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Find Next Gen STEM learning opportunities for students in multiple settings - in school, afterschool programs informal institutions like museums and science centers, and at home.

NASA Express Newsletter Sign-up

Are you looking for the latest NASA resources for teachers, parents, caregivers, and students? Subscribe to the NASA EXPRESS newsletter to get the latest NASA STEM opportunities delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

Learn More about NASA Express Newsletter Sign-up

get social with nasa stem engagement

Discover More STEM Topics From NASA

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NASA offers a wide array of unique experiences for educators designed to engage K-12 students nationwide in the agency's missions, people, and resources.

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NASA.gov brings you the latest images, videos and news from America's space agency. Get the latest updates on NASA missions, watch NASA TV live, and learn about our quest to reveal the unknown and benefit all humankind.

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Educator Guide: Math Rocks: A Lesson in Asteroid Dynamics | NASA/JPL Edu

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Students use math to investigate a real-life asteroid impact.

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IEEE Pre-University STEM Community The IEEE Pre-University STEM Community (PreU STEM) unites educators, volunteers, and STEM enthusiasts who are passionate about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics...

Find our latest STEM education news, resource, lesson plans, games, and more.

STEM educational materials may include videos, tutorials, lessons, activities, articles, and slides from our community of teachers, volunteers, and parents.

Find STEM events submitted by our STEM Community

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TryEngineering Inspires the Engineers of Tomorrow . TryEngineering aims to empower educators to foster the next generation of technology innovators. We provide educators and students with resources, lesson plans, and activities that engage and inspire.

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From soaring skyscrapers to tiny medical devices, it's impossible to imagine our lives without engineering!

Engineering design is a vehicle for the integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) into K-12 settings, as well as an outlet for creative problem solving and design-thinking. Bottom line, engineering matters!

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Engineering design is a vehicle for the integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) into K-12 settings and classrooms. Engineering in K-12 gives students the opportunity to develop creative problem solving and design-thinking skills, preparing them for the STEM workforce-as recommended by the National Academy of Engineering and the Next Generation Science Standards.

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Bring hands-on STEM learning to your school with a Green Our Planet School Garden or Hydroponics Program Want to make a difference for your students with one of Green Our Planet's school garden or hydroponics programs? Please tell

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STEM Action Grants

The STEM Action Grant program provides small grants of up to $5,000 to innovative nonprofit organizations led by social entrepreneurs

The STEM Action Grant program aims to bolster and support community-driven nonprofit organizations that are working to enhance the public's understanding of science and to increase participation of underrepresented populations in STEM fields. Since 2016, the Society has awarded $586,000 to 85 organizations wanting to improve access to STEM education.

"The funding allowed our organization to provide the community with access to free STEM activities. We provided over 100 hours of STEM activities and five field trips designed to educate and inspire a population of youth who are historically underserved and underrepresented in STEM."

Black Girls Dive

"Weeks before the scheduled program, Puerto Rico was devastated by two hurricanes, leaving much of the island was without power. However, a brave group from Guaynabo gathered technology and students together to participate in a virtual field trip. It was amazing to see the students so eager to learn in the midst of what was happening around them"

Virtual Field Trips

From the Society Blog

Questions?

Our Sponsors

More Ways the Society Supports Science Educators

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STEM Action Grants - Society for Science

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The STEM Action Grant program aims to bolster and support community-driven nonprofit organizations that are working to enhance the public's understanding of science and to increase participation of underrepresented populations in STEM fields. Since 2016, the Society has awarded $410,000 to 64 organizations wanting to improve access to STEM education.

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Program Guidelines

Spark Good Local Grants are awarded through an open application process to eligible organizations operating locally and directly benefiting the service area of the facility from when they are requesting funding.

All organizations interested in applying for a Spark Good Local Grant must have a Spark Good account on Walmart.com/nonprofits and be verified by Walmart's third-party verification partner, Deed. Only authorized users of the organization's Spark Good account may apply.

Grant amounts range from a minimum of $250 to a maximum of $5,000.

Grant applications are accepted and reviewed on a quarterly basis. Deadlines for submissions include:

Quarter 1: March 1 - April 15

Quarter 2: May 1 - July 15

Quarter 3: Aug. 1 - Oct. 15

Quarter 4: Nov. 1 - Dec. 31

Organizations may only have a combined total number of 25 submitted and/or approved applications at any given one time for the calendar year, regardless of quarterly submission.

