Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions (TEAM II) Community Anchor Awards (ANCHR)

The TEAMIIANCHR opportunity seeks to broaden participation in NASA-related STEM engagement experiences through the following goals: • Strengthen an institution’s capacity to serve as a local or regional NASA STEM informal education community resource. • Increase access to NASA STEM learning opportunities and materials that address the needs of a diverse set of K-12 youth in local communities or region, with priority on students of upper elementary and middle school age, in grades 5-8, with the next priority being students in grades K-4, and a special emphasis on those who are new to NASA content and those who are historically underrepresented and/or underserved in STEM fields and opportunities; and • Improve NASA connections to local or regional networks or coalitions that support learners to pursue varied pathways in STEM education and engagement, and serve to unite their communities, particularly those that are inclusive of diverse organizations or agencies that offer perspectives from both traditional and non-traditional constituents. Selected projects shall: • Build the proposing IEI’s capacity to serve as a local or regional NASA STEM informal education community resource. • Participate in the NASA IE Learning Cohort with other selected Community Anchor projects, led by TEAM II and Museum and Informal Education (MIE) Alliance personnel, which will allow up to three project personnel to directly grow and share their skills in implementing NASA-themed activities, and further develop ideas, facilitate collaborative teams and future engagement, and engage stakeholder perspectives for support. • Facilitate the participation of the proposed target audience in a minimum of three engaging NASA STEM learning experiences or activities annually. These activities and authentic STEM learning experiences shall target audiences of youth in grades K-12 (special emphasis on grades 5-8 and secondarily grades K-4), and their learning support systems of families and informal and formal educators and institutions. During each full year of the project, a minimum of 500 students shall be reached in the proposed authentic STEM learning experiences. • Prepare reports as described in Section 14.6.1 of this NOFO, Reporting Requirements for Grant Awards. • Utilize NASA’s Museum & Informal Education Alliance and the Connecting Our NASA Network of Educators for Collaborating Together in STEM (CONNECTS) platform to share opportunities available resulting from recipient’s project to formal and informal educators in the CONNECTS community.