Key Resources
This document presents the Federal Government’s five-year strategic plan for STEM education, based on a vision for a future where all Americans will have lifelong access to high-quality STEM education and the United States will be the global leader in STEM literacy, innovation, and employment. The plan accordingly strengthens the Federal commitment to equity and diversity, to evidence-based practice, and […]
Researchers at the PEAR Institute: Partnerships in Education and Resilience presented findings from a survey of STEM Learning Ecosystems’ thoughts about collaboration on evaluation and assessment STEM Learning Ecosystems: Evaluation and Assessment Findings. Results revealed that half of the ecosystems are using at least one data collection tool to evaluate STEM learning, and the level of evaluation progress can be […]
Researchers at the University of San Diego’s Institute for Entrepreneurship in Education asked the question, “How do partners building and running a STEM learning ecosystem define the parameters of an “effective” ecosystem?” The findings from the year-one study can be found in the recent report: Design for Success: Developing a STEM Ecosystem. The findings explore dimensions of eight critical factors identified and […]
A few months ago, Expand ED Schools – a partner in the New York City STEM Education Network, released a new research brief reporting on the promising findings of the STEM Educators Academy, an ExpandED Schools initiative where classroom teachers and after-school educators engage in joint professional development at premiere science institutions and then work together back at their schools to […]
This summer, the National Research Council (NRC) released Identifying and Supporting Productive STEM Programs in Out-of-School Settings, identifying three criteria for programs to result in strong outcomes for students: 1) engage young people intellectually, academically, socially and emotionally, 2) respond to young people’s interests, experiences and cultural practices, and 3) connect STEM learning in out-of-school, school, home and other settings. The report, authored […]
STEM learning ecosystems harness contributions of educators, policymakers, families, businesses, informal science institutions, afterschool and summer providers, higher education, and many others towards a comprehensive vision of STEM learning for all children. This paper offers evidence of the impact of cross-sector partnerships on young people, and a logic model template for communities so they may further develop the attributes, strategies, […]
This briefing, video and infographic from the Frameworks Institute explains how to communicate to a variety of audiences about STEM education, informal STEM and STEM ecosystems, to a general audience, including media, the public, parents and families. Page 21-22 of the PDF specifically discuss ecosystems, but the whole brief (although long) is valuable reading for anyone who writes and speaks […]
The Common Instrument is a survey developed by PEAR for youth 10 years or older that includes 10 self-report items to assess child and adolescent interest and engagement in science. The Common Instrument is simple and quick to administer, easy to receive feedback on, and useable for pre-post analysis.
This Guide is designed to help principal investigators and other leaders of informal STEM education projects integrate evaluation into all phases of project design, development, and implementation. Such projects include exhibits, media projects, websites, community science projects, afterschool programs, festivals, family activities, online games, citizen science projects, and other efforts to help people learn about science in the course of […]
The Dimensions of Success observation tool (DoS), defines twelve indicators of STEM program quality throughout 4 broad domains: 1) Features of the Learning Environment, 2) Activity Engagement, 3) STEM Knowledge and Practices, and 4) Youth Development in STEM. While primarily developed for after-school, it can be used to observe activites led by teachers, private sector scientists, after-school workers, and more. […]