Final decisions on applications submitted within each quarter are made prior to the next quarter's application opening.

If approved, grant funds are distributed through electronic payment.

Organization Eligibility

Organizations must have a Spark Good account and be verified by Deed, Walmart's third-party verification service provider.

If recommended for funding, the organization must provide electronic payment information to complete the approval process. All grants are disbursed through electronic payment.

Organizations applying must meet one of following criteria:

An organization holding a current tax-exempt status as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, listed on the IRS Master File and conducting activities within the United States, classified as a public charity under Section 509(a)(1), (2) or (3) (Types I or II); and Deed verified.

A recognized government entity: state, county or city agency, including law enforcement or fire departments, that are requesting funds exclusively for public purposes and Deed verified.

A K-12 public or nonprofit private school, charter school, community/junior college, state/private college or university; or a church or other faith-based organization with a proposed project that benefits the community at large, such as food pantries, soup kitchens and clothing closets and Deed verified.

Note: Non-charities, including organizations recognized as 501(c)(4)s, (c)(6)s, and (c)(19)s like homeowner's associations, civic leagues, or volunteer fire companies, are not eligible at this time.

Selection and Approval Process

Facility management review applications and make initial funding recommendations on all submitted requests.

Each facility manager may set the frequency and process in which application determinations are made.

The facility manager and the grant administrator reserve the right to adjust the amount awarded to each organization without prior notice.

Organizations will be notified of any decision via e-mail. All funding decisions are final.

If an organization is recommended for funding, organization will be notified about how to set up electronic payment to complete the final approval step in the grant application process.

Upon receiving a grant, organizations may contact the local facility from which funds were awarded to discuss their announcement and/or a formal recognition event (only if desired).

All grant applications are made subject to review of the organization's reputation and activities and its agreement to comply with applicable terms and conditions. Submission of an application does not guarantee funding. Funding exclusions include: organizations that deny service, membership or other involvement on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, veteran, or disability status.

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8 virtual field trips for STEM engagement

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It's January. Winter break is over, and the rest of the school year-whether in person, hybrid, or virtual-seems never-ending. And while traditional field trips are on pause while ...

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Bring the real world into the classroom by taking students on a journey to places outside their city, country, even planet. These behind-the-scenes videos transport students to places where innovation meets creativity and shows there is no one path toward success in a STEM career. Explore the latest engineering, technology, and manufacturing at Boeing with these Virtual Field Trips.

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Bring the real world into the classroom by taking students on a journey to places outside their city, country, even planet. These behind-the-scenes videos transport students to places where innovation meets creativity and shows there is no one path toward success in a STEM career.

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Two in 5 Black and Latino students say they want to go to college and have a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math (or STEM). But only about 3 percent of these students are enrolled in Advanced Placement STEM courses such as AP Biology, AP Chemistry and AP Physics I, a new report found. And solution to ensuring more Black and Latino students have access to these courses involves more than rethinking enrollment criteria.

The Education Trust, a nonprofit advocating for students from low-income families and students of color, and Equal Opportunity Schools, a nonprofit working with educators to close race and income enrollment gaps in AP and International Baccalaureate programs, partnered on the report using AP STEM course enrollment data in 80 districts across 24 states as well as student survey data.

Among the report's key findings, researchers identified that a systemic barrier to Black and Latino students' enrollment in courses that could jump-start STEM careers, is rooted in school climate. Specifically students with a passion for STEM were more likely to enroll in AP STEM courses if they first felt they belonged there, said Allison Rose Socol, one of the report's authors with the Education Trust.

Other, more-logistical systemic barriers exist. That includes criteria for enrolling students in advanced courses reliant on their grades; teacher recommendations that can limit access for underrepresented groups who end up tracked out of academic opportunities such as honors courses early on; and not factoring in students' passion for subjects such as STEM as a measure for potential success in advanced courses, Socol said.

But educators shouldn't underestimate the impact a sense of belonging can have on AP program enrollment.

"Certainly we need to focus on changing the enrollment policy," Socol said. "But we need to focus also on the experiences that Black and Latino students are having in school and invest in creating positive school climates where students have positive relationships, where they feel like they're being held to high expectations, and where they feel seen and feel like they belong in those AP courses."

