About

Given that there are approximately 4,000 under-performing and under-represented K-12 students in Evanston’s public schools, the focus of the LENSE is to: (1) Understand how Evanston youth (particularly low-income students) navigate through available out-of school STEM opportunities and how those STEM programs impact academic success using evaluation, long-term youth tracking, and regular meeting of STEM providers; (2) Build new collaborations between teachers, out-of-school providers, and STEM professionals, resulting in novel curricula and activities that extend and enrich classroom and out-of-school learning; and (3) Expand the capacity of STEM educators – both in the classroom and in out-of-school settings-to ensure the targeted populations have access to and are engaged in successful programs.