NEW: project descriptions added July 25, 2022.
Grant Project Name: Esports Unleashed: The Arena of Futurity
Grant Description: Albright College Science Research Institute is partnering with Boyertown, Reading, Wyomissing, and Governor Mifflin School Districts, former PAsmart Targeted Grant recipients, to establish a regional educational model for CS/STEM learning and K-12 Esports team development. The project will provide professional development for K-12 teachers to integrate the teaching of Esports and Game Design with state academic standards and establish K-12 student activities in CS/STEM, Esports, and Game Design year-round and both in and out of school.
Grant Amount: $499,400.00
Grant Project Name: Storytime STEM-packs: STEM + Computer Science
Grant Description: Allegheny Intermediate Unit Math & Science Collaborative (AIU MSC) will scale their highly successful Storytime STEM-packs to new and underserved PA urban & rural communities. Storytime STEM-packs are a PreK-2 innovation connecting children's literature and STEM, enabling educators to successfully integrate age-appropriate STEM and computing/computer science (STEM+C) concepts into young children's education.
Grant Amount: $497,344.00
Grant Project Name: CS/STEM Partnership for Rural U2
Grant Description: This project leverages resources in IU8’s STEM Lending Center for schools, educators, and libraries to expand access to STEM for more than 31,000 children in kindergarten through 8th grade in the rural Southern Alleghenies CSB2 STEM Ecosystem. Some activities the partnership will undertake include a Safari in STEM Workplace program that provides teachers opportunities to learn how CS and STEM are used in local businesses; a girls’ STEM summer academy; the development of culturally responsive online learning modules that target girls’ interest in CS/STEM careers; and a library-based mobile unit that brings information about STEM occupations to under-served communities.
Grant Amount: $500,000.00
Grant Project Name: Launch Into STEM Learning Environments
Grant Description: The Greater Lehigh Valley Launch into STEM Learning Environments will help students in grades K-12 foster employability skills that are sought by local industry. Through the project, local educators, accompanied by school leaders, will engage in a two-year process to set and implement visions for STEM learning environments, undertake an Inquiry Institute with the DaVinci Science Center, apply the Gold Standard of Project Based Learning with PBL Works, and engage in a sustained, choice-driven Professional Learning Community to continue their growth and share with their peers.
Grant Amount: $500,000.00
Grant Project Name: Computer Science Support for Youth in Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics for Growth (CS SYSTEM for Growth III)
Grant Description: CS SYSTEM for Growth will leverage its STEM Ecosystem to provide equitable access to the CS/STEM pipeline for students from low-income families, students with disabilities, and female students. Strategies include supporting students financially to undertake pre-apprenticeships, bringing STEM activities directly to where learners are by leveraging community assets like libraries, teen centers, and afterschool programs, and training educators to train each other in the implementation of new academic standards for science, technology, and engineering.
Grant Amount: $500,000.00
Grant Project Name: STEM and Career Connectivity in Rural Pennsylvania: Supporting 21st Century Economic Needs Through Enhanced STEM and Computer Science Programs
Grant Description: Chestnut Ridge School District is partnering with Everett Area School District, Bedford County Career and Technical Center, and the Bedford County Library System, along with area higher education institutions and businesses, to provide educational programming that supports Bedford County's workforce needs in healthcare, computer science, and mechanical and industrial engineering.
Grant Amount: $464,168.00
Grant Project Name: Tioga WORKS
Grant Description: This initiative will enable each of the three Tioga County school districts to expand their current career and technical education offerings, for example, through pre-apprenticeship programs, and will leverage the Tioga WORKS Ecosystem's education and industry partners to create a series of stackable work-ready skills credentials that reflect the core skills needed locally.
Grant Amount: $450,656.00
Grant Project Name: Future-Ready: Computer Science and STEM Education for All Collaborative
Grant Description: This Collaborative aims to increase the number of highly qualified CS teachers in schools where many students come from underserved communities. Elizabethtown College, with school district, workforce development, and business partners, will deploy an online CS Teaching Certification Program; offer a summer CS Education retreat for teachers; and support CS teachers with training and equipment. The project also will expand access to an Engineering Summer Academy for middle and high school students to explore engineering career paths.
