Project Grant 2415686

This federal Project Grant award of $164,945 from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program will fund a partnership development and planning project between the Long Island Children's Museum and the Westbury School District. The project aims to expand an existing 15-year partnership to engage culturally and linguistically diverse families, particularly newcomers who speak Spanish and Haitian Creole, in informal STEM learning experiences for early elementary-aged children. The project will employ two asset-based frameworks - the Equitable Collaboration Framework and Cultural Historical Activity Theory - to guide the partnership development process, focusing on identifying community assets, goals, values, and roles of interest in designing informal STEM learning activities. Key activities include trainings on diversity, equity, and inclusion, listening sessions with the community, and collaborative meetings to develop a shared vision and goals for future systemic partnership efforts. An external evaluation will assess the challenges, successes, and impacts of the project. The findings will be shared locally and with the broader field through webinars and reports.