STAR Library Network (STAR Net) Phase 3: Enhancing STEAM Equity and Learning Opportunities in Libraries and Their Rural Communities

The STEAM Equity Project is a National Science Foundation-funded collaboration between the Space Science Institute’s (SSI), the National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) the American Library Association (ALA), the Institute for Learning Innovation, and Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) that is helping to change who has access to learning over their lifetime. Building on STAR Net’s evidence-based professional learning model for library staff, this project aims to enhance STEAM equity and learning opportunities for rural communities through public libraries. This study is deepening the field’s understanding of the role of libraries in tweens’ STEAM learning ecosystem in rural communities and how STEAM learning experiences designed collaboratively by libraries and community partners can support rural tweens’ continuing participation (persistence) in STEAM-related activities.

Project Team: Debbie Siegel, Dr. John H. Falk, Nicole Claudio