the country.
Our students are rural, with 80% poor. Fewer than 25% of the parents have any post high school education. Prior to their tenure at Liceo Cientifico, less than 2% of our students had ever been to a movie theater, or been to a museum, or even visited the capital. Fewer than 10% of our families own any books, or receive any magazine or newspaper subscriptions. Only 2% out of 540 students have ever traveled outside of Dominican Republic. Parent unemployment and underemployment is high, and the majority of our students come from single parent households. Despite these significant life obstacles, our students are strivers, and they are developing their perseverance, grit and self-confidence. They are optimistic, active learners, who are hungry for new experiences, and who aggressively seek direction and have growing aspirations.
The Liceo Científico currently has 540 students in 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th grade, a faculty of 51 (including 26 international teachers) and a support staff of 12. The school is housed in a converted industrial building in the middle of a banana plantation and adjacent to a row of greenhouses, while it completes a purpose built campus (construction is slated to start in summer of 2015). The school currently has 16 classrooms and several alternative teaching spaces including three “green” outdoor classrooms. The school helps to co-manage a 42 sq. km nature preserve in the Karst hills of the Septentrional mountain range, just 30 minutes from school. An outdoor sports complex with 4 dual purpose basketball-volleyball court, a handball court, a concrete Jr. soccer court and a baseball/Frisbee playing field, provide the Liceo with the most extensive sports facilities of any school in our region. Soon, we will be adding, by converting a second abandoned industrial hangar, an indoor multipurpose gym, an assembly hall, and 10 additional classrooms.
The Liceo Científico is designed to be a laboratory for educational innovation and experimentation. We are departing significantly from DR’s nationally prescribed curriculum in terms of both content, sequencing and pacing, and most notably in terms of our emphasis in critical thinking, emotional intelligence and leadership skills. Our teaching is active and experiential – we believe the island is our classroom. Outdoor activities and hands-on learning permeate our learning experiences. In our classrooms, project based and cooperative learning mix with more traditional “chalk and talk” and small group Socratic discussions. Our multimedia and internet capacity is increasing, already the best in the province, but primitive by first world standards. Fieldtrips are common and varied – from weekend trips to colonial Santo Domingo to hiking trips throughout the island’s extensive system of nature parks, and in our very own Salcedoa Karst forest science nature reserve. The campus has 8 acres of arable land, including a 2 acre banana plantation, and 6 greenhouses. We are developing student-run vegetable, fruit and flowers gardens, which, in addition to serving as learning laboratories, will provide us with food self-sufficiency in two years.
In addition to our unique academic programs and teaching methods, we are innovating with the structure of student life by empowering students to assume central roles in the development and running of the school. An active student government runs the school’s food shop and school materials store. Students plan all major school-wide activities and fundraiser. We promote moral and civic leadership with service learning activities and a truly empowered student judiciary and a student government. The concept of restorative justice, guides our disciplinary and behavioral management systems. Grade levels are divided into 4 academically matched groups called Equipos Academicos (Academic Teams) of 20-24 students who take all their core courses together, and have two academic advisors. Mixing of these academic teams occurs in the last period of the school day when they take electives, creative arts and physical education courses, as well as in the weekly school-wide assembly. The Academic Teams have their own student government reps, their own heraldic shields and flags, and their own unique names and traditions. We are developing an extensive program of intramural, afterschool and weekend program of academic, social and recreational activities, that will provide our students with sustained learning, for close to 10 hours per day.
