Foundations and Bridges for Intensive Youth STEM Program Impact
A Needs Assessment for Research–Practice Collaboration (IMLS-funded)
Intensive out-of-school STEM programs for teens are widespread and impactful, but often developed in isolation. This fragmentation limits shared learning, cross-site evaluation, and the ability to build a cumulative evidence base. Foundations and Bridges addresses this gap by conducting a national needs assessment to support coordinated research and practice across institutions.
Led by the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), North Carolina State University, and the Lawrence Hall of Science, this project brings together program providers, researchers, and evaluators working in teen STEM pathways programs. The focus is on programs that:
- serve high school–aged youth,
- engage participants over extended durations (weeks to years), and
- aim to broaden participation in STEM, particularly for groups historically excluded from STEM fields.
What We’re Doing
This project will generate a field-wide understanding of how intensive teen STEM programs are designed, implemented, and evaluated. Key activities include:
- Landscape Scan: Identifying relevant programs across diverse museum types, geographic regions, and audiences.
- Practice and Evaluation Inventory: Documenting program models, evaluation approaches (short- and long-term), alumni engagement strategies, and data practices.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Gathering insights from practitioners, researchers, and evaluators to understand needs, challenges, and opportunities for alignment.
- Infrastructure Exploration: Assessing potential structures (e.g., collaborative networks) and shared data approaches to enable longitudinal, multi-site research.
Why It Matters
Adolescence is a critical period for shaping STEM identity, interest, and career trajectories. Extended, high-quality STEM experiences—particularly in informal learning environments like museums—can play a significant role in broadening participation. However, variation in program design and evaluation has led to fragmented evidence and limited comparability across studies.
By identifying gaps between current and desired practices, this project will:
- Support alignment around shared outcomes and metrics
- Enable cross-institutional collaboration and meta-analysis
- Strengthen the field’s capacity to generate actionable, generalizable evidence
- Inform the design of more equitable and effective STEM pathways
Guiding Questions
- Which organizations offer intensive youth STEM programs, and what are their goals?
- What outcome data are currently collected, and how are they used?
- How do communication and collaboration currently occur within and across professional communities?
- What do stakeholders need to apply findings and sustain future research-practice partnerships?
Foundations and Bridges is building the groundwork for a more connected, evidence-driven ecosystem of intensive youth STEM programming—linking research, evaluation, and practice to improve outcomes for all learners.