This project addresses the urgent need for the development of equitable approaches to early childhood STEM education that honor the diverse cultural practices through which caregivers (such as parents, grandparents, and other adults in children’s lives) support young children’s learning. Recent studies suggest that both formal and informal educational institutions often privilege Western or Eurocentric parenting practices, neglecting many families’ cultural practices and ways of learning. This study will bring together a group of caregivers, pre-K educators, researchers, and museum staff to investigate how families with young children negotiate among their own cultural practices and the types of STEM learning they encounter in museums, schools, and other community settings. The project team will work together to identify opportunities for informal STEM learning institutions to strengthen their roles as places that can bridge home and school environments and open up new possibilities for building on caregivers’ knowledge and cultural practices within this larger community context. The project will directly benefit the 330 families whose children attend the partnering public school each year, as well as hundreds of families who attend family events at the New York Hall of Science annually. Finally, by considering nuances in caregivers’ perspectives and experiences based on multiple facets of their identities, the research will reveal how structures in educational settings might be changed to become more inclusive and culturally responsive for the broadest possible audience of families.
This Pilots and Feasibility project seeks to 1) conduct exploratory research to understand caregiver engagement, defined as caregivers’ expectations, values, and practices related to their roles in children’s learning, from the perspectives of caregivers, and 2) engage in co-design efforts with caregivers and pre-K educators to explore how the museum can be leveraged as a material and creative resource to support caregiver engagement in STEM learning. This work will be carried out in the context of a long-term partnership between the New York Hall of Science and the New York City Department of Education. Methods will include in-depth interviews with caregivers, using narrative and intersectional research methods to extend existing studies on caregiver engagement in informal STEM learning, while taking into account multiple aspects of families’ social and cultural identities. This work will be carried out in Corona — a neighborhood in Queens, NY, largely made up of low-income and first-generation immigrant families. The project team will collaboratively interpret findings and engage in the initial phases of co-design work, which will include: reflecting on the systems currently in place to support caregivers’ involvement in children’s learning across settings; collaboratively generating new, culturally responsive strategies for leveraging the museum as a material and creative resource for families with young children; and choosing promising directions for further development and testing. Products from this work will include directions for new caregiver engagement initiatives that can be developed and refined as the partnership continues, and strategies for supporting equitable participation by caregivers, pre-K educators, and other community stakeholders in future research-practice partnerships.
The Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. An ongoing challenge to the design of effective STEM learning exhibits for diverse young children is the absence of reliable and evidence-based resources that designers can apply to the design of STEM exhibits that draw upon play as a child's primary pedagogy, while simultaneously engaging children with STEM content and processes that support development of STEM skills such as observation. To address these challenges, the project team will use a collaborative process in which learning researchers and informal STEM practitioners iteratively develop, design, and test the STEM for Play Framework that could then be applied to the design of STEM-focused exhibits that support play and STEM skill use among early learners.
This Research in Service to Practice project will address these questions: 1) What is a framework for play in early STEM learning that is inclusive of children's cultural influences?; 2) To what extent do interactions between early learners (ages 3-8) and caregivers or peers at exhibits influence the structure and effectiveness of play for supporting STEM skill development?; 3) How do practitioners link play to STEM skill development, and to what extent does a framework for play in early STEM learning assist in identifying types of play that supports early STEM skill development?; and 4) What do practitioners identify as best practices in exhibit design that support the development of STEM skills for early childhood audiences, and conversely, to what extent do practitioners perceive specific aspects of the design as influential to play? The project team will address these questions across four phases of study that will include (a) development of a critical research synthesis to inform the initial STEM for Play framework; (b) the use of surveys, focus groups, and interviews to solicit feedback from practitioners; (c) testing and revising the framework by conducting structured observations of STEM exhibits at multiple museums. The project team will use multiple analytic approaches including qualitative thematic analyses as well as inferential statistics. Results will be disseminated to children?s museums, science centers, and research communities.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Parents and adult caregivers play a significant role in young children's understanding of (and participation in) science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Research suggests that early engagement with STEM can have a profound impact on children's use of STEM process skills such as exploration, observation, and problem-solving, as well as future academic success. An immediate yet ongoing challenge facing informal STEM learning providers is to understand how limited resources can be used to support effective STEM learning opportunities and experiences for all children and families. Through a collaboration between researchers, Head Start, two science centers (one rural, one urban), and educators, this project aims to foster STEM access and engagement with specific attention to young children and their caregivers. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.