Take Woodbridge High School in Irvine, Calif., as an example. The school, which is predominantly white and Asian, made major systemic changes a few years back which included no longer limiting recommendation for AP enrollment to students who were on a college prep track in 8th grade and changing the school schedule to allow students to take added course offerings that better prepared all students for AP courses.

Yet even after these changes, students taking AP and honors courses were still disproportionately white, Asian and affluent, said principal Christopher Krebs.

So the work didn't stop there.

Through a partnership with Equal Opportunity Schools, students underrepresented in advanced courses-be they Black, Latino and/or from lower income families-were surveyed and they shared that they didn't see themselves belonging in such classes.

In response, the school identified trusted adults who were then trained in how to empower students, how to talk to them about how they had the ability to take more rigorous courses , and where to get information about the AP program, Krebs said.

After four or five years of regular check-ins with students and their families through this trusted adult program, each year an estimated 70 to 100 students who had talent but wouldn't have otherwise considered taking an AP course were now enrolled.

"These are some of the most powerful, important conversations that we're having," Krebs said. "Each year I have 20, 30, 40 parents who after this trusted adult conversation happens will call me and say no one has ever told anyone in my family that we are talented, that we can take these classes."

And the impact stretches into students' younger siblings who end up looking at school in a different light after seeing their older siblings' success, he added.

The trusted adult system has also worked at Pinole Valley High School in Pinole, Calif., which offers an IB program instead of AP courses.

The school, which is predominantly Latino, switched from AP to IB only a few years ago in part to provide more rigorous course offerings to students, including the opportunity to graduate with both a high school and IB diploma by completing a full two-year multi-disciplinary IB program, said Principal Kibby Kleiman.

Yet even for those students not aiming for the extra diploma, offering IB classes in tandem with a trusted adult program has opened doors for students in new ways. Kleiman points to a talented student artist who was a C-plus student otherwise and who was encouraged to take an IB art class. Through that course, she pushed herself to not only elevate her portfolio but also master how to write about her art and her process in an academic way to the point where she got a full ride scholarship to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for next fall, he said.

When it comes to ensuring more students have access to and are encouraged to enroll in AP STEM courses specifically, the College Board, which runs the AP program, launched the AP Computer Science Principles course in 2016. It covers foundational concepts of computer science and challenges students to explore how computing and technology can impact the world.

It was designed to bring more Black, Latino and female students into computer science and "over the last 5 years, AP CSP participation by underrepresented minorities has more than doubled," said Trevor Packer, head of the AP program.

"We want to see similar gains across other STEM disciplines, and we're glad to see an increased focus on equitable access for Black and Latino students," he added.

And progress is already underway, with Packer saying that "for 2022, Black students have registered for 27 percent more AP science exams than they took in 2021, Hispanic/Latino students for 16 percent more, white students for 6 percent more and Asian students for 4 percent more."

For both Packer and Socol with the Education Trust, working on improving access to AP STEM courses for underrepresented students is a net gain for the future.

"The future will require a workforce that has the skills and the passion for STEM, and we want that workforce to include the bright and eager and passionate Black and Latino students who aspire to solve the future problems we can't even see," Socol said.

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How to Make AP STEM Classes More Diverse and Inclusive

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Two in 5 Black and Latino students say they want to go to college and have a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math (or STEM). But only about 3 percent of these students are enrolled in Advanced Placement STEM courses such as AP Biology, AP Chemistry and AP Physics I, a new report found.

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Integrating Math and Worldwide Cultures 

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Integrating Math and Worldwide Cultures 

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For most people, the word mathematics is a noun. But for many people in different cultures, mathematics is not simply something they learn in school but something they do as an intrinsic part of their everyday lives. This book is a guide for teachers who would like to enhance their mathematics instruction by integrating it with examples and activities from cultures throughout the world.

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Creating a Culturally Responsive Math Class 

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Creating a Culturally Responsive Math Class 

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

A middle school math project gives students a chance to apply the skills they learn in class to an issue they care about.

Richard Levine / Alamy Stock Photo

Contrary to popular belief, math is more than just numbers, algebraic formulas, and ancient algorithms. It can serve as a vehicle to help our students make sense of the world in which we live, but current events and real-world issues have generally been integrated only into subjects such as English, science, and social studies-math has been considered its own little island.

