There is an urgent need for more individuals to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, especially those who identify as members of historically excluded populations. This process needs to start well before a job application is filled out. Young people need to be interested in the field, be aware of opportunities, have the required knowledge and skills, feel they belong in the field, and have the support of mentors to help them succeed. This learning must extend beyond the typical K-12 classroom setting and include resources, such as community partners and immersive learning experiences, to make a measurable difference. A partnership between an informal science learning organization and a charter school that serves students primarily from historically excluded populations was formed to support the students' awareness and readiness to pursue STEM-based careers.
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For years, the U.S. federal government and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) industries have advocated diversifying the STEM workforce (Benish, 2018; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2019). They are transparent in their call to action; there is an urgent need for more STEM-ready candidates to be employed in exponentially increasing vacancies as the field grows. It is critical to ensure that the next generation of STEM professionals extends beyond just ensuring that there are people in offices working on solving global issues. For a field that has historically excluded every gender, race, ethnicity, and other demographic besides White men, it matters who is in those jobs (Benish, 2018).
To prepare the next generation for STEM careers, young people need opportunities to engage in immersive learning experiences that build awareness and interest in STEM topics (Maltese & Tai, 2011). This process cannot wait until an individual graduates from high school and chooses a college major; it needs to start during the formative years of elementary and middle school, then be built upon during high school to maintain and increase interest (Tai et al., 2006). Schools and teachers who partner with experts in their communities, such as informal science organizations, can provide programming that enhances students’ engagement, skills, and conceptual knowledge of STEM content through immersive and relevant learning experiences that extend beyond the classroom (Bevan et al., 2010).
It can be very challenging to extend learning beyond the classroom. It defies the structure of the traditional school day, the logistics of transporting students are complicated and costly, and finding partners with sufficient capacity to provide programming that complements and enhances classroom curricula are few and far between. Despite all these challenges, a charter high school that serves historically excluded populations in a large city in the Midwest engaged with a zoo in a nearby suburb to provide their students with a three-year, immersive learning experience to prepare them for future careers in zoology or other STEM fields.