Compiled by Lora Cawelti, Seth Corrigan, Mimi Ito, and Kylie Peppler,
University of California, Irvine
Coordinating and brokering connections between in-school and out-of-school (OST) settings is key to supporting youth movement through STEM learning ecosystems (Ito et al. 2020), and is a driving goal for the TGR Foundation in Anaheim, California. The TGR Foundation was established in 1996 with a mission to “impact youth from under-resourced communities” and to “empower students to pursue their passions through education” (TGR Foundation 2024). This focus on passions, or developing youth interest, led TGR Foundation to build a learning lab that features hands-on classes, activities, and resources for youth to explore STEAM topics and careers. The TGR Learning Lab features a multimedia lab, makerspace, and project-based learning courses. TGR Learning Lab opportunities are designed for middle and high school aged youth, integrate technology, and cover a range of topics like AI, robotics, coding, game design, and specialties in the medical field, as well as photography and psychology.
In addition to interest-driven out of school time opportunities for youth, the Learning Lab also offers opportunities for local schools to visit and learn. TGR Learning Lab offers field trips to 5th and 6th grade students, working with local elementary districts such as Anaheim Elementary School District to expose students to STEM learning and career opportunities in fields like Forensic Science, Marine Biology, or Biotechnology. While the students learn on their field trip, “teachers participate in professional development, allowing them to gain tools and best practices to apply in their classroom” (TGR Foundation 2024). Ideally, these field trip opportunities introduce all youth in the community to the classes and services TGR Learning Lab provides, while also building relationships with a cohort of upper elementary school teachers.
Coordinating and brokering connections between in-school and out-of-school (OST) settings is key to supporting youth movement through STEM learning ecosystems (Ito et al. 2020), and is a driving goal for the TGR Foundation in Anaheim, California. The TGR Foundation was established in 1996 with a mission to “impact youth from under-resourced communities” and to “empower students to pursue their passions through education” (TGR Foundation 2024). This focus on passions, or developing youth interest, led TGR Foundation to build a learning lab that features hands-on classes, activities, and resources for youth to explore STEAM topics and careers. The TGR Learning Lab features a multimedia lab, makerspace, and project-based learning courses. TGR Learning Lab opportunities are designed for middle and high school aged youth, integrate technology, and cover a range of topics like AI, robotics, coding, game design, and specialties in the medical field, as well as photography and psychology.
In addition to interest-driven out of school time opportunities for youth, the Learning Lab also offers opportunities for local schools to visit and learn. TGR Learning Lab offers field trips to 5th and 6th grade students, working with local elementary districts such as Anaheim Elementary School District to expose students to STEM learning and career opportunities in fields like Forensic Science, Marine Biology, or Biotechnology. While the students learn on their field trip, “teachers participate in professional development, allowing them to gain tools and best practices to apply in their classroom” (TGR Foundation 2024). Ideally, these field trip opportunities introduce all youth in the community to the classes and services TGR Learning Lab provides, while also building relationships with a cohort of upper elementary school teachers.
While their model of bringing 5th and 6th grade students together for field trips in the learning lab would ideally serve as an entry point for youth to sign up for classes and workshops, TGR Foundation has struggled to translate their field trips into future participation in TGR Learning Lab classes. This is not a matter of program quality – program participants love coming to the lab. In a recent youth focus group, one participant described the learning lab as “a place with lots of opportunities, lots to offer, so much to explore,” and another student shared an appreciation for “opportunities to learn something new, do unique things that I wouldn’t have ever done.” The same focus group participants shared a concern that most of their high school peers didn’t know about the learning lab.
John Lee, Senior Vice President of Programs and Education at TGR Foundation, shared the participants’ concern, and wondered how to bridge the gap between in-school STEM learning and learning lab offerings. How could they get the word out about TGR Learning Lab’s opportunities? TGR Learning Lab classes already appeal to high-performing high school students, but how could they attract youth who are not traditionally attracted to math and science? John’s problem solving approach is based on his professional expertise as a former high school teacher, charter school founding principal, and an advisor for first generation families and students around college access and success. John began thinking about career readiness and career technical education (CTE) programs at high schools and the additional opportunities students in CTE programs need to connect to real world contexts and understand potential STEM career pathways.
CTE programs in secondary schools offer students a series of courses focused on a particular industry or field (e.g. agriculture, arts and media, education, health sciences). Students integrate developing technical and employment skills with building academic knowledge in their chosen industry sector. Unlike vocational programs of the mid 20th century, CTE programs prepare students for future options in both post secondary education and career training (Brand et al. 2013). CTE can be described as “academically rigorous, integrated, and sequenced programs of study that align with and lead to postsecondary education” (Brand et al. 2013, p. 2). This distinction is important to connected learning, where youth interest is key. In CTE programs, students who sign up are interested in their area of study. As one CTE teacher explained of the medical careers academy in Anaheim Unified High School District:
The type of student we have, they already know where they’re headed. They already have an idea and a goal in mind. And the classes just help them get a better understanding of what they think that they want or what they feel like they want to do. Most of the time students have experienced their own personal health crisis or crisis within their family, and they they took a liking to [healthcare], whether they wanted to make a difference and be better than what they experienced or witnessed, or they felt that they would be a good fit, or they would be more interested in it [than traditional classes].
