The Bay Area STEM Institute is an academic and career preparation program intended to encourage and support participants from the California Teacher Pathway in becoming effective STEM learning leaders, and in pursuing a career as STEM teachers.  As a critical component of the broader California Teacher Pathway (CTP) Initiative, the STEM Institute is designed to provide participants with a pairing of science and math coursework alongside professional development and direct work experience delivering hands-on, inquiry-based STEM activities to children and youth in out of school time (OST) programs.

Led by Growth Sector, The STEM Summer Institute is a broad educational partnership including San Francisco State University (SFSU), California State University East Bay (CSUEB), City College of San Francisco (CCSF), Chabot College, California School-Age Consortium (CalSAC), the Exploratorium, Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS), and local OST program providers.

The STEM Institute, developed as a pilot for longer-term statewide replication, launched in June 2011 with 60 participants from the East Bay Teacher Pathway (EBTP) and the San Francisco Youth Worker to Teacher Pathway (SFYTP).  Over the eight weeks of the Institute, participants enrolled college-credited coursework including Physical Science, Chemistry, Engineering and Applied Mathematics.  Participants also attended over 25 hours STEM education professional development sessions and worked as STEM learning leaders in San Francisco OST programs and at the Lawrence Hall of Science youth summer science camps. 

The primary goals of the Institute are:

• Encourage Teacher Pathway participants to pursue careers in math and science teaching, especially through earning the multi-subject certification combined with Foundational Math and Science credentials sought by K-8 schools;

• Improve the readiness and preparation of California Teacher Pathway participants to succeed in math and science coursework at participating CSU’s including earning Foundational Math and Science credentials.

• Build the capacity of Teacher Pathway participants to serve as STEM learning leaders.

• Improve the capacity of participating after school programs to provide experiential science learning to participants.

In 2012, The STEM Institute will expand and extend the pilot summer’s successful program. Incorporating additional activities throughout the year, the Institute will add a second year program students in San Francisco and the East Bay, and expand the orig- inal first year model to two additional California Teacher Pathway sites in Chico and Orange County.