Making Connections to Support STEM Transitions

The Making Connections project explores how to create stronger, more intentional pathways between out-of-school learning opportunities so that underrepresented youth can develop lasting, meaningful engagement in STEM. Too often, a young person’s spark of interest—ignited in a community makerspace, afterschool robotics club, or summer science program—fades when there is no clear bridge to the next opportunity. Fragmented systems, uneven coordination, and siloed school and out-of-school environments make it difficult for youth to sustain momentum, build skills, and see themselves in STEM futures.

Grounded in the connected learning framework, Making Connections identifies, tests, and scales strategies that help programs, networks, and schools work together in ways that are culturally sustaining and responsive to youth mobility, interests, and lived experiences. In partnership with the STEM Next Opportunity Fund and a national network of state and regional out-of-school STEM organizations, the Connected Learning Lab leads research and capacity-building efforts that strengthen these ecosystems. A central component of the initiative is a set of research and implementation grants that support state and regional networks in refining or expanding strategies that connect STEM learning opportunities, always centering the perspectives and pathways of youth historically excluded from STEM.

Launched in 2021 as part of the Million Girls Moonshot, Making Connections originally focused on expanding girls’ participation in STEM. Since then, its scope has broadened to uplift all young people from communities underrepresented in STEM across the STEM Next network, which collectively reaches more than 3 million youth nationwide.

Resources

Connected Out-of-School Time: A Resource Hub for Out-of-School Time Intermediaries

Boost recruitment and retention by connecting and coordinating between in and out-of-school learning. Learn how OSTIs build a thriving OST ecosystem by developing collaborative programs, building capacity, and brokering resources and opportunities.

Making Connections: Strategies for Program Providers to Strengthen STEM Pathways for Youth

This toolkit offers practical strategies for OST program providers to bridge STEM learning across contexts by identifying points of transition where youth need extra support, designing programming the reinforces skills across school and afterschool, and creating sustainable partnerships to extend STEM opportunities.

Publications

Learner Pathways in the After School Context: What Data and Metrics Are Needed?

Corrigan, S., Dahn, M., Ito, M., & Peppler, K. (2025). Poster Presentation in “Advancing Methods, Theories, and Conceptualizations of Infrastructuring in the Learning Sciences,” American Educational Research Association.

This poster offers an example of how afterschool and community-based STEM providers can use a practical data framework and concrete metrics—such as longitudinal enrollment tracking and transition measures—to help them evaluate, strengthen, and sustain students’ pathways into and through STEM across programs and partnerships.

Shifting Toward a Connected Perspective in an Out-of-School STEM Program

Cawelti, L., Dahn, M., Corrigan, S., & Peppler, K. (2025). In Educating for World-Making: Envisioning and Enacting Sustainable Solutions to Global Crises: International Society of the Learning Sciences Proceedings

This paper provides out-of-school time leaders with practical insight into how adopting a more connected, partnership-oriented mindset can expand youth participation, strengthen cross-program collaboration, and enhance their role within a broader STEM learning ecosystem.

"We Hear Everyday, ‘This Isn’t Me.’” Navigating Tensions and Opportunities to Translate Interests Toward Entrepreneurial Making

Dahn, M., Peppler, K., & Ito, M. (2023). Frontiers, 7(2), 1-6

This paper offers OST educators concrete, research-based practices such as mentoring, interest brokering, and entrepreneurship integration to help translate youths’ interests into sustained STEM pathways by connecting them to resources, communities, and real-world opportunities beyond the program.

Making Connections to and From Out-of-School Experiences

Dahn, M., Peppler, K., & Ito, M. (2023)
Research in Education, 47(1), 443-473

This review chapter equips policymakers, program leaders, and educators with actionable design principles, concrete examples, and outcome indicators they can immediately apply to strengthen connections across out-of-school time programs and broader learning ecosystems, while also advancing research on the role of connective practices in promoting equitable learning.

Learner Pathway Analysis: An Approach for Evaluating STEM Persistence in Learning Ecosystems

Dahn, M., Peppler, K., & Ito, M. (2023)
Learner Pathway Analysis: An approach for evaluation STEM persistence in learning ecosystems. Partnering with Purpose: The 19th Annual Meeting of the Learning Sciences. Irvine, CA: International Society of the Learning Sciences.

This paper introduces Learner Pathway Analysis (LPA), a research approach for tracking how youth move through STEM learning opportunities across in-school and out-of-school settings. By revealing patterns of participation and transitions over time, LPA supports the design and coordination of connected, interest-driven STEM learning ecosystems.

Multi-Layered Brokering for Family Engagement in Out-of-School STEM: A Case Study of a Statewide Learning Network

Dahn, M., Peppler, K., Ito, M., Denissen, K., & Anderson, K. (2026, June)
Multi-layered brokering for family engagement in out-of-school STEM: A case study of a statewide learning network. Partnering with Purpose: The 19th Annual Meeting of the Learning Sciences. Irvine, CA: International Society of the Learning Sciences.

This paper examines how a statewide out-of-school time intermediary strengthened family engagement in STEM by positioning families as active partners in youth learning. Using a multi-layered brokering framework, the findings show how coordinated support across networks can foster more inclusive, culturally responsive, and sustainable OST STEM ecosystems.

STEM Interest as an Entry Point for OST Learning: A Case Study of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove

Peppler, K., Dahn, M., Corrigan, S., & White, H. (2026, June).
STEM interest as an entry point for OST learning: A case study of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove. Partnering with Purpose: The 19th Annual Meeting of the Learning Sciences. Irvine, CA: International Society of the Learning Sciences.

This paper explores how out-of-school-time organizations can use youth STEM interests as entry points for sustained engagement. Drawing on a case study of Boys & Girls Clubs, it shows how interest surveys and intentional connection-making can better align youth interests with programs, mentorship, and career pathways.