Key Resources
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.