STEM Beyond School 2019-2021

What is it?

STEM Beyond School, funded by the Oregon Department of Education’s Innovation Funds, will be entering its fourth year. SBS provides a Community of Practice that builds connections and capacity of out-of-school educators to provide high-quality, hands-on STEM to their historically underserved students in grades 3-8. SBS offers high-dose professional development tailored to the needs of our OST educators so they can create engaging programming that is relevant to their students and their interests, incorporates Next Generation Science Standards practices, and extends learning experiences into out of school and their community. EMSP has been a key partner in this grant program, supporting student programming at two new sites through ODE’s LOI program last year. Due to funding changes, the total SBS budget only supports sustaining the PD Network; student programming is no longer funded, though we are pursuing funds elsewhere.

Why it’s Important:

Students in under-resourced communities across the state have significantly fewer opportunities to connect to STEM learning than their more advantaged peers. This uneven approach fails to ensure that youth are developing their skills and abilities in these fields, and as a result, we run the risk of weakening our future workforce and economy. STEM Beyond School (SBS) was established to address this problem by focusing on two critical aspects: providing high quality, out-of-school time STEM learning experiences to underserved youth now, and creating a supportive infrastructure for community-based programs to continually improve and expand to reach more youth over time.

How it Works:

The next cohort of out of school educators will begin in January 2020 and run through May 2021. Over 17 months, educators will have access to STEM webinars, learning communities, continuous improvement tools, all-program events, regional learning, and a network of their peers to support STEM capacity. For the full PD experience, educators can apply for a limited number of stipends to pay for their time and travel. Applications will be released soon. Webinars and online resources are open to all OST STEM educators but require pre-registration for webinars to ensure we support the best experience possible.

Results:

Coming Soon!

Resources:

Coming Soon!

Partners:

Portland Metro STEM Partnership
OSU Extension