After years of searching for lesson plans and resources that would help me bridge the gap between math and real-world issues, I decided to create my own unit project to do that. I polled my seventh-grade students to find the right topic and created a three-week project that focused on the intersection between law enforcement and communities of color in Boston. Other topics of interest to them included immigration, poverty, homelessness, pollution, and creating more youth jobs in our economy-there are many possibilities for this kind of work.

A 4-Step Process for Connecting Math to Students' Lives

1. Selecting the topic or issue: I started with the idea that the topic would have to be relevant to the racial and cultural composition of my students, and to the communities in which they lived. The best way to select the topic was to ask them what would really matter to them. My students, who were predominantly African American and Latinx, chose the topic of police brutality because it had personally impacted them.

If you try this, choosing the right topic will guarantee a high level of student engagement throughout the project. You can create an interest survey or questionnaire to give your students so they can share in great detail the real-world topics they would like to explore-this might work better than initially asking them to discuss ideas as a whole class, as it takes some pressure off.

Once you've determined the topic, write it up as an open-ended focus question that your students will work toward answering throughout the project. For the topic of police brutality, I worked with my students to come up with the focus question: "Can more diverse police forces prevent instances of racial profiling?"

2. Gathering background information: The next big question for a math teacher is, "What specific data points are needed to effectively answer the focus question?" Since students are going to explore the topic through a mathematical lens, you'll need to consider what quantitative data points they can study in order to draw their own conclusions about the topic.

These data points-statistics, graphical representations, geometric diagrams, or functional relationships, for example-must not only be available for contextualization within the scope of the topic but also accessible to your students so that they can apply the appropriate math skills. My project highlighted national stop and frisk statistics, population data, and demographic data on police officers as data points that would help answer the focus question.

In addition to the quantitative data your students will use in their math work, they need qualitative data-news reports, books, etc.-to more deeply understand the issue they're exploring. In my opinion, gathering this information is the most difficult step of the process because you have to compartmentalize your personal biases, which can influence how your students think about the topic. You need to present the multiple perspectives that people have about the issue so that your students have the information necessary to build background knowledge and develop their own thinking around the issue.

Primary sources are the most reliable information sources to use because they're original and were written or created during the time of the issue. Examples of primary sources include manuscripts, books, newspaper articles, historical documents, videos, photographs, and interviews. In other words-and they'll probably ask-students should not use Wikipedia.

3. Identifying math skills and connecting them to standards: Once you've identified the appropriate data points, you'll want to determine the specific math skills your students will use to analyze the data points and construct mathematical arguments.

The math skills should be developmentally appropriate for the grade level you teach: Recognizing that our racial profiling unit was heavily focused on statistical concepts, I determined that students could analyze the data points using such skills as conversions between rational numbers (decimals, fractions, and percentages), measures of central tendency (mean, median, and mode), and two-way frequency tables.

Next, you'll need to align the math skills you've identified to the appropriate academic standards for your state, whether that's the Common Core State Standards or the academic standards for your state. Identify the standards that best align with the math skills that you expect your students to master for this lesson.

4. Determining the final work product: Finally, in thinking about the product your students will produce, you need to take into account their diverse academic needs. If you teach in an inclusive classroom setting, I highly recommend that you collaborate with the special education teacher on this step. They can assist you in creating a scaffolded or modified version of the final work product that is developmentally appropriate for each individual student receiving instructional support.

For this project, I gave students three options for the final product. They could participate in a whole-class Socratic seminar and engage in dialogue with each other by providing textual and statistical evidence that would support their response to the focus question. The second option was to write a letter to the police commissioner to express their concerns around the issue of racial profiling by law enforcement in Boston, including relevant data to support their argument. The final option was to write a paper stating their argument, with statistical evidence to support it and at least two solutions they thought would address the issue. My students opted for a whole-class Socratic seminar.

Ultimately, the final product should provide multiple access points for the diverse learners in your class and allow them to best demonstrate mastery of math skills and their knowledge of the topic.

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Bringing a Culturally Responsive Lens to Math Class

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Culturally Responsive Teaching A middle school math project gives students a chance to apply the skills they learn in class to an issue they care about.

