Culture, Bias, and Equity in STEM
BEST PRACTICE AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Audience: Network Staff and Partners
Application: Share the following best practices and tools with partners and use them to create professional development for programs in your state.
Article: Building Culturally Competent Organizations – Learn how you can build a culturally competent organization. A resource developed by the University of Kansas.
Article: Are you culturally competent? Responding to Kids’ Diverse Backgrounds and Experiences – Find out what it means to be culturally competent in afterschool and learn specific strategies you can apply in your setting.
Article: Do I belong? Gender, Peer Groups, and STEM Achievement – This paper reviews how peer groups can hinder or help girls’ and women’s sense of belongingness in STEM.
Article: Tackling Implicit Bias – Description of implicit bias, its impact and how to challenge it.
Podcast: Seeing White – A 14-episode series about race from Duke University for anyone invested in increasing STEM equity.
BEST PRACTICE AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Audience: Program Leaders and Staff
Application: Share the following best practices and tools with program leaders and staff in your state.
ToolKit: A Guide to Equity and Antiracism for Educators – A toolkit with links to additional resources related to current events and a guide for educators on how to fight racism in their communities.
Videos: Culturally Responsive: Educator Mindset and Action – Short videos of educators that describe what it means to have a culturally responsive mindset with examples of specific culturally responsive practices in action.
Personal Reflection: Test Yourself for Hidden Bias – Information about stereotypes and prejudices and the impact they have on students. It includes a link to “Project Implicit”, a test to identify your implicit biases.
Research: Focusing on Cultural Competency in STEM Education – White paper that provides an overview of cultural competency in STEM education. It describes: a) stages and steps of cultural competency, b)culturally responsive teaching practices, and c) strategies for developing a culturally responsive out-of-school STEM program.
Video: Gloria Ladson-Billings Reframes the Racial Achievement Gap – G. Ladson -Billings gave a talk at the 2007 Urban Sites Network Conference in Washington D.C. where she discusses the term “racial achievement gap” as a construct that considers students as defective and lacking. Instead, she says to approach the achievement gap with a “debt-mindset” instead of a “deficit-mindset” that emphasizes that the achievement gap is complex and systemic.
ADDITIONAL VIRTUAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Connecting Programs
Audience: Partners and Programs
Application: Are partners looking for additional virtual professional development opportunities to build their understanding of an engineering mindset and equity in STEM?
Recorded Webinar: Equity in STEM Education: The Connection to Culture – When you think about diversity; how does it show itself? When you stand before your students, do the faces looking back at you look like your own? Most likely your answer is “no”. Classrooms, and out-of-school time programs are becoming more culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse, which is leading to both challenges and opportunities for educators. Join the National Girls Collaborative Project to learn about research-based best practices on cultural responsiveness. A powerful approach that spans the cultural divide that often exists between educators and students and allows educators to improve STEM engagement and equity.
STEM Resources from April 2017 & Earlier
- ‘STEM Everyday’ Curriculum – You for Youth (Y4Y). A curriculum guide featuring videos, powerpoints, and documents designed to help program providers integrate hands-on STEM activities into their existing programming.
- 15 Questions to Ask When Selecting STEM Activities – STEMfinity. Selecting appropriate activities is a cornerstone for creating an engaging STEM program during out-of-school time.
- Afterschool STEM HUB – . A site where advocates for high-quality afterschool programming in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) will find useful tools to make the case for expanding and supporting innovative and engaging informal STEM learning.
- Click 2 Science – . Click2Science is an interactive, professional development site for trainers, coaches, site directors and frontline staff/volunteers working in out-of-school time STEM programs, serving children and youth.
- Ecosystem Spotlight: Central OK STEM Alliance (COSTEMA) – STEM Ecosystems, August 7, 2017. Case Study about how a leadership academy in Oklahoma shelling teachers improve STEM education and career readiness.
- EngineerGirl – . Designed to attract girls to the engineering profession, female students of all ages can learn more about the industry, participate in competitions, find STEM clubs, and learn more about pursuing a career in the field.