The school is the island’s first secular, autonomously run public school in the country (organizationally similar to a charter school in the USA). Run by a community based organization (Oficina Tecnica Provincial), with funds stemming from the Ministries of Education, Sports and the Environment, the school seeks to serve as a model of decentralized, community based school. We are developing our own curriculum from a variety of sources and adapting it to the local educational resource reality. The high school curriculum extends considerably beyond the Dominican Republic’s national curriculum, and includes three languages (Spanish, English and French), History (Hispaniola, Latin America, World History 1 and World History 2, Civics), Sciences (Environmental Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Biodiversity, and Advanced Placement Biology), an accelerated Math sequence that culminates in either Statistics or Calculus, a variety of electives in science and creative arts (e.g. Science Fiction Film, Poetry, Creative Writing, International Film, Oratory, Opera singing, Rock Music, Latin Music, Cartooning, Speeches, Philosophy), and a comprehensive physical fitness program (e.g. Frisbee, jogging, baseball, volleyball, basketball, modern dance, gymnastics, archery, aerobics, Latin dance, outdoor survival, native street sports, and soccer). Soon we will establish AP level courses for our most advanced students.
Our faculty is unique for a public school on the island, and includes Dominican teachers screened through a highly selective process, and international teachers stemming from Chile, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Spain, Lithuania, Germany, France, USA and Italy. The faculty are supported by interns, volunteers and student teachers from the USA, Korea, Germany, Lithuania, Italy and Dominican Republic, through our associations with Peace Corps, KOICA, Princeton in Latin America, Western Michigan State University, and ISFODOSU (a top ranked regional teachers college). Our unique faculty mentorship program, pairs young promising Dominican teachers and administrators, with experienced foreign teachers for a year, co-teaching as they adapt, develop and pilot-test new curriculum and lesson plan models.
Liceo Científico (2014-15 - Y2) - School Profile (English version)
The Liceo Cientifico is Dominican Republic’s first public STEM + Green magnet school. It is also the island’s first public school with a extended day (8 am – 4:50 pm) and an enhanced year calendar (almost 200 school days), and that has province-wide enrollment (virtually all schools in DR are municipal). Designed to serve highly talented, but low income, rural students, it has a selective admissions process that uses middle school grades and scores from a specialized admissions test. The Liceo Científico thus serves a much neglected population in developing countries: gifted, low income students, whose incredible talents would be lost in the low quality, comprehensive public schools, which barely manage to provide a basic education. The school has a unique STEM curriculum that greatly supersedes the national curriculum in terms of both depth and breadth. Our students take more than twice the course time of regular schools, can choose from a range of over two dozen electives and physical fitness courses, take three languages, and in addition to 4 year history, math, science, social studies sequences, take philosophy, engineering and civics. The school suffers none of the behavioral problems besetting many island schools. Nor is our school affected by the student and faculty absenteeism that plagues Dominican public schools: during our first two years of operation, attendance has been in the 95% range, likely the highest in the country.
Our students are rural, with 80% poor. Fewer than 25% of the parents have any post high school education. Prior to their tenure at Liceo Cientifico, less than 2% of our students had ever been to a movie theater, or been to a museum, or even visited the capital. Fewer than 10% of our families own any books, or receive any magazine or newspaper subscriptions. Only 2% out of 540 students have ever traveled outside of Dominican Republic. Parent unemployment and underemployment is high, and the majority of our students come from single parent households. Despite these significant life obstacles, our students are strivers, and they are developing their perseverance, grit and self-confidence. They are optimistic, active learners, who are hungry for new experiences, and who aggressively seek direction and have growing aspirations.
The Liceo Científico currently has 540 students in 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th grade, a faculty of 51 (including 26 international teachers) and a support staff of 12. The school is housed in a converted industrial building in the middle of a banana plantation and adjacent to a row of greenhouses, while it completes a purpose built campus (construction is slated to start in summer of 2015). The school currently has 16 classrooms and several alternative teaching spaces including three “green” outdoor classrooms. The school helps to co-manage a 42 sq. km nature preserve in the Karst hills of the Septentrional mountain range, just 30 minutes from school. An outdoor sports complex with 4 dual purpose basketball-volleyball court, a handball court, a concrete Jr. soccer court and a baseball/Frisbee playing field, provide the Liceo with the most extensive sports facilities of any school in our region. Soon, we will be adding, by converting a second abandoned industrial hangar, an indoor multipurpose gym, an assembly hall, and 10 additional classrooms.
