STEM

STEM along with critical thinking skills, collaboration, and teamwork are skills that are vital to our state’s and our nation’s workforce and economic development. Out of school time (OST) programs support classroom learning by providing an informal setting for additional, hands on, engaging and innovative activities where students are able to explore, learn, make and question.

Principles of Quality STEM Activities

are for all students
are intentional and standards-based (SC STEM Standards)
are active, interesting, and relevant to students
reflect current research and practices
are age-level appropriate
integrate skills from different subjects
incorporate staff training in science teaching
are based on ongoing assessment of student needs and progress

Featured Opportunities🚀

Challenge Based Learning Activity Bundle

Looking for a new way to bring real-world problem solving into your afterschool program? The Challenge Based Learning Activity Bundle from STEM Next is designed to help afterschool and summer educators guide youth through hands-on challenges that connect learning to real community and global issues. This quick-start resource includes three ready-to-use lessons designed for grades 5-8. Explore the bundle and bring career-connected learning to life in your program. View here

Boost Your Summer Programming

Planning your summer program? The National Summer Learning Association offers free tools and resources to help programs plan and deliver high-quality summer learning experiences for young people. Explore Discover Summer to find programs and access free learning resources, and check out the 2026 Summer Planning Bootcamp for practical toolkits designed for summer program providers. Get started

STEM Learning Journeys for Afterschool Programs — Free educator resources + a stipend opportunity

Looking for an easy way to bring engaging, hands-on STEM learning to your afterschool program? Afterschool educators can now access free STEM Learning Journeys designed specifically for out-of-school-time settings — plus an opportunity to earn a stipend of up to $1,500.

Developed by STEM Next in partnership with Verizon, these bundles of lessons and activities help afterschool educators engage youth in hands-on STEM learning with topics including AI, sustainability, space, and engineering.

Programs that complete the Nature & Sustainability Learning Journey can qualify for a stipend based on youth participation.

Learn more and get started

Challenge Based Learning Activity Bundle

Looking for a new way to bring-real world problem solving into your afterschool program?

The Challenge Based Learning Activity Bundle from STEM Next is designed to help afterschool and summer educators guide youth through hands-on challenges that connect learning to real community and global issues. This quick-start resource includes three ready-to-use lessons designed for grades 5-8.

Check out the CBL Activity Bundle

Artemis II Launch

NASA’s Artemis II mission marks the first crewed flight of the Artemis campaign and a major step towards returning humans to the Moon and preparing for future missions to Mars.

Afterschool programs can help youth take part in this historic moment through hands-on Artemis II activities. From observing the Moon and exploring lunar geology to learning how rockets launch, these activities are designed for multiple grade levels and connect the science of space exploration to real careers at NASA and beyond.

Explore activities and career profiles to bring Artemis II to life for your program in this round-up of resources from STEM Next Opportunity Fund:https://stemnext.org/celebrate-the-artemis-ii-launch-in-afterschool/

Share Your Voice: New Survey on K-12 Educators’ Use of AI

How are educators using AI in learning environments today?

K-12 educators across classrooms and afterschool or summer learning settings are invited to take a short survey to shape the future of AI literacy in STEM.

This national effort, led by the @ngcproject in partnership with @IngeniaLearning and @STEMNextOpportunityFund, aims to identify gaps, challenges, and promising practices in how AI is being introduced to young people.

The survey takes about 15 minutes, and your input will help inform future resources and support for educators nationwide.

Take the survey

Professional Development Opportunities🚀

Webinar: Discover the Latest from YES

Interested in learning about the newest Youth Engineering Solutions (YES) resources from the Museum of Science, Boston? Join this free webinar to explore their latest curriculum units and STEM learning tools.

