Compiled by Lora Cawelti, Seth Corrigan, Mimi Ito, and Kylie Peppler
University of California, Irvine
The TGR Foundation opened their TGR Learning Lab in Anaheim, California in 2006 with a goal to offer students “unique learning experiences in science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) in a safe and inspiring learning environment where students can learn, grow and prepare for their futures” (TGR Foundation, 2024). Leaders at TGR Foundation plan programming in the TGR Learning Lab with youth futures in mind, offering opportunities to both explore and dive more deeply into STEAM topics that integrate technology, and cover a range of topics like AI, robotics, coding, and specialties in the medical field, game design, photography, and psychology. As the TGR Learning Lab’s Senior Executive Director Gyla Bell shared, “ideally, our goal is that all of our programs are exposing kids to careers. The end goal is to get them into the workforce.” When TGR Foundation leaders think about youth futures, they envision Anaheim youth successfully employed in STEAM careers. To support that goal, youth at TGR Learning Lab explore STEM opportunities in creative spaces like their multimedia lab, makerspace, and in project-based learning courses. In addition to learning opportunities at the TGR Learning Lab, TGR Foundation has emphasized future STEM careers through after school courses and by offering the Find Your Grind career interest survey.
While their lab-based opportunities do connect some students to new interests or deepen existing interests, the TGR Foundation wanted to push their thinking outward with a connected learning approach that would strengthen connections in students’ STEM learning ecosystem, and provide real world experiences for the youth in their community. They found this opportunity in 2023 by forging partnerships with the local school district, Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD), North Orange County ROP, and Providence Healthcare. With AUHSD’s career technical education (CTE) pathways in health science and medical tech, TGR Foundation began working directly with the CTE program during the school day, engaging CTE teachers and students with expressed interest in the medical field. Partnership is key – by thinking across the ecosystem, TGR Foundation was able to build connections that support CTE programs, students, and teachers by leveraging their partnerships with local businesses. TGR Foundation partnered with Providence Healthcare, connecting youth to mentorship opportunities and providing the chance to work with real world healthcare data.
In addition to curriculum support in the CTE program, TGR Foundation and Providence worked together to help youth connect their interests in the healthcare field to real possible careers through a career panel event at the TGR Learning Lab and a culminating design challenge.
Career Panel
When TGR Foundation arranged career panels in partnership with Providence, they composed the panel with a range of careers to spark youth interest. While all students had an expressed interest in the healthcare field, their understanding of future careers was limited by their experience. The TGR Foundation team assembled a range of professionals from both the patient care and non-patient care sides of the field. Nine professionals sat across two panels; 211 students participated. One CTE teacher shared, “TGR Foundation partnered with Providence and they did two different panels. Which was really cool. My students loved that. They were so happy they got to have that experience.”
Another teacher shared:
Career Panel
When TGR Foundation arranged career panels in partnership with Providence, they composed the panel with a range of careers to spark youth interest. While all students had an expressed interest in the healthcare field, their understanding of future careers was limited by their experience. The TGR Foundation team assembled a range of professionals from both the patient care and non-patient care sides of the field. Nine professionals sat across two panels; 211 students participated. One CTE teacher shared, “TGR Foundation partnered with Providence and they did two different panels. Which was really cool. My students loved that. They were so happy they got to have that experience.”
Another teacher shared:
My kids really enjoyed the panels. I think what was so special about that, was afterwards those career professionals were standing there and my students got to go up and talk to them, one on one. I think that made it even more authentic, more intimate. And my students were like, ‘I never knew this and this,’ and it was really cool. And they got careers that are not your average nurse, doctor, because, of course, I could teach that all day, you know. I just remember, there was a person who built hospitals and none of my students realized. ‘Wow! This is something I could do,’ you know? And so they just enjoyed it. They really did love that.
— Teacher
Design Challenge
The culminating project, a design challenge, was rooted in Providence’s Community Health Needs Assessment, a real report produced every three years as required by the government, to understand unique community health needs. This was an in-depth research project requiring students to consider how to solve a health concern in their community, come up with a solution, and use Providence’s data to back up their plan. One teacher shared how she launched the project by helping students connect personally to the problem they wanted to solve:
The whole point was, how can the students contribute to the problem or to finding a resolution by extending the accessibility of health care to their community. I wanted them to really take on it being personal to them, look at the reasons why people don’t have access to help. Some of them are saying, ‘well, I’d like to see more resources available to Korean immigrant parents.’ ‘I’d like to see more public restrooms at local parks.’ ‘I’d like to see more food resources and shelters.’ Alright. Great! Let’s start thinking about that.
— Teacher
Once the students came up with their solutions, they designed presentations and competed to represent their school at a culminating event at the TGR Learning Lab, where their presentations would be seen by employees of Providence. One teacher explained, “Our students got to showcase their research project at TGR Learning Lab. And they did really great. They got to learn how to speak in front of almost 60 or 70 people in the auditorium. That gave them a speaking engagement and opportunity to collaborate.”
One of the key connections to real world contexts and career connections came from the professionals at Providence. They wanted to hear the solutions the kids came up with, and were even interested in implementing their solutions. A CTE teacher shared: “[my students] were just amazed, and they were like, ‘Oh, my God! We did that. We brought this, and they are going to use it.’ The students came back and told their classmates ‘they are going to use our presentations. And they wanted our feedback. And they wanted to use our ideas,’ and other students were just like, ‘Oh, my God! No way!’ I thought it was great. Providence was going to look at their whole idea, and possibly implement some of their ideas and solutions.” Taking the youths’ ideas seriously was a key to buy in, and for students’ future visioning of their STEM identities.
The TGR Foundation is excited by the potential unlocked by partnering with local STEAM focused businesses. Having completed a pilot year in 2023, they will work in 2024 to refine the program and work further with their partners to offer youth real world experiences. They did encounter some problems, particularly around disseminating Providence’s Community Health Needs Assessment report and helping CTE teachers unpack data. This is something they will support through professional development and site visits as the partnership continues. Ultimately, TGR Foundation hopes to partner with local businesses near their Los Angeles and Philadelphia Learning Labs, customizing STEAM connections to meet the interests of youth and the expertise of partnering businesses.
The TGR Foundation is excited by the potential unlocked by partnering with local STEAM focused businesses. Having completed a pilot year in 2023, they will work in 2024 to refine the program and work further with their partners to offer youth real world experiences. They did encounter some problems, particularly around disseminating Providence’s Community Health Needs Assessment report and helping CTE teachers unpack data. This is something they will support through professional development and site visits as the partnership continues. Ultimately, TGR Foundation hopes to partner with local businesses near their Los Angeles and Philadelphia Learning Labs, customizing STEAM connections to meet the interests of youth and the expertise of partnering businesses.
Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD). 2024. https://www.auhsd.us/
Ito, Mizuko, Richard Arum, Dalton Conley, Kris Guttiérez, Kirshner, B., Sonia Livingstone, Vera Michalchik, William Penuel, Kylie Peppler, Nichole Pinkard, Jean Rhodes, Katie Tekinbaş, Juliet Schor, Julian Sefton-Green, and S. Craig Watkins. 2020. The Connected Learning Research Network: Reflections on a Decade of Engaged Scholarship. 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/
