Exploring Culturally Sustaining STEM Partnerships: A Year-Long Workshop Series

Museums and science centers offer rich STEM opportunities for teens, from climate advocacy to leadership development. But how can these institutions build sustainable, equity-centered collaborations with young people and their communities? This session shared outcomes from Creating Sustainable Community, Museum, and University Collaborations, a one-year NSF-AISL–funded partnership among researchers, informal science educators, and teen participants from ten museums and universities in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Through virtual workshops, city-based cohort meetings, and in-person sessions, partners explored how to design culturally sustaining STEM programs with and for youth.

The session featured four short talks and a panel discussion. Presenters outlined the project’s goals, collaborative design, and key findings, followed by reflections from teens, alumni, researchers, and museum educators. Youth participants compared their experiences in museum STEM programs with their roles as equal partners in this project and shared strategies for authentically centering teen voices. Researchers discussed the use of community-based design research and photovoice methods, while museum educators highlighted cohort-based STEM programming and the challenges and successes of integrating youth as full stakeholders.