Discover new YES engineering units designed for K-8 classrooms, out-of-school programs, and family STEM events. These students-tested resources engage learners in real-world engineering design challenges that build problem-solving skills, creativity, and collaboration. Reserve your spot here

Explore Machine Learning with YES

Discover how Youth Engineering Solutions (YES), from the Museum of Science, Boston, brings machine learning into K-8 STEM learning through real-world engineering challenges. In this recorded webinar, explore two YES units where students engage with image classification and text analysis. From tackling plastic pollution to analyzing user reviews, learners see how data quality, bias, and decision-making shape technology. Watch recording here

RTX Invention Convention – Call for Judges

This June, The Henry Ford is welcoming 500 youth inventors from across the country to meet, showcase their ideas and compete for up to 80 awards at the RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals 2026. They are currently recruiting online and in-person judges, and speaking from experience, this is a great way to fill your bucket and feel hopeful for out future.

Online Judging: Looking for dedicated volunteers to help score students’ video presentations, provide valuable feedback and inspire the next generation of inventors and entrepreneurs. This is just a 2-hour commitment that can be done anytime between May 15-22. Attached are more details and you can register by May 8 to be an online judge and make a lasting impact.
In-Person Judging: If you or colleagues are interested in serving as an in-person judge, details on registration are also attached in the In-Person Judge Invitation, where you can register by May 8, attend a 90 min training webinar May 18 or May 19; and be available to judge at the The Henry Ford in Dearborn, MI on June 4.

Clover for Youth

The Clover for Youth curriculum helps students develop positive mental health and grow their interpersonal skills. Youth participate in activities and discussions based on PEAR’s research-backed Clover Model of Youth Development. The model highlights four foundational elements that people of all ages need in order to thrive: Active Engagement, Assertiveness, Belonging, and Reflection.

To sign up to be part of EDGE during summer 2026, click here by April 30, 2026. For questions, please email 4Leaf.center@gmail.com. www.4leaflearning.org

Edge: Environmental Design and Green Engineering

Are you looking for an engaging STEM program for middle schoolers during summer 2026? 4Leaf Learning has created Environmental Design and Green Engineering (EDGE) in conjunction with The Tech Interactive in San Jose, California. This six-session curriculum provides fun, hands-on activities that tackle real-world environmental engineering challenges and build 21st century skills, all free of charge.

To sign up to be part of EDGE during summer 2026, please click here by April 30, 2026. For questions, please email 4Leaf.center@gmail.com. www.4leaflearning.org

How to Incorporate AI in Afterschool: Insights and Resources from the STEM Next x Hour of AI Webinar

AI is already part of students’ daily lives. The real question is whether we are helping them understand it.

In STEM Next’s recent webinar with Qualcomm and Code.org, educators explored practical ways to bring hands-on AI learning into classrooms, afterschool programs, and summer learning spaces.

A takeaway stood out:

“AI does not replace creativity. It expands what students can create.”

The session focused on real, accessible entry points that educators can use right away, regardless of experience level.

If you missed it, you can review the key takeaways, find AI learning resources from code.org, and access the full webinar recording in this blog: https://stemnext.org/how-to-incorporate-ai-in-afterschool-insights/.

As AI continues to evolve, giving young people the skills to question, understand, and create with it is becoming essential.

Career-Connected Learning Series: Building Engineering & Awareness in Pre-K and Kindergarten

STEM Next is accelerating our efforts to advance career-connected learning in afterschool and summer learning programs with our Career-Connected Learning Framework for Out-Of-School Time Providers. In this training, we will dive deep into the first phase of Career Awareness. With out partners at the Museum of Science in Boston, we will explore curricular resources that are tailored to preschool and kindergarten contexts. Attendees will learn how engineering and career awareness can be integrated into existing activities to support literacy development, number sense, creativity, and collaboration.