— CTE Teacher
While most OST programs connect to in-school programs outside the school day, John and his team devised a novel approach, coming to the district with a plan to support their local CTE programs during the school day in an effort to expand career connected learning pathways for youth. He explained:
We’ve been able to work out a partnership with the Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD) and North Orange County ROP to push into their existing structure of their career pathways program specifically for students who are interested in careers in healthcare. The first class in that pathway is an introduction to medical careers. So we’re pushing into that class and working with a group of 300 high school students who are getting lessons that we’re creating, that their CTE teachers are delivering.
— John Lee, Senior Vice President of Programs and Education at TGR Foundation
In the pilot of this career connected learning program, TGR Foundation has worked with three local high schools, two in near proximity to the learning lab and one further out (see “Boundary Map” for locations of sites, marked in red, and location of TGR Learning Lab, with the blue TGR Foundation logo). The TGR Foundation team worked on creating a series of lessons exploring career opportunities in the healthcare field. A CTE teacher shared, “they gave us lessons for it, and the lessons were well constructed, and organized.”
In addition to working with the five CTE teachers and designing curriculum, the program builds in additional strategies to help youth connect their in-school learning to interests in the health field through a career panel event at the TGR Learning Lab and a culminating design challenge.
In the pilot of this career connected learning program, TGR Foundation has worked with three local high schools, two in near proximity to the learning lab and one further out (see “Boundary Map” for locations of sites, marked in red, and location of TGR Learning Lab, with the blue TGR Foundation logo). The TGR Foundation team worked on creating a series of lessons exploring career opportunities in the healthcare field. A CTE teacher shared, “they gave us lessons for it, and the lessons were well constructed, and organized.”
In addition to working with the five CTE teachers and designing curriculum, the program builds in additional strategies to help youth connect their in-school learning to interests in the health field through a career panel event at the TGR Learning Lab and a culminating design challenge.
Of the partnership, one CTE teacher shared, “I’m personally excited to see how this develops. I know last year was the pilot, and it was like, ‘Well, we’re gonna fly the plane. But we got to build it while it’s in the air.’ But it was exciting to do.” This teacher clearly sees the potential for the TGR Foundation’s Career Connected Learning Program to develop and grow, and is excited to be involved in its improvement. Teachers understood that a new program would not be perfect, but they bought in and participated in the program creation.
John hopes that working with AUHSD students in career connected learning pathways will encourage them to use the TGR Learning Lab and attend workshops in OST that support their medical career interests. At the time of writing this strategy in summer 2024, TGR Foundation was preparing to launch a second year working with AUHSD’s CTE programs. They engaged the Connected Learning Lab to conduct interviews with the district CTE
teachers in order to dig into what worked and what needed improvement in the program. The teachers highlighted areas for improvement, including making the learning more hands-on, differentiating for different high school grade levels, and improving unit sequencing. TGR Foundation will iterate on the career connected learning program before launching a similar plan at their TGR Learning Labs in Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD). 2024. https://www.auhsd.us/
Brand, Betsy, Andrew Valent, and Andrea Browning. 2013. How Career and Technical Education Can Help Students Be College and Career Ready: A Primer. Arlington, VA: College & Career Readiness & Success Center at American Institutes for Research.
Ito, Mizuko, Richard Arum, Dalton Conley, Kris D. Guttiérez, Ben Kirshner, Sonia Livingstone, Vera Michalchik, William Penuel, Kylie Peppler, Nichole Pinkard, Jean E. Rhodes, Katie Salen Tekinbaş, Juliet Schor, Julian Sefton-Green, and S. Craig Watkins. 2020. The Connected Learning Research Network: Reflections on a Decade of Engaged Scholarship. Irvine, CA: Connected Learning Alliance.
TGR Foundation. 2024. https://tgrfoundation.org/
STEM Next and the Connected Learning Lab at UCI have partnered to support state and regional out of school networks as they develop and strengthen an ecological and connected approach to STEM learning. The case studies series represent real world examples that are part of a larger effort to develop and improve connection strategies that strengthen STEM learning ecosystems, centering the experiences, mobility, and futures of individual learners and their families across state and regional networks.
For more information on the project and the strategies, visit https://stemnext.org/stem-pathways and connectedlearning.uci.edu/projects/making-connections/
