Key Resources
These downloadable assessment and planning tools—geared towards OST practitioners—were developed by the California AfterSchool Network and the California STEM Learning Network but are applicable to programs and partnerships in any state. Especially useful are the clear definitions of quality for OST and OST STEM, and the detailed descriptions of what strong partnerships among schools, OST programs, and other stakeholders look like in practice. Supported by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the Noyce Foundation and the Samueli Foundation.
The Rural Youth Development site includes tools, curricula and resources for planning, implementing and evaluating community projects with young people.
This guide is a large document – here we bring your attention to the chapter on creating collaborations, networks and partnerships, and the section on Pitfalls to Avoid.
This guide provide schools, districts and local community organizations with tools to engage a broad community of stakeholders in STEM education innovation.
This toolkit emphasizes rural communities. Its scope is broader than STEM; however, its approach to examining local resources and putting them to work for positive change is very relevant to ecosystems. By 4H and the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development.
Use the STEMconnector as a jumping off point to understand the landscape of STEM initiatives in your city or region, and beyond.
The R&P Collaboratory engages researchers and practitioners around the country in an effort to address the long-standing gap between educational research and practice in STEM education. One of the collaboratory’s focal areas is Cross-Sector Learning. This page has a wealth of practitioner tools, videos, research papers, and conceptual models related to understanding and implementing an ecological perspective of STEM learning.
This report is the summary of the National Research Council’s 2014 convening to explore how connecting the formal, afterschool and informal education sectors could foster more seamless learning of STEM subjects for students in the elementary and middle grades.
In a February 2014 working paper supported by the Noyce Foundation, Kathleen Traphagen and Saskia Traill examine 15 leading efforts to create STEM Learning Ecosystems. STEM Learning Ecosystems harness unique contributions of educators, policymakers, families, and others in symbiosis toward a comprehensive vision of STEM learning for all children. Read the full report and the executive summary here.