This Pilot and Feasibility study will apply an experimental, mixed-methods design to examine parent/caregiver and child (ages 4-5) interactions before, during, and after informal STEM experiences to identify which factors influence children's transfer of learning STEM process skills across multiple informal contexts. Research results will lay the foundation for a future longitudinal study. The project team will ask: (1) What types of parent/caregiver-child engagement at the science center are most predictive of children's application of STEM process skills in subsequent problem-solving tasks and school readiness? (2) How do variations in parent/caregiver-child conversational strategies during the science center visit influence children's memory and learning? and (3) How can informal educators best support Head Start family engagement and children's emerging STEM knowledge? This study will collect data on 240, 4-5-year-old children, with their caregivers, in two different science centers that serve a largely rural and largely urban population. Data sources will include video/audio of caregiver-child interactions at the science centers and at home, as well as children's recall, engagement with a problem-solving task, and school readiness scores. Coding and analysis of the tasks during and after the science center visit will detail mechanisms underlying children's memory, learning, and application of STEM process skills that transfer to the problem-solving task. The project will be implemented by a research-practice partnership, leveraging the expertise of project partners and communities to ensure the use of culturally responsive research practices. This research has the potential to strategically impact how science centers and Head Start grantees work together on Family Engagement programming to achieve equitable STEM learning opportunities, broadening participation for low-income young children and their families.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
The project will refine, research and disseminate making exhibits and events that the museum has developed and tested to support early engineering skill development. The project will use cardboard, a familiar and flexible material, to support the activities. The goal is to develop insights and resources for informal educators across the museum field and beyond into how to effectively structure and facilitate open-ended maker education experiences for visitors that expand the number and kinds of museums and families who can engage in these activities. Maker education is often linked to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning and uses hands-on and collaborative approaches to support activities and projects that foster creativity, interest, and skill development. To address patterns of inequitable access to and participation in both formal and informal learning opportunities, the project will be designed to engage families from under-represented communities and research how they participate in informal engineering activities and environments. The project will make a suite of resources available for museums and other ISE practitioners that will be developed through iterative testing at all of the different settings. These resources will be made widely available via an open access online portal.
The project will research how effectively the use of cardboard making exhibits and events engage families, particularly families from underrepresented groups, in STEM and early engineering. The project's theoretical framework combines elements of: (1) learning sciences theories of family learning in museums; (2) making as a learning process; (3) early engineering practices and dispositions, and (4) equity in museums and the maker movement. The research will be conducted within two multi-month implementations of a large-scale Cardboard Engineering gallery at the Science Museum of Minnesota and two-week scaled implementations of the gallery at each of three recruited partner museum sites. The project design interweaves evaluation and research aims. Paired observations and surveys will be used to research how effectively the project is working in different venues. This integration of research and evaluation will generate a large data set from which to generalize about cardboard making across contexts. Case studies will be used to identify barriers to engagement that can be remedied, but they will provide a rich data set for understanding family learning and engineering in making. Research findings and products will be posted on the Center for Informal Science Education website and submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals such as Visitor Studies, ASTC Dimensions, the Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research and others.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.
