Inspiring Tomorrow's Leaders

K-12 STEAM Education

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

California continues to face a worker shortage in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Studies demonstrate that students who enter STEM careers first became interested at an early age because of a positive math or science experience in the classroom. Studies also show that integrating the arts in STEM learning (i.e. STEAM) encourages whole-brain decision-making which is critical to open-ended questioning and innovation. Students learn best by doing; yet there is little engaging, "hands on" curriculum content made available for students. Project-based, real-world, experiential learning has been proven to be highly successful in developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. FODA will engage students in a project-based learning task. Students will also experience scaffolded STEM activities to remediate learning as well as accelerated STEAM activities to drive and deepen understandings.

Through our partnership with GALA, we will address this problem, and increase the number of women who are educated and qualified. GALA is the only all-girls public STEM school in LAUSD and the state of California. GALA is 6th-12th grades and provides a highly rigorous college preparatory STEM-focused. Our Inspiring Tomorrow's Leaders program

Our vision for success for our is that our partner, GALA is the model school for all of LAUSD and the state of California. The goal of this partnership is for FODA has developed and implemented high-quality STEM curriculum through direct involvement in the school instructional development. - 100% increase in the number of middle and high school students participating in our program. - 100% increase in the number of students showing a greater interest in STEM/STEAM fields/careers. - 75% increase of students scoring higher on standardized tests. - 50% increase in the number of students who achieve academic success (GPA & graduation rates). - A unique partnership between LAUSD, USC, UCLA, and FODA. This partnership enables GALA to offer its students more enrichment activities at USC and UCLA, and the opportunity to learn alongside university students and faculty working at the school.

Our Inspiring Tomorrow's Leader expands STEM/STEAM out-of-school programming that better aligns with in-school curricula that focuses on three key areas: 1. Students demonstrating improved critical thinking skills. 2. Students using increased creativity and innovation in addressing social/economic problems using STEM. 3. Students demonstrating improved teamwork. - Develop sustainability plan that outlines our framework for school certification. - Leadership will work closely with the California Statewide Afterschool Network to strengthen our network with other STEAM professionals and expand our knowledge and experience around the latest out-of-school time STEAM trends.