Approach
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The research and resources in this toolkit resulted from a question prevalent in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce today: How can we increase participation in STEM careers from underrepresented communities? With support of an NSF ITEST grant, we set out to develop and test the STEM Career Connections Model to increase youth awareness of STEM and STEM careers in their community, both through recognizing where technologies and innovations are adding benefit to their lives and through interacting with STEM professionals whose skill sets align with topics covered in their STEM programs. To do this work, we developed and cultivated multiple community STEM education partnerships (CSEPs), bringing individuals and organizations with STEM expertise and interest in STEM learning to the table.Ìý
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It is important to note that the community where we conducted this research project is a rural mountain community with many well-established STEM programs and partnerships. Our project provided equipment and professional development to the schools and STEM programs, which added value to the partnership – especially for rural areas where these resources are often limited. The project benefited from and contributed to making connections across the many existing opportunities and relationships to expose youth to STEM career pathways within the local community.
Rather than developing new curricula or technologies, the research team focused on integrating previously designed STEM programming within a new model that includes career-focused activities and community partnerships. We began our work within the local school district and expanded to implement our model in summer programming and after-school programs. And along the way, we convened a STEM Community Partnership Group to allow for a wider community voice and to help sustain the work beyond the project end. The partnership group slowly became more collaborative, shifting responsibility for facilitating meetings and planning activities from the research team to community members (see figure below).
Evolution of the STEM Community Partnership Group, shifting responsibility from the research team to a planning group composed of community members who value the work being done.
The research team distilled learnings from three years of refinement and evaluation of the STEMCC model into this toolkit based on feedback collected from multiple partners and youth, and reflections from the research team. We share tools created for our project, often with input from our partners, as well as adaptations of existing resources that we used during the project. Finally, we have included STEM Career Connections spotlights that provide examples to ground the strategies in tangible experiences.