This Research in Service to Practice project will bring together representatives from six long-standing youth programs, experts in the field of out-of-school-time youth programming, and education researchers to collaboratively explore the long-term (15-25 years) impact of STEM-focused, intensive (100+ hours/year), multi-year programming. The six partnering programs have maintained records with a combined total of over 3000 alums who participated between 1995 and 2005. This four-year research project uses an explanatory, sequential, mixed-method design to carry out four steps: (1) identify and describe the impact on the lives of program alums who are now ages 30 to 45; (2) identify causal pathways from program strategies to long-term outcomes; (3) develop an understanding of these pathways from the perspective of the people who experienced them; and (4) disseminate this knowledge broadly to those associated with STEM-focused programming. Research questions include: How did these programs affect youth's lives as they progressed toward and into adulthood? What program strategies and what participant attributes contributed most to the staying power of these effects? What life events and social structures supported and inhibited participant outcomes? This project describes the effects, identifies the causal pathways, and produces materials that programs can use for both strategic planning and generating support resources. Additionally, this project provides research methodology for organizations that want to conduct their own retrospective research and lays a foundation for a more comprehensive study that includes programs without historical documentation. The project aligns with NSF's Big Idea "NSF INCLUDES: Transforming education and career pathways to help broaden participation in science and engineering" by providing essential information about the long-term effect of interventions on educational and career pathways in STEM.
The project's approach involves three phases: (1) research preparation, (2) causal structural modeling of survey data from approximately 2,000 respondents, and (3) rich qualitative follow-up. Human ecological and self-determination theories inform data collection and analyses at every project phase. In the preparation phase, program staff complete program profiles from an historic perspective by identifying program strategies that may have included, for example, scientific research, robotics development, teaching science in informal settings, and working in scientific research labs. In the quantitative phase, the project will recruit alums who attended one of the 6 youth programs between 1995 and 2005 to submit a current resume and complete an online questionnaire, based on the following scaled variables: retrospective recall of basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration in relation to perceived program strategies; STEM identity (at three time periods: pre-program; post-program; and current); current well-being; career influences; and career barriers. The questionnaire also includes open-ended questions about life events related to the following categories: family and friends, school and work, and living conditions. Analysis of the questionnaire will lead to development of a causal structural model. In the qualitative phase, data will be collected from a purposefully selected sample of 30 alums based on findings from the quantitative phase. Methods include interviews, photo journals, and STEM pathways maps. Analysis of interviews, resumes, and photo journals take place within the structure of basic psychological need satisfaction and motivational quality across ecological systems over time. Qualitative analysis uses the constant comparative method, and findings are used to update and refine the final causal structural model and inform overall findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the project.
Since the 1990s, out-of-school time programs have engaged youth from underserved communities in STEM learning and in building interest in STEM careers, yet these programs often based on untested assumptions that participation has lasting effects on education, career, and life choices related to STEM. This Research in Service to Practice project has the potential to 1) guide practitioners in program improvement and improved program outcomes; 2) provide insight into achieving program goals, such as equity, increased well-being of participants, an informed citizenry, and a diversified STEM workforce; and 3) inform multi-stakeholder decision-making with respect to this type of programming. This research also builds a foundation of research data collection and analysis methods to guide and support future research on long term-impacts and youth STEM programming. Dissemination strategies include a website, webinars, video, infographics, conference presentations, and written reports to reach stakeholders including practitioners, researchers, administrators, and funders.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.
This project responds to calls to increase children's exposure and engagement in STEM at an early age. With the rise of the maker-movement, the informal and formal education sectors have witnessed a dramatic expansion of maker and tinkering spaces, programs, and curricula. This has happened in part because of the potential benefits of tinkering experiences to promote access and equity in engineering education. To realize these benefits, it is necessary to continue to make and iterate design and facilitation approaches that can deepen early engagement in disciplinary practices of engineering and other STEM-relevant skills. This project will investigate how stories can be integrated into informal STEM learning experiences for young children and their families. Stories can be especially effective because they bridge the knowledge and experiences young children and their caregivers bring to tinkering as well as the conversations and hands-on activities that can extend that knowledge. In addition, a unique contribution of the project is to test the hypothesis that stories can also facilitate spatial reasoning, by encouraging children to think about the spatial properties of their emerging structures.
