Change the Equation: A Rubric for Corporate Philanthropy in STEM Learning

There’s no doubt that STEM education is getting more attention these days. Education advocates, professional scientific organizations, and governments at the local, state, and federal levels have stepped up their commitments to promoting STEM. Increasingly, corporations are coming to understand that supporting STEM education is essential for ensuring that there is a STEM workforce in the future.

Change the Equation (CTEq), a group of more than 110 corporate leaders devoted to supporting STEM education programs, has released two guiding documents for their members and other corporate philanthropists interested in STEM learning. The Design Principles for Effective STEM Philanthropy and the accompanying Rubric are designed to help corporate leaders support STEM learning in a way that will have a meaningful impact and align their philanthropic goals around common interests. The Design Principles draw on research and the real-world experiences of corporate philanthropic leaders.

The Design Principles outlines eight overarching principles to use as a framework when partnering with a STEM education partner:

·      Address a compelling and well-defined need

·      Use rigorous evaluation to continuously measure and inform progress toward ambitious but manageable goals

·      Ensure work is sustainable

·      Promote replicability and scalability

·      Identify outside conditions that can hinder or thwart progress

·      Create high-impact partnerships

·      Ensure individual attention to diverse learners’ needs

·      Ensure organizational capacity to achieve goals

In addition, there are six STEM-specific principles:

·      Offer challenging and relevant STEM content

·      Include a focus on “21^st century skills”

·      Inspire interest and engagement in STEM

·      Encourage hands-on, inquiry-based learning

·      Address the needs of underrepresented groups

·      Ensure the capacity of program staff or volunteers to promote student learning in STEM

Notably, the Design Principles and Rubrics are not designed to be a checklist for corporate partners to evaluate STEM education programs. Rather, they serve as a guideline for corporate leaders who want to make the greatest impact in their philanthropy. Furthermore, the Design Principles are a work in progress, and Change the Equation’s website says that the organization will “refine and improve them as [they] learn more from our member companies and other leaders in STEM learning.”

What does this mean for afterschool programs? Afterschool practitioners and intermediaries may find that they are already doing many of the things outlined by the Principles—especially if their program is concerned with youth development. Since the Principles are not a checklist for evaluation, programs should not feel that they have to meet all of the criteria outlined in the Rubric. Rather than be a hard and fast rule for determining quality, the Design Principles could provide a common ground for corporate philanthropists and STEM educators to have a conversation about STEM learning.

Member Blog Post: Techbridge Student Wins NCWIT Bay Area Affiliate Award

We recently got a message from the National Center for Women & Information Technology about the winner of their Bay Area affiliate award, Ana Peña , who happens to be a participant of Coalition member Techbridge. Read on to find out about her project--and how a girl in your community could be a winner too! Congratulations, Ana!

"Ana first became interested in programming through the Techbridge after-school program.  She really enjoyed the challenging aspect of programming a robot to move and making a roller coaster function.  At Techbridge, Ana has also worked on a project making a clay animation movie.

She loves to help other Techbridge students with their programming problems, and is the go-to person in her family if anyone has problems with their computers.  Ana would like to combine her programming skills with her passion for architecture and maybe help to design and program roller coaster for amusement parks.

Unfortunately, interested and well-prepared young women like Ana often don’t choose a computer science major. Only 18% of computer and information science degrees were awarded to women in 2009 (11% at major research universities), though 57% of college degrees are awarded to women. (source NCWIT By the Numbers 2010)  The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing is designed to reverse this trend by identifying, recognizing and supporting  young women interested in and aspiring to pursue a major in computing. 

Founded in 2007, the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing has grown to a combined National and Affiliate program with local awards serving 22 states in 2011.  To date NCWIT has recognized 855 young women and plans to grow the award program to a reach of 10,000 young women and recognize 1,000 award recipients annually.

