Afterschool STEM Hub

Happy New Year and happy #MentoringMonth! We know that youth are more likely to retain their interest and sense of belonging in STEM when they are connected with effective and supportive mentors. Yet, "more than 1 in 3 young people in America are growing up without a mentor outside their family," according to @MENTOR. Let's work to increase opportunities for STEM professionals to mentor young people, including through supportive policies, such as the Youth Workforce Readiness Act! While it was not included in the reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act that passed within the most recent Federal Continuing Resolution, there is still time to advocate for its passage. You can learn more about the Youth Workforce Readiness Act at the following link: https://lnkd.in/e4gigZgt Learn more about STEM mentoring at MENTOR's website here: https://lnkd.in/dXthQ8Ny And check out the following blog to learn more about STEM-specific mentoring and resources, and all the great mentoring opportunities through afterschool: https://lnkd.in/eWZgcvJN

We want to wish all of you a happy new year! As we reflect on the past year, something we are grateful for is relationships - new and old. We wouldn't be able to effectively and impactfully advocate for afterschool STEM without them! As we sign off until January, we want to give a shout-out to a few programs that are part of our Practitioners Advisory Group so you can check out all the great ways they are supporting youth in their communities through afterschool STEM. Together Friends Organization Inc. in Georgia, The STEM Connection in Indiana, STEMarts Lab in New Mexico, and STEM From Dance in New York (and beyond) are all working to inspire youth in STEM and we are thankful for their dedication.

Have you checked out our most recent Afterschool STEM Research Review yet? Want to dig into some research focused on afterschool STEM facilitating youth-led community impact and the implications for policy? The research reflects the programs that the Collective for Youth Empowerment in STEM & Society (CYESS) works to support and advocate for. Click the link below to learn more and access the research review. https://lnkd.in/eWxjeVHh And, thanks so much to Amanda Sullivan of the National Girls Collaborative for all her help putting this one together!

Moving into the new year, we at the Afterschool STEM Hub feel hopeful and inspired. Check out our year-in-review blog, linked below, to learn why as we reflect back on 2024 and look forward to opportunities to advocate for afterschool STEM in 2025. https://lnkd.in/eSvzErDj

As part of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, the National Science Foundation (NSF) was directed to establish a program supporting rural STEM education, which included The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine undertaking a consensus study resulting in recommendations to improve rural STEM education and workforce development. The report was recently released, and you can find it at the following link: https://lnkd.in/euRQ34YT This comprehensive report focuses on leveraging the assets of rural communities to enhance STEM learning. Recommendation #11 encourages state education agencies to provide funding and other incentives to encourage rural districts to partner with out-of-school programs and industry, amongst others, to support preK–12 students, parents, and educators in rural areas. We know from the most recent America After 3pm (AA3) report that parents in rural areas agree that afterschool programs help youth gain interests and skillsets in STEM. Let's work together to help eliminate barriers to these impactful programs so more youth have access. You can find the AA3 Rural Report at the following link: https://lnkd.in/ejNyXNpa

We are so excited to share with you the final Afterschool STEM Quarterly Research Review newsletter of 2024! We are closing the year out with feelings of hope and inspiration as we share research demonstrating the impact youth are having in their communities through engagement in afterschool STEM. Check it out! https://lnkd.in/g2CEqDjx

Today, the Committee for Education Funding (CEF) is advocating for increased investments in rural education. We want to amplify their efforts and highlight how important it is for young people in rural areas to have access to STEM education and afterschool programs. Help us spread the word about the great things happening in afterschool STEM in rural areas by sharing a blog about your programs, your personal experiences, and program models that could be replicated in other areas. You can find a sample blog on our website at the following link: https://lnkd.in/ePr6cJtd #Dontflunkthefuture #Time4EdFunding

One of our afterschool STEM policy priorities is to facilitate high-quality programming through partnerships and professional development. Youth benefit when afterschool educators feel supported and have the resources and capacity to facilitate quality STEM programming. Supportive federal policies can enable funding and resources for professional development for afterschool educators, building out effective models so more can benefit. One model of professional development is the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance's Afterschool Coaching for Reflective Educators in STEM (ACRES) program, a nationally acclaimed coaching program for afterschool educators to build confidence in their STEM facilitation skills. You can learn more about ACRES, and its coaching program focused on facilitating career-connected STEM experiences, in the blog below: https://lnkd.in/e3CjS_Jc And, you can find more of our policy priorities at: https://lnkd.in/eu9ARmxh

Have you checked out the updated Federal STEM Strategic Plan that the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released recently? We are thrilled to see the prominent role informal and afterschool STEM play in this national strategy to engage learners of all ages, families, and communities. STEM literacy and proficiency are critical for all of us and we are so grateful to everyone who spoke up about the central role informal and afterschool STEM programs play in this ecosystem. The Afterschool STEM Hub will continue to be a voice that advocates for this issue at the federal level so we can all build on this momentum and energy. Thank you to everyone who joined in with us on the listening sessions and who spoke up to amplify the need for more support for afterschool and informal STEM! You can find the link to the report below: https://lnkd.in/gg7mVVQF And check out https://lnkd.in/eTHGV65t for tips, resources, and research to support your own afterschool STEM advocacy efforts.

There is increasing recognition that there needs to be enhanced alignment between afterschool STEM programs and school-day learning. The National Academies recently released their Congressionally mandated report, Scaling and Sustaining PreK-12 STEM Education Innovations. It states, "Out-of-school spaces not only provide opportunities for learners to engage in Pre-K–12 STEM education innovations but are important spaces for innovation development. These settings can support experimentation as well as the development of resources that can translate into formal Pre-K–12 educational settings. Yet, these settings are often entirely disconnected from the formal education system." But they don't have to be entirely disconnected! We can leverage policy and funding pathways to enable afterschool STEM learning to be a true complement to school-day learning, even helping to take much of the burden off of school-day teachers. You can read more and learn of some of the innovations in afterschool STEM at the following link: https://lnkd.in/exXFqns8