- Examining the Impact of Afterschool STEM Programs – Afterschool Alliance, 2014. This report summarizes research about the importance of afterschool for STEM learning, and analyzes evaluation data from a selection of strong afterschool STEM programs.
- Exploratorium – . An online resource for parents and students to learn more about the world through science and art, the Exploratorium also has six galleries that allow visitors to indulge their curiosity with hands-on activities.
- Free STEM Resources – STEMfinity. Link library to 100+ free STEM resources.
- Frontiers in Urban Science Exploration Resource Guide – Every Hour Counts. This handy guide to informal science learning provides curriculum and ideas for great STEM programming and aids in implementing science programs outside the classroom, from best practices, to implementation, to evaluation.
- Girls Who Code – . Girls who would like to explore the opportunities in the field of technology could join after-school clubs and enroll in specialized summer courses. The nonprofit organization has been supported by global companies all striving to close the gender gap in computing roles. And what’s even more exciting is 60 companies have pledged to hire Girls Who Code alumnae!
- Khan Academy – . Through this revolutionary, personalized approach to learning, students interested in STEM will benefit from the academy’s partnership with NASA, the California Academy of Sciences, and MIT to access specialized content.
- Know Your Funders: A Guide to STEM Funding for Afterschool – . The federal government as well as private philanthropies and corporations are increasingly investing in a variety of STEM education initiatives. This guide will help you understand and reach these potential funders.
- Learning Blade – . Learning Blade is designed to provide engaging resources that will expose students to STEM related career opportunities and help them develop key skills as they move forward.
- Lockheed Martin: Grants for Education – Deadline: Rolling. Amount Varies. Lockheed Martin provides grants for K-16 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education. This includes Lockheed Martin’s K-12 STEM Education Initiative, Engineers in the Classroom, as well as STEM-focused curricular and extracurricular programs that provide employee engagement opportunities in a community in which Lockheed Martin has employees or business interests. Maximum award: varies. Eligibility: 501(c)(3) organizations that deliver standards-based science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education to students in K-16.
- Mastering the STEM MATH Olympiad and other Math Competitions – Maryville University. The Math Olympiad is a math problem solving competition designed to feed student’s love of math. Math competitions are a fun way to practice, refine, and show off one’s math skills. They bring together students from a variety of places and backgrounds. To prepare for the Math Olympiad, students need to practice, practice, practice, and practice some more. This resource from Maryville University provides a wealth of resources both to find and to help students practice for competitions. *** A big shout out to Katie and Michelle at Lexington Middle School for sharing this great resource!
- Sizing Up the Gap in our Supply of STEM Workers – New American Economy Research Fund, March 29, 2017. A research based brief analyzing gaps in STEM-based career fields.
- STEM Afterschool: It’s Time to Activate! – Afterschool STEM Hub. A messaging toolkit to make the case for STEM in afterschool. Developed by the Frameworks Institute in partnership with the Afterschool STEM Hub.
- STEM and Afterschool – Afterschool Alliance. 80% of future jobs will require STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) literacy and skills. This page provides the latest in STEM afterschool policy, resources, allies and more.
- STEM Grants from STEMfinity – Deadline: Multiple. Amount: Varies. STEM Funding Opportunities including state grants, federal grants, and national private grants, as well as Free Grant Writing Services.
- STEM in Afterschool Brochure – Afterschool Alliance. Afterschool programs that offer high-quality STEM learning experiences have a significant impact on participating youth – they cultivate students’ interest in STEM and build STEM skills and proficiencies among diverse groups of young people.
- STEM in Afterschool System Building Toolkit – Expanding STEM Learning. This toolkit describes strategies and shares tools and resources to help build the supply and quality of informal science programming in afterschool and summer programs. It is meant to provide system builders at the city, state and local levels with a process framework, concrete strategies, examples and tools to inform their work.
- TN Opportunity Programs (TOPS) – . Cross curricular activities in math, science, reading language arts, and visual arts for students in grades K-12. STEM instruction is weaved through most lesson plans.