Partnership Development and Planning for STEM Certification in Out-of-School Learning

Studies indicate that informal learning settings such as out-of-school learning (OSL) programs, including afterschool and summer learning programs, can support K-12 students' learning in science, technology, math, and science (STEM) as well as enhance youth career interests in STEM. This project seeks to model how two organizations, the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) at Georgia Tech and Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network (GSAN), can partner together to understand the experiences of OSL educators and associated organizations related to STEM programming for youth. Over the course of the project, the activities will identify both the STEM professional development needs of OSL educators and create a plan of action to address them. This robust process will result in a plan for professional development that will ultimately support OSL educators as well as access to quality STEM education and learning for K-12 students who attend these OSL programs.

This Partnership Development and Planning project is focused on determining the STEM professional development needs of the OSL educators in Georgia. Using Rogers et al.'s (n.d.) Strategic Partnering Conceptual Framework, which encourages intentionality and reflexivity of partners, the team will deepen mutual understandings, partnerships, and research and development capacity among stakeholders. A purposive sampling method will be used to gather a range of perspectives from educators from across the OSL field in Georgia. Stakeholder discussions will further the needs assessment as well as the development of an action plan, which will receive feedback from OSL educators. The results of this project will expand the partnerships of organizations dedicated to meeting the needs of informal educators in Georgia who work in OSL programs to provide STEM programing to youth. The insights and experiences from Georgia are likely to be relevant to the OSL field overall, so that other geographic areas and partnerships can build from this work in order to meet the specific needs of their communities.

This Partnership Development and Planning project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing everyone multiple pathways for accessing and engaging in STEM learning experiences.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.