Grant Amount: $499,147.00
Grant Project Name: Western Washington County Rural Schools STEAM Coalition
Grant Description: The Coalition, partnering with three rural school districts and their local public libraries, will provide equipment, training, and 7-12 Computer Science certification assistance to staff at the local schools and the public libraries, so that STEAM learning is rooted in schools' curriculum and tools, and embedded in the community. The goal is to create a regional CIP-aligned* career pathway that could lead to industry-recognized credentials and pre-apprenticeship opportunities for high school students, while expanding a current CIP-aligned partnership between the participating districts.
*CIP stands for Classification of Instructional Programs. It is a coding system for fields of study created by the U.S. Department of Education.
Grant Amount: $495,297.00
Grant Project Name: STEM ACES: Increase ACCESS to quality engineering and digital fabrication learning experiences for elementary students, cultivate a COHORT of educators to increase sustainability and success, increase educator EFFICACY in the facilitation of STEM learning and teaching, and increase STEM activation in elementary students, especially those traditionally underrepresented in the fields.
Grant Description: Through professional development for teachers, and hands-on learning using traditional and digital fabrication tools and software, STEM ACES aims to establish a cohort of 162 kindergarten through 5th grade science educators who will become experts in STEM practices and effectively facilitate STEM learning for 5600 elementary school students.
Grant Amount: $480,000.00
Grant Project Name: GCSOM PAsmart STEM Medical Pathway Program
Grant Description: GCSOM will prepare students for future careers in medicine and STEM related fields, help address the shortage of healthcare professionals, and diversify medical professions by providing structured, real-world healthcare training and the opportunity to earn foundational healthcare certifications to Pennsylvania high school students who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM, including students from Wilkes-Barre Area, Hazleton, and Scranton school districts, and students from rural schools in Northumberland and Columbia counties.
Grant Amount: $494,262.00
Grant Project Name: Building a Rural STEM Ecosystem: Growing Sustainable STEM Capacity in Franklin County and Beyond
Grant Description: With partners ranging from a local workforce development board to local and state universities, Greencastle-Antrim School District seeks to develop STEM education in Franklin, Fulton, and Cumberland counties. This project will design a STEM curriculum that builds on community-developed Core Competencies; create an outdoor STEM learning space for both school and community; provide free STEM programming in local public libraries, PreK programs, and YMCA programs; train pre-service teachers in STEM education; install a weather station; and develop a weather curriculum to share with school districts around the state.
Grant Amount: $499,192.00
Grant Project Name: PA Aquaponics Collaborative Expansion
Grant Description: The Southwest PA Aquaponics Collaborative, a PDE-recognized STEM Ecosystem, plans to expand educational aquaponics programs into rural, west, and central PA schools. Intermediate unit partners and school districts piloting mobile aquaponics units will participate in professional development around curriculum, CS integration, and college and career readiness. Aquaponics offers an opportunity for students to engage in STEM and CS, food systems, farming production, and sustainability.
Grant Amount: $499,485.00
Grant Project Name: Keystone College STEAM Ahead
Grant Description: Keystone College’s STEAM Ahead Program aims to increase the number of educators prepared to teach STEAM courses through a new professional development initiative: a STEAM certificate program that gives educators experiential learning opportunities with industry partners, and gives them the instructional tools to promote student problem solving by integrating science, technology, art, and math design lessons based on real-world problems. The project also will provide participating school districts with instructional materials including virtual reality tools for integration into their STEAM-related coursework.
Grant Amount: $375,000.00
Grant Project Name: OPENS - Optimizing Pennsylvania Educators Navigation of STEM
Grant Description: King's College aims to increase the number of PA endorsed K-8 CS/STEM educators in Northeastern PA to increase access to STEM and CS learning for students with disabilities. The OPENS project will provide teacher preparation designed to include students with disabilities in STEM/CS using Universal Design for Learning practices.
Grant Amount: $295,794.00
Grant Project Name: SHINEonPA STEM Ecosystem: 21st Century Learning Hubs
Grant Description: The SHINEonPA STEM Ecosystem (formerly the Carbon-Schuylkill-Luzerne STEM Ecosystem) will extend the Model Makerspace Roadmap by establishing 21st Century Learning Hubs geared toward elementary and middle school students in community and school libraries. Model makerspaces will be established in under-resourced in-school and out-of-school libraries across three intermediate units.
Grant Amount: $500,000.00
Grant Project Name: STEM & vine: A Learning Ecosystem that Advances Rural Equity in CS/STEM Access and Opportunity
Grant Description: Mercyhurst University will develop CS/STEM afterschool and community programming for kindergarten through 5th grade students in rural Erie focused on local agriculture. STEM & vine community sessions will provide contextual, hands-on STEM activities, agricultural/industry tours, farm to table meals, and coding camps.
Grant Amount: $500,000.00
Grant Project Name: MIllersville University & National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) -C4C PASmart Grant Partnership Model
Grant Description: Keystone Counselors for Computing (KCC), building on the network of faculty, community partnerships, and research of Millersville University, will expand training for K-12 school counselors to identify and remove barriers for students in the school and community toward CS and STEM education and careers and support student persistence in the technical field. School counselors will learn to use newly developed tools to analyze changes in labor and post-secondary pathways and promote student engagement in STEM and CS learning, especially for students who are historically underrepresented in STEM and CS, including girls, students of color, and migrant students.
Grant Amount: $407,447.00
Grant Project Name: Teach STEM!: Strengthening the STEM Pipeline by Increasing the Number of Culturally Responsive CS/STEM Teachers in Luzerne County
Grant Description: Through this project, partners aim to strengthen the STEM workforce pipeline by increasing the number of culturally responsive STEM teachers in Luzerne County. Misericordia University will offer new Level 1 Computer Science and General Science teacher certification programs and Act 48-eligible professional development courses that integrate the PA Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education Competencies, so that educators who complete the programs can provide an equitable education to students from traditionally underrepresented populations in the CS/STEM fields. Partners also will design and implement a “Teach STEM!” educational, marketing, and recruiting campaign to promote interest in pursuing CS/STEM study and careers among Luzerne County youth.
Grant Amount: $375,705.00
Grant Project Name: Re(inventing) School-Business-Community Partnerships to Ensure CS/STEM for All
Grant Description: Montoursville Area School District is partnering with community, business, and industry collaborators to build the capacity of educators (both formal and informal, in schools and in out-of-school programs at YMCAs) to engage students in rural, central PA in career-oriented CS and STEM learning.
Grant Amount: $500,000.00
Grant Project Name: Pennsylvania Esports Ecosystem
Grant Description: The NEPA STEM Ecosystem partners will establish a statewide esports system that will increase equitable access for students and teams to connect through Esports and feel a sense of belonging in STEM, CS, and Esports spaces. The planned Pennsylvania Esports Ecosystem will be designed to address students' social-emotional needs, and the need for a diverse, skilled workforce.
Grant Amount: $478,107.00
Grant Project Name: ABC CREATE LEADS (Leveraging Education to Accelerate Diversity & Success)
Grant Description: ABC Create will amplify and accelerate its existing CS/STEAM professional learning programs to support more elementary teachers, so that CS/STEAM can be integrated into elementary classroom lessons and reach all learners. The project will expand outreach to and access for underrepresented populations, extending CS/STEM learning into communities and developing and enhancing community, education, and workforce relationships.
Grant Amount: $482,145.00
Grant Project Name: STEM Collaborative Alliance for Learning Equitably ("S.C.A.L.E")
Grant Description: “SCALE” will expand access to STEM mid-skills-level career paths by improving access to STEM experiences for learners of all ages, through STEM Career Connections Programs; professional learning for educators to increase their awareness of industry needs; community outreach to increase awareness of STEM careers; and Cradle to Career regional collaborative meetings that bring together business, education, and other community stakeholders to support STEM career paths.
Grant Amount: $500,000.00
Grant Project Name: IDEA Hub
Grant Description: Education, business, and organization partners will establish an IDEA Hub space (IDEA=Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship, and Action) at the Central PA Institute of Science & Technology where all students from across three participating school districts can take STEAM and coding workshops and classes, independently explore their own entrepreneurship and engineering ideas, and collaborate and consult with academic teachers and industry experts in more than 25 fields.
Grant Amount: $500,000.00
Grant Project Name: STEM Careers Re-Imagined: An Industry and Education Collaborative
Grant Description: This project addresses the shortage of skilled workers in CS and STEM, especially in manufacturing and construction, by engaging students, parents and guardians, and teachers from rural and low-income schools across a 10-county region. Teachers will participate in an externship at Penn College where they will learn from educators and industry partners how to design lessons using new science standards and how to better engage middle school students in hands-on learning; students and their families will gain connections with industry partners and greater awareness of careers.
Grant Amount: $314,440.00
Grant Project Name: Increasing Equitable Access to STEM Education through Science Program and Research Coach (SPARC)
Grant Description: Through the Science Program and Research Coach (SPARC) program, the Pennsylvania Society for Biomedical Research and partners will provide hands-on, career-infused biomedical science programming designed to inspire students to pursue further science-related education and careers. A mobile approach will bring science education directly to rural, urban, and migrant populations who historically lack access, crossing geographical and language barriers.
Grant Amount: $500,000.00
Grant Project Name: Network of Elementary Engineering Educators (NE3)
Grant Description: The Network of Elementary Engineering Educators will prepare a cohort of teacher educators at intermediate units and schools to provide engineering instruction and materials to Pennsylvania elementary school teachers. Access to engineering education will be further increased by developing free, online tools to help teachers better understand the engineering design process and how to teach the engineering practices of academic standards.
Grant Amount: $497,250.00
Grant Project Name: Westmoreland County Computer Science Ecosystem
Grant Description: Leveraging partnerships among higher education, workforce development, K-12 education, and employers, this initiative will build a Computer Science Ecosystem based in Westmoreland County that expands educational access and opportunity for students and teachers throughout southwestern Pennsylvania and beyond and builds a pipeline of skilled talent to meet critical workforce needs.
Grant Amount: $317,282.00
Grant Project Name: Seed to Table Cooperative Learning Experience
Grant Description: This project builds on a student-created horticulture program to create a year-round growing environment in which students with disabilities can grow, care for, and harvest plants while learning career readiness skills and gaining skills specific to the local agriculture industry.
Grant Amount: $204,040.00
Grant Project Name: IU9 Rural Distance Learning STEM and CS Design Challenge Program
Grant Description: The Rural Distance Learning STEM and CS Design Challenge Program will engage educators and students in grades 3-12 in STEM & CS Design Challenges through mobile Distance Learning Centers in North Central Pennsylvania. The program will build the capacity of rural low-income schools to implement high-quality, age-appropriate STEM & CS Design Challenges that meet the needs of historically underserved populations, including special education students, by providing professional development to teachers, creating a professional learning community of design thinkers, engaging business and industry representatives in mentoring through the design process, and providing opportunities for personalized virtual and on-site coaching.
Grant Amount: $360,890.00
Grant Project Name: Project ASCENT: Advancing Inclusive STEM, Entrepreneurship, and Data Science Pathways through Hydroponic Farming
Grant Description: With a focus on agriculture technology and data science, Project ASCENT will expand STEM career pathways for students with disabilities. The project also will develop a K-12 data science pathway for all students with the support of Stanford University.
Grant Amount: $491,664.00
Grant Project Name: Reimagining Access and Mathematical Pathways (RAMP) to STEM
Grant Description: The Reimagining Access and Mathematical Pathways (RAMP) to STEM project brings together 4 school districts in Delaware County to create county-wide math Communities of Practice that enable high school juniors and seniors to earn college math credits through dual enrollment at the Delaware County Community College. RAMP to STEM is partnering with the Delaware County Workforce Development Board and Delaware County Black Caucus to create opportunities for participating students to explore STEM career pathways available in the county.
Grant Amount: $500,000.00
Grant Project Name: North Philadelphia STEAM Scholars Collaborative (NPSSC)
Grant Description: The North Philadelphia STEM Scholars Collaborative (NPSSC) merges multiple school-based initiatives into one model for project-based, work-based learning and Pre-Apprenticeship opportunities that put students on paths to careers in technology, one of Philadelphia’s fastest-growing employment sectors. Partners will pilot a scalable intervention across a network of high school and K-8 schools that results in participants earning Java, SQL, and HTML certifications. Additionally, the project will create an open-access curriculum library for School District of Philadelphia educators as well as workforce development and literacy providers serving adult learners.
Grant Amount: $499,671.00
Grant Project Name: Rural Educators for Excellence Community of Practice
Grant Description: This ecosystem approach to developing a community of practice for rural educators will support underserved learners from kindergarten through postsecondary education with transitions into STEM careers, postsecondary STEM education, and the attainment of industry credentials.
Grant Amount: $495,253.50
Grant Project Name: PSSE: Harnessing the Power of Pennsylvania STEM Ecosystems
Grant Description: This initiative expands the capacity of the Pennsylvania Statewide STEM Ecosystem to convene a more independent and unified group of formal STEM Ecosystems and informal STEM networks, while providing STEM education resources and services to places where students, staff, communities, and organizations would not otherwise have access to such opportunities, thus helping to more equitably advance STEM education and career pathways in Pennsylvania.
Grant Amount: $499,579.50
Grant Project Name: Creating a CS High School
Grant Description: The School District of Philadelphia plans to make the existing High School of the Future a dedicated computer science high school, offering students a complete CS pathway from 9th through 12th grades. Additionally, the District, building on collaborative work with local higher education institutions through the Jumpstart Philly Research Practitioner Partnership, will provide professional learning, stipends, and exam fees for teachers to obtain Pennsylvania computer science teaching certification, and will train middle school teachers to provide more CS learning opportunities at the middle school level, to strengthen students’ interest early and prepare more students to attend the High School of the Future.
Grant Amount: $425,301.00
Grant Project Name: Science Olympiad @ The School District of Philadelphia
Grant Description: This PAsmart Advancing Grant makes Science Olympiad, a team competition for students in grades 6 through 12, a no-cost after-school program and expands the program to twenty additional schools over two years. This project addresses barriers to participation including lack of funding for supplies, team registration, and travel to competitions. Partner organizations will provide mentors for each team who are professionals or undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students, all of whom are engaged in various STEM-related professions or fields of study.
Grant Amount: $334,183.00
Grant Project Name: Public Library STEM Club Initiative
Grant Description: The Public Library STEM Club Initiative establishes regularly meeting gaming clubs for youth in public libraries in Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, Franklin, Fulton, Lawrence, and Mercer Counties. The libraries will serve as welcoming community spaces where youth can feel they belong, as they develop skills in computer science, STEM, and social-emotional learning with their peers.
Grant Amount: $499,200.00
Grant Project Name: Growing Computational Thinkers - Trinity Area School District & the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
Grant Description: The Trinity Area School District, in partnership with the International Society for Technology in Education, will train educators in all grades and all content areas to teach age-appropriate computer science and computational thinking skills, and strengthen students’ sense of self-efficacy for solving increasingly complex problems rooted in computer science.
Grant Amount: $489,061.00
Grant Project Name: Video Game Design for Computer Science Learning
Grant Description: The Union Area School District (UASD) will partner with Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) to bring multimedia video game coding to middle school students through professional development and curriculum, as well as dual enrollment for high school students, building foundational CS skills and providing opportunities to earn postsecondary credit at the secondary level.
Grant Amount: $500,000.00
Grant Project Name: Digital Passport
Grant Description: The Digital Passport initiative will provide STEM/CS learning during out-of-school time for Mercer County students in 4th through 9th grade that builds foundations for careers in healthcare, advanced manufacturing robotics, and digital entrepreneurship. The "digital passport" is a cellular phone application that displays digital "passport stamps" of key skill achievements for each student; it will serve as a vehicle to share STEM/CS enrichment opportunities and education, connecting students and families to supplementary activities and to a resource library for information and guidance.
Grant Amount: $389,898.00
Grant Project Name: FirstHand STEM Partnership for Inclusion and Regional Equity (STEMPIRE), High School Modules
Grant Description: This cross-sector partnership supplements the classroom learning of students attending under-resourced Philadelphia schools with hands-on, out-of-school STEM mentoring and activities, including paid, scaffolded STEM workforce trainings that create pathways to internships and jobs. This PAsmart Advancing Grant builds on a 2021 PAsmart grant that focused on Philadelphia middle school students; this project adds resources and capacity to advance a high school program.
Grant Amount: $499,999.12