The Liceo Científico is designed to be a laboratory for educational innovation and experimentation. We are departing significantly from DR’s nationally prescribed curriculum in terms of both content, sequencing and pacing, and most notably in terms of our emphasis in critical thinking, emotional intelligence and leadership skills. Our teaching is active and experiential – we believe the island is our classroom. Outdoor activities and hands-on learning permeate our learning experiences. In our classrooms, project based and cooperative learning mix with more traditional “chalk and talk” and small group Socratic discussions. Our multimedia and internet capacity is increasing, already the best in the province, but primitive by first world standards. Fieldtrips are common and varied – from weekend trips to colonial Santo Domingo to hiking trips throughout the island’s extensive system of nature parks, and in our very own Salcedoa Karst forest science nature reserve. The campus has 8 acres of arable land, including a 2 acre banana plantation, and 6 greenhouses. We are developing student-run vegetable, fruit and flowers gardens, which, in addition to serving as learning laboratories, will provide us with food self-sufficiency in two years.
In addition to our unique academic programs and teaching methods, we are innovating with the structure of student life by empowering students to assume central roles in the development and running of the school. An active student government runs the school’s food shop and school materials store. Students plan all major school-wide activities and fundraiser. We promote moral and civic leadership with service learning activities and a truly empowered student judiciary and a student government. The concept of restorative justice, guides our disciplinary and behavioral management systems. Grade levels are divided into 4 academically matched groups called Equipos Academicos (Academic Teams) of 20-24 students who take all their core courses together, and have two academic advisors. Mixing of these academic teams occurs in the last period of the school day when they take electives, creative arts and physical education courses, as well as in the weekly school-wide assembly. The Academic Teams have their own student government reps, their own heraldic shields and flags, and their own unique names and traditions. We are developing an extensive program of intramural, afterschool and weekend program of academic, social and recreational activities, that will provide our students with sustained learning, for close to 10 hours per day.
The school is the island’s first secular, autonomously run public school in the country (organizationally similar to a charter school in the USA). Run by a community based organization (Oficina Tecnica Provincial), with funds stemming from the Ministries of Education, Sports and the Environment, the school seeks to serve as a model of decentralized, community based school. We are developing our own curriculum from a variety of sources and adapting it to the local educational resource reality. The high school curriculum extends considerably beyond the Dominican Republic’s national curriculum, and includes three languages (Spanish, English and French), History (Hispaniola, Latin America, World History 1 and World History 2, Civics), Sciences (Environmental Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Biodiversity, and Advanced Placement Biology), an accelerated Math sequence that culminates in either Statistics or Calculus, a variety of electives in science and creative arts (e.g. Science Fiction Film, Poetry, Creative Writing, International Film, Oratory, Opera singing, Rock Music, Latin Music, Cartooning, Speeches, Philosophy), and a comprehensive physical fitness program (e.g. Frisbee, jogging, baseball, volleyball, basketball, modern dance, gymnastics, archery, aerobics, Latin dance, outdoor survival, native street sports, and soccer). Soon we will establish AP level courses for our most advanced students.
Our faculty is unique for a public school on the island, and includes Dominican teachers screened through a highly selective process, and international teachers stemming from Chile, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Spain, Lithuania, Germany, France, USA and Italy. The faculty are supported by interns, volunteers and student teachers from the USA, Korea, Germany, Lithuania, Italy and Dominican Republic, through our associations with Peace Corps, KOICA, Princeton in Latin America, Western Michigan State University, and ISFODOSU (a top ranked regional teachers college). Our unique faculty mentorship program, pairs young promising Dominican teachers and administrators, with experienced foreign teachers for a year, co-teaching as they adapt, develop and pilot-test new curriculum and lesson plan models.