This project uses design-based research methods to advance knowledge and the evidence base for practices that engender story-based tinkering. Using conjecture mapping, the team will specify their initial ideas and how it will be evident that design/practices impact caregivers-child behaviors and learning outcomes. The team will consider the demographic characteristics, linguistic practices, and funds of knowledge of the participants to understand the design practices (resources, activities) being implemented and how they potentially facilitate learning. The outcome of each study/DBR cycle serves as inputs for questions and hypotheses in the next. A culturally diverse group of 300+ children ages 5 to 8 years old and their parents at Chicago Children's Museum's Tinkering Lab will participate in the study to examine the following key questions: (1) What design and facilitation approaches engage young children and their caregivers in creating their own engineering-rich tinkering stories? (2) How can museum exhibit design (e.g., models, interactive displays) and tinkering stories together engender spatial thinking, to further enrich early STEM learning opportunities? and (3) Do the tinkering stories children and their families tell support lasting STEM learning? As part of the overall iterative, design-based approach, the team will also field test the story-based tinkering approaches identified in the first cycles of DBR to be most promising.
This project will result in activities, exhibit components, and training resources that invite visitors' stories into open-ended problem-solving activities. It will advance understanding of mechanisms for encouraging engineering learning and spatial thinking through direct experience interacting with objects, and playful, scaffolded (guided) problem-solving activities.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. This project examines the conditions in which families and young learners most benefit from "doing science and math" together among a population that is typically underserved with respect to STEM experiences--families experiencing poverty. This project builds on an existing program called Teaching Together that uses interactive parent-child workshops led by a museum educator and focused on supporting STEM learning at home. The goal of these workshops is to increase parents'/caregivers' self-perception and ability to serve as their child's first teacher by supporting learning and inquiry conversations during daily routines and informal STEM activities. Families attend a series of afternoon and evening workshops at their child's preschool center and at a local children's museum. Parents/Caregivers may participate in online home learning activities and museum experiences. The project uses an experimental design to test the added value of providing incremental supports for informal STEM learning. The study uses an experimental design to address potential barriers parents/caregivers may perceive to doing informal STEM activities with their child. The project also explores how the quantity and quality parent-child informal learning interactions may relate to changes in children's science and mathematics knowledge during the pre-kindergarten year. The project partners include the Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the Children's Museum of Houston.
The project is designed to increase understanding of how parents/caregivers can be encouraged to support informal STEM learning by experimentally manipulating key aspects of the broader expectancy-value-cost motivation theory, which is well established in psychology and education literatures but has not been applied to preschool parent-child informal STEM learning. More specifically, the intervention conditions are designed to identify how specific parent supports can mitigate potential barriers that families experiencing poverty face. These intervention conditions include: modeling of informal STEM learning during workshops to address skills and knowledge barriers; materials to address difficulties accessing science and math resources; and incentives as a way to address parental time pressures and/or costs and thereby improve involvement in informal learning activities. Intervention effects will be calculated in terms of effect sizes and potential mediators of change will be explored with structural equation modeling. The first phase of the project uses an iterative process to refine the curriculum and expand the collection of resources designed for families of 3- to 5-year-olds. The second phase uses an experimental study of the STEM program to examine conditions that maximize participation and effectiveness of family learning programs. In all, 360 families will be randomly assigned to four conditions: 1) business-as-usual control; 2) the Teaching Together core workshop-based program; 3) Teaching Together workshops + provision of inquiry-based STEM activity kits for the home; and 4) Teaching Together workshop + activity kits + provision of monetary incentives for parents/caregivers when they document informal STEM learning experiences with their child. The interventions will occur in English and Spanish. A cost analysis across the interventions will also be conducted. This study uses quantitative and qualitative approaches. Data sources include parent surveys and interviews, conversation analysis of home learning activities, parent photo documentation of informal learning activities, and standardized assessments of children's growth in mathematics, science, and vocabulary knowledge.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Many scientists want to connect with the public, but their efforts to do so are not always easy or effective. Visionary programs and institutions are leading the way identifying the support needed to enable scientists’ connections with the public. However, the current appetite by -- and demand for -- scientists to do this exceeds the capacity of those who facilitate quality communication and engagement efforts. More can be done to ensure that those who support scientists are networked, sharing best practices, and supported by a reliable infrastructure.
This workshop series, convened by the Kavli, Rita Allen, Packard and Moore Foundations, was intended to view the entire system of people who support scientists’ engagement and communication efforts in order to explore how this system can be most effective and sustainable. The discussions examined where this system is thriving, the limits people within the system face and what can be done to ensure their efforts are commensurate with the demand for quality communication and engagement support.
