Key Programs

The Memphis STEMM Ecosystem partners work collaboratively to develop science learning opportunities that engages students as co-creators of their learning and aims to position students as transformative intellectuals in their communities.

Current work includes:

• Afterschool STEMM Clubs are designed to provide 5th-grade students opportunities to engage in science and engineering concepts as applied to pediatric cancers in an informal setting. Clubs are facilitated by local college juniors and seniors majoring in a STEM-field.
• Afterschool Community Health Clubs are designed to provide students in grades 7-8 opportunities to engage in developing cancer control programs to address cancer disparities in their communities. Clubs are facilitated by local college juniors and seniors majoring in a biology or public health field.
• Kindergarten STEMM Collaborative engages kindergarten teachers to co-create STEMM learning modules that integrate science education standards with English Language Arts, Social and Emotional Learning, and Mathematics to enhance the quality and quantity of STEMM learning experiences provided during the school day.
• High School Research Immersion Program is designed to provide rising seniors in high school with an 8-week summer research experience.
• Science Ambassadors Program aims to expose students to various research careers and pathways with a specific focus on providing diverse models of who can be a scientist.
• Science Ambassadors’ Classroom is a four-part professional development experience aimed to improve scientists’ science communication skills through storytelling, reducing jargon, simplifying for understanding, and promoting audience interaction through a virtual platform. Throughout the series, scientists produced a lay summary and presentation related to a journal article that they either authored or was closely related to their area of research. The presentation is then delivered to high school students during the Virtual Science Journal Club (see below).
• Virtual Science Journal Clubs consists of three sessions in which a scientist “visits” the classroom via a virtual platform to discuss findings from a scientific journal. High school students can ask scientists questions about the life of a scientist, career paths, and the academic journey.
• STEMM Teaching Fellowship is a yearlong teacher professional development series aimed at enhancing STEMM pedagogical practices in K-12 classrooms.