Call for Letters of Interest: Out-of-School STEM Programs

Overview

<p>As one of the five focus areas within Overdeck Family Foundation, the Inspired Minds portfolio aims to improve access to out-of-school (OST) STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) opportunities, allowing children to unlock their curiosity and explore mind-expanding challenges. Below, we provide more information about a call for Letters of Interest (LOI) to help us understand which OST STEM programs have scaled and why.</p> <div>The project aims to answer two research questions:</div> <ol> <li>Which OST STEM programs have successfully “scaled”?</li> </ol> <ul> <li>We are interested in a landscape analysis of OST STEM programs in the U.S. that have a minimum dosage of 20 hours aimed at children ages 5-18. Although we are interested in national scale, we will also consider state and local scale.</li> <li>We are interested in learning what type of OST STEM program scale (e.g. afterschool, summer, weekend etc.), how many students are reached by the program, the strength of the evidence base of the program, where the program is located including number of sites and/or schools, and whether the program serves diverse student populations.</li> </ul> <li>How have OST STEM programs successfully “scaled”?</li> <ol> <li>We want to understand contextual conditions necessary to achieve scale. Analysis of successful scaling should address barriers and enabling conditions faced by the programs. Examples include, but are not limited to, access to capital, cost-effectiveness, organizational leadership, favorable policy environment, and/or growth channels.</li> </ol>