Conducted over four closely scheduled workshops in late 2017 and early 2018, the convenings brought together leaders in different parts of the field who bridge scientists and the public and led to the emergence of a number of key priority areas. While the initial intention was to also hold a plenary event to provide a more holistic view of scientists’ support system in order to collectively discern directions to advance the field, we feel a more efficient way forward right now is to focus our efforts and resources on building community and advancing these priority areas.
Our invitation-only workshops brought together scientists, academic leaders, engagement professionals, researchers, communication trainers, and foundation leaders. For each workshop, we also commissioned a “landscape overview”, to better understand the high-level state of each community. Workshops included:
Workshop I: Communication and engagement training programs - Dec. 4-5, 2017 at SUNY Global Center/Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science in New York
Workshop II: Associations, societies and other professional organizations - Feb. 28 - March 1, 2018 at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, MD
Workshop III: Academic institutions - March 27-28, 2018 at UC San Diego
Workshop IV: Science engagement facilitators (museums, science festivals, connectors) - May 2-3, 2018 at Monterey Bay Aquarium
TBD - Workshop V: Plenary event
The goal of the workshops was to explore how to ensure scientists’ communication and engagement support is effective and sustained. In doing so, we hoped to 1) deepen our understanding of how scientists are currently supported in these areas, 2) map the broader support system to expose the opportunities and obstacles that play a role in achieving this goal, and 3) identify strategic and practical next steps that move us closer to this goal. This initiative also aimed to forge and strengthen networks across communities and institutions – and in so doing, take a view of the entire system to explore how everyone can better ensure their efforts are impactful, mutually supportive, and connected to a greater whole.
Included in the links below are summaries from each workshop.
The intent of this five-year project is to design, deliver, and study professional development for Informal Science Learning (ISL) educators in the arena of equity-focused STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) teaching and learning. While the strategy of integrating art and science to promote interest, identity, and other STEM-related learning has grown in recent years, this domain is still nascent with respect to a guiding set of best practices. Through prior work, the team has developed and implemented a set of design principles that incorporate effective practices for broadening participation of girls in science via science-art integration on the topic of the biology, chemistry and optics of "Colors in Nature." The continued initiative would impact the ISL field by providing a mechanism for ISL educators in museums, libraries and after-school programs to adopt and implement these STEAM design principles into their work. The team will lead long-term (12-18 months) professional development activities for ISL educators, including: 1) in-person workshops that leverage their four previously developed kits; 2) online, asynchronous learning activities featuring interactive instructional videos around their STEAM design principles; 3) synchronous sessions to debrief content and foster communities of practice; and 4) guided design work around the development or redesign of STEAM activities. In the first four years of the project, the team will work with four core institutional partners (Sitka Sound Science Center, Sno-Isle Libraries, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District after-school program, and the Pima County Public Library system) across three states (Alaska, Washington, and Arizona). In the project's later stages, they will disseminate their learning tools to a broad, national audience. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.
The project has three main goals: (1) To support ISL educators in offering meaningful STEAM activities, (2) To create institutional change among the partner organizations, and (3) To advance the ISL field with respect to professional development and designing for STEAM Programming. The research questions associated with the professional development activities address the ways in which change occurs and focus on all three levels: individual, institutional, and the ISL field. The methods are qualitative and quantitative, including videotaped observations, pre and post interviews, surveys and analysis of online and offline artifacts. In addition, the project evaluation will assess the implementation of the project's professional development model for effectiveness. Methods will include observations, interviews, surveys and Website analytics and program data.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. Blind youth are generally excluded from STEM learning and careers because materials for their education are often composed for sighted individuals. In this proposed Innovations in Development project, the PIs suggest that spatial acuity is an important element in order for blind persons to understand physical and mental structures. Thus, in this investigation, efforts will be made to educated blind youth in the discipline of engineering. A total of 200 blind students, ages 12-20 along with 30 informal STEM educators will participate in the program. This effort is shared with the National Federation of the Blind, Utah State University, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Lifelong Learning Group.