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Lesson 6.1 Food Apartheid: Graphing and Understanding Access to Healthy Food

Lesson 6.2 Cor(o)ner Stores and Food Apartheid

Lesson 6.3 Billionaire Power

Lesson 6.4 Middle School Math to Explore People Represented in Our World and Community

Lesson 7.1 Hey Google, Who's a Mathematician

Lesson 7.2 The True Cost of that $29 T-shirt in the Store Window

Lesson 7.3 Majority and Power

Lesson 7.4 Smoking and Vaping: Targeting of Marginalized Communities by the Tobacco Industry

Lesson 7.5 Health Race and Ratios

Lesson 7.6 Health Inequalities: COVID and Other Health Conditions

Lesson 8.1 Gerrymandering of Voting Districts

Lesson 8.2 National Team Pay Investigation

Lesson 8.3 The Black Vote in America: Impact of the 1965 Voting Rights Act

Lesson 9.1 Playing with Data

Lesson 9.2 The Mathematics of Toxic Air

Lesson 9.3 Gender Pay Gap

Lesson 9.4 How Many Meals Can Minimum Wage Buy

Lesson 10.1 Map Projections

Lesson 10.2 3D Modeling for Water

Lesson 10.3 Water is Life

Lesson 10.4 Accessible Playground

Lesson 10.5 Investigating Areas to Determine Fairness

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Middle School Mathematics Lessons to Explore, Understand, and Respond to Social Injustice

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Lesson 6.1 Food Apartheid: Graphing and Understanding Access to Healthy Food Lesson 6.2 Cor(o)ner Stores and Food Apartheid Lesson 6.3 Billionaire Power Lesson 6.4 Middle School Math to Explore People Represented in Our World and Community Lesson 7.1 Hey Google, Who's a Mathematician Lesson 7.2 The True Cost of that

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SREB's Powerful Math Instructional Practices 

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SREB's Powerful Math Instructional Practices 

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SREB's Powerful Science Instructional Practices 

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SREB's Powerful Science Instructional Practices 

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Improving Science Education Through Three-Dimensional Learning

Quick Search Next Generation Science Standards

THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF SCIENCE LEARNING

Within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard-or performance expectation-and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time.

Crosscutting Concepts help students explore connections across the four domains of science, including Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering Design.

When these concepts, such as "cause and effect", are made explicit for students, they can help students develop a coherent and scientifically-based view of the world around them.

Science and Engineering Practices describe what scientists do to investigate the natural world and what engineers do to design and build systems. The practices better explain and extend what is meant by "inquiry" in science and the range of cognitive, social, and physical practices that it requires. Students engage in practices to build, deepen, and apply their knowledge of core ideas and crosscutting concepts.

Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) are the key ideas in science that have broad importance within or across multiple science or engineering disciplines. These core ideas build on each other as students progress through grade levels and are grouped into the following four domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering.

More about 3D Learning

GET TO KNOW

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K-12 science content standards. Standards set the expectations for what students should know and be able to do. The NGSS were developed by states to improve science education for all students.

A goal for developing the NGSS was to create a set of research-based, up-to-date K-12 science standards. These standards give local educators the flexibility to design classroom learning experiences that stimulate students' interests in science and prepares them for college, careers, and citizenship.

Get to Know the Standards

IMPLEMENT

The NGSS call for a three-dimensional approach to K-12 science instruction. This represents a significant transition from previous state standards. That's why effective implementation demands a great deal of collaboration and patience among states, districts, schools, teachers, and students.

Thoughtful and coordinated approaches to implementation will enable educators to inspire future generations of scientifically literate students. That is the vision of the NGSS. This website provides a range of high-quality resources that empower educators, administrators, parents, and the general public to help bring this vision to life.

Find Tools and Resources

WHY

Science-and therefore science education-is central to the lives of all Americans.

A high-quality science education means that students will develop an in-depth understanding of content and develop key skills-communication, collaboration, inquiry, problem solving, and flexibility-that will serve them throughout their educational and professional lives.

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Home Page | Next Generation Science Standards

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Improving Science Education Through Three-Dimensional Learning Quick Search Next Generation Science Standards Within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard-or performance expectation-and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time.

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Engage with National Geographic Explorers and transform learning experiences through live events, free maps, videos, interactives, and other resources.

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Explore Science & Nature | Smithsonian Institution

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Explore how the Smithsonian's scientists, researchers, and museums work to advance science and help people and nature thrive together.