Audience: This training is designed for out-of-school time program providers and staff, including directors, professional development and quality specialists, and facilitators. It is also ideal for out-of-school time organizations, including museum and library staff. View recording here

Career-Connected Learning Training: Fostering Career Awareness in Upper Elementary

STEM Next is accelerating our efforts to advance career-connected learning in afterschool and summer learning programs with our Career-Connected Learning Framework for Out-of-School Time Providers. Discover how hands-on engineering supports career awareness for youth in grades 3-5. This webinar features the YES Engineering Rescue Shuttles unit and free career resources that help youth build awareness about the skills, tools, and decisions professionals make in disaster response and recovery careers — from aeronautical engineers to powers plant operators. Educators will leave with free and practical resources for integrating career exploration into engineering activities. View recording here

Career-Connected Learning Series: Durable Skill Development and Career Exploration in Middle School

STEM Next is accelerating out efforts to advance career-connected learning in afterschool and summer learning programs with our Career-Connected Learning Framework for Out-of-School Time Providers. With out partners at the Museum of Science in Boston, out-of-school time providers will see how open-ended problems that invite youth to engineer solutions can foster durable skill development and connect STEM more closely to careers in middle school. This workshop highlights free, ready-to-use resources that help youth connect the YES Engineering Antivirals challenge to real health careers from biomedical engineering to nursing while building skills like collaboration and critical thinking. Educators will leave with downloadable activities and strategies they can use immediately with YES engineering units. View recording here

Activities for Youth🚀

My Community

In My Community, youth can draw their neighborhoods and talk about what they like most or lease about the places they live. They can check out Changing Communities and think of ways to improve these spaces to help people, the planet, and the economy. Then, visitors can imagine how these solutions and others could be applied to their own neighborhoods better today and in the future. Check out the lesson plan, materials, and training video here

Future Builder

The Future Builder sustainability activity challenges visitor to build a tower representing a future community. Each card presents the players with a new part of their community to build a school, park, gas, station, museum, or something else: each with its own cost and reward. But players must balance their resources and construction carefully, meeting the needs of people, the planet, and the economy… or their community might be in for a crash! Check out the lesson plan, materials, and training video here.

Games for the Future

Games for the Future is a set of activities designed to engage participants in futures thinking and learning about the UN’s Global Goals for sustainable development. The games include:

Card for Humanity, where players brainstorm ways that members of their community can help tackle the Global Goals
Seeing Sustainability, where players use their imagination to discover how the Global Goals might relate to works of art
Silly Sustainability Stories, where players roll a set of six dice and then create a story

Check out the lesson plan and materials here

Other Resources🚀

Research-Based Practices & Career Awareness and Exploration

STEM Next aims to raise awareness of research based practices proven to increase the quality of STEM learning experiences for youth and is committed to strengthening career awareness and exploration in out of school time so youth are prepared for whatever comes NEXT.

Five Ways for Families to Connect Youth to Careers:

Research shows that parent are one of the biggest influences on youth interest and persistence in STEM. Yet, with few exceptions, when it comes to leveraging family engagement for youth success in STEM and career exploration, there is a disconnect between research and practice.

Explore three new resources designed to help families support career-connected learning at home. Organized into guides for elementary, middle, and high school grade levels, each resource offers age-appropriate guidance that helps adults encourage young people to think about, talk about and begin exploring their future career paths.

How Math Prepares Kids for STEM Careers: The Ultimate Parent’s Guide

Are you wondering how to set your child up for success in tomorrow’s job market? The answer lies in understanding how mathematics serves as the golden key that unlocks incredible STEM careers for kids. Every parents dreams of seeing their child thrive in a rewarding career, and the path often begins with building strong mathematical foundations today.

Math isn’t just about numbers and equations — it’s the secret language that powers every career in STEM for kids. From designing video games to discovering new medicines, mathematics forms the backbone of innovation. When children master mathematical concepts early, they’re essentially preparing themselves for some of the most exciting and well-paying STEM careers for kids available in the future.

Ready to discover how your child can leverage math skills to access amazing careers in STEM for kids? Let’s explore this fascinating journey together and see how you can supports your child’s mathematical adventure toward amazing STEM careers for kids. Link here