The National Federation of the Blind, in partnership with scholars from Utah State University and educators from the Science Museum of Minnesota will develop a five-year Innovations in Development project in order to broaden the participation of blind students in STEM fields through the development of instruction and accessible tools that assess and improve the spatial ability of blind youth. The partnership with the Science Museum will facilitate the creation of informal science content for students and professional development opportunities for informal educators. Evaluation will be conducted by Lifelong Learning Group of the Columbus Center of Science and Industry. Activities will begin in year one with a week-long, engineering design program for thirty blind high-school students at the Federation of the blind headquarters in Baltimore. Year two will feature two similarly sized programs, taking place at the Science Museum. While spatial ability is linked to performance in science, research has not been pursued as to how that ability can be assessed, developed, and improved in blind youth. Further, educators are often unaware of ways to deliver science concepts to blind students in a spatially enhanced manner, and students do not know how to advocate for these accommodations, leading blind youth to abandon science directions. Literature on the influences of a community of practice on youth with disabilities, as well as nonvisual tools for experiencing engineering, is lacking. This project will advance understanding of how blind people can participate in science, and how spatial ability can be developed and bolstered through informal engineering activities and an existing community of practice.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of settings. This project will develop a national infrastructure of state and regional partnerships to scale up The Franklin Institute's proven model of Leap into Science, an outreach program that builds the capacity of children (ages 3-10) and families from underserved communities to participate in science where they live. Leap into Science combines children's science-themed books with hands-on science activities to promote life-long interest and knowledge of science, and does so through partnerships with informal educators at libraries, museums, and other out-of-school time providers. Already field-tested and implemented in 12 cities, Leap into Science will be expanded to 90 new rural and urban communities in 15 states, and it is estimated that this expansion will reach more than 500,000 children and adults as well as 2,700 informal educators over four years. The inclusion of marginalized rural communities will provide new opportunities to evaluate and adapt the program to the unique assets and needs of rural families and communities.
The project will include evaluation and learning research activities. Evaluation will focus on: 1) the formative issues that may arise and modifications that may enhance implementation; and 2) the overall effectiveness and impact of the Leap into Science program as it is scaled across more sites and partners. Learning research will be used to investigate questions organized around how family science interest emerges and develops among 36 participating families across six sites (3 rural, 3 urban). Qualitative methods, including data synthesis and cross-case analysis using constant comparison, will be used to develop multiple case studies that provide insights into the processes and outcomes of interest development as families engage with Leap into Science and a conceptual framework that guides future research. This project involves a partnership between The Franklin Institute (Philadelphia, PA), the National Girls Collaborative Project (Seattle, WA), Education Development Center (Waltham, MA), and the Institute for Learning Innovation (Corvallis, OR).
Making Connections, a three-year design-based research study conducted by the Science Museum of Minnesota in partnership with Twin Cities' communities, is developing and studying new ways to engage a broader audience in meaningful Maker experiences. This study draws and builds on existing theoretical frameworks to examine how community engagement techniques can be used to co-design and implement culturally-relevant marketing, activities, and events focused on Making that attract families from underrepresented audiences and ultimately engage them in meaningful informal STEM learning. The research is being done in three phases: Sharing and Listening - co-design with targeted communities; Making Activities Design and Implementation; Final Analysis, Synthesis and Dissemination. The project is also exploring new approaches in museums' cross-institutional practices that can strengthen the quality of their community-engagement. In recent years, Making - a do-it-yourself, grassroots approach to designing and constructing real things through creativity, problem-solving, and tool use - has received increasing attention as a fruitful vehicle for introducing young people to the excitement of science and engineering and to career skills in these fields. Maker Faires attract hundreds and thousands of people to engage in Making activities every year, and the popularity of these events, as well as the number of museums and libraries that are beginning to provide opportunities for the public to regularly engage in these types of activities, are skyrocketing. However, Maker programs tend to draw audiences that are predominantly white, middle class, male, well educated, and strongly interested in science, despite the fact that the practices of Making are as common in more diverse communities. Making Connections has the potential to transform how children begin to cultivate a lifelong interest in engineering at a young age, which may ultimately encourage more young people of color to pursue engineering careers in the future.