Contrary to the name, the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing is much more than an award program.  Recipients are provided long-term support for their interests in computing through peer networking, mentorship, scholarships and access to opportunities. 

Applications open September 15, 2011 for the 2012 competition.  All high school young women residing in the US are eligible to apply for regional awards if offered in their area, as well as the national award.  Girls, parents and teachers should visit www.aspirationsaward.org for more information about both opportunities."

 

A Framework for K-12 Science Education

Last week, we were lucky to attend a staff lecture hosted by our host institution, the Lawrence Hall of Science, featuring Dr. Helen Quinn, a professor of physics at Stanford University and chair of the National Academy of Sciences committee that issued the new Framework for K-12 Science Education. Dr. Quinn talked about the process behind designing the Framework, and why it's different from other recommendations in the past.

Symmetry Breaking, a physics publication, just did a Q&A with Dr. Quinn on the new recommendations.

What are your thoughts on the recommendations?

Making and STEM

The act of making things--whether its gluing toothpicks into simple or complex structures, or welding scrap metal to make art--is a natural vehicle for exploring concepts and applications of science, technology, engineering, and math. In addition to taking into account the aesthetics of design, makers are in essence performing constant experiments: what do I think will happen if this is attached to that? What can I do to make that happen? Making equals exploration, which leads to innovation.

Making encourages creativity--an important ingredient in answering scientific questions. But many scientists and non-scientists alike may not consider themselves to be "creative" as the word is typically applied to the arts. Fortunately, there is a movement to make "making" accessible and show how creativity can be found in unexpected places.

The Maker Faire, a.k.a. the world's "largest DIY Festival," hosts showcases of innovation across the country. This year, the World Maker Faire will be held on September 17th and 18th in New York City in partnership with the New York Hall of Science. Smaller faires inspired by the larger event frequently take place in smaller communities, highlighting regional activities. 

Individual institutions can support the science of making. At the Exploratorium, daily activities at The Tinkering Studio support exploration of many kinds of materials and science concepts. Check out their blog for highlights of recent activities. And in case you're starting to feel inspired, the Institute for the Future (IFTF) has a blog up post about integrating the Maker community with K-12 education (specifically in-school, but the idea of linking making to the out-of-school time education field is worth considering as well). 

Making represents great opportunities for doing science, engineering, technology, and math outside of typical school hours. Have you seen making in action?

What Afterschool In New York Could Mean for Afterschool Nationwide

In 2005, Mayor Bloomberg launched the citywide Out-of-School Time Initiative in New York City, which grew to serve up to 85,000 students per year. Now, New York City is rolling out new standards for how afterschool student support should be included in school-community partnerships. Lucy Friedman, Founding President of The After-School Corporation (TASC) and member of the Coalition for Science After School Steering Committee, summarizes the findings and explores the implications in today's Huffington Post in an article called "Raising Standards After 3 PM."

What could this mean for the rest of the nation? As Lucy puts it: 

"...the proposed new standards neatly encapsulate what a decade of independent research has told us: that in order to truly benefit kids, after-school program activities should be based on planned and sequenced curricula that support specific learning and developmental goals. Kids should be involved in active, project-based learning, especially middle school students who desperately need to feel like they own their own learning and that learning is relevant to their lives -- otherwise they'll stop attending. Program staff members need to intentionally support the development of kids' social and emotional skills." 

 The new standards create a framework for schools and afterschool programs to work together to reach common goals surrounding student achievement. If successful, this could create a model for other large cities across the country where schools and afterschool programs serve diverse and varied communities. It could also scaled down to support smaller communities, which can also have a great deal of invested partners. Especially in a time of scarce resources, it will be interesting to see if the proposed program--which is designed to lower bureaucratic barriers--increases efficiency without sacrificing high-quality experiences and content in a time of scarce resources.

The proposal is still in its beginning stages--a concept paper has just been released by the New York Department of Youth and Community Development--and it will be interesting to see how it is implemented and developed over the coming school year.