Full STEAM Ahead Educators Immersion Program is a hybrid summer enrichment opportunity that combines hands-on exploration, project-based learning principles, and program co-design with the development of a fall program that meets the needs of your students.

This summer, we are piloting a new effort that focuses on building capacity of schools and organizations by working with cohorts of educators from Massachusetts. Beginning with a two-week summer engagement, the FSA team seeks to unpack the lessons learned from Full Steam Ahead and present these ideas as learning “building blocks” that participating educators will use to develop new programs that they will implement within their classrooms, schools or organizations over the fall semester.

Program dates:  July 11 – 22, 2022

  • July 11-14, 2022 (online via zoom)
  • July 18-22, 2022 (in person on MIT’s campus) For the in person week, housing can be provided for participants outside the Boston-metro area. Participating educators will receive a $2000 stipend for their participation in the two-week summer program and initial funding of materials for implementing their new programs during the fall semester. In addition, over the fall, each school or organization will be assigned a college mentor to work with you and support the programs implementation.

 Who: Full STEAM Ahead is open to Massachusetts educators that work with middle and high school students. We encourage groups of 2-3 educators to attend together and work as a cohort to develop something new for their classroom, school or organization.  

When: Monday, July 11 – Friday, July 22. — 9:00 am – 4 pm, daily!

Next Steps: Apply for the Full STEAM Ahead Immersion Educator program HERE! A member of our team will reach out with next steps.


About the program

This summer, we are piloting a new effort that focuses on building capacity of schools and organizations by working with cohorts of educators in Massachusetts. Beginning with a two-week summer engagement, the FSA team seeks to unpack the lessons learned from Full Steam Ahead and present these ideas as learning “building blocks” that participating educators will use to develop programs that they will implement within their classrooms or schools over the fall semester.

Through this program, FSA is seeking to build the capacity for educators to create engaging hands-on programs in their own schools and organizations.

During the two-week summer program, the FSA team will collaborate with the educators in cohorts of 2 to 3 from each school or organization. We will engage with these educators to co-design programs that best match their schools’ logistics and students’ needs, whether it is a one-week program during the Cambridge Science Festival, a multi-week afterschool engagement, or an in-classroom enrichment program.

The educator program will generally be grouped into three key areas:  1) a “fire hose” introduction to the learning sciences and principles that guide the work of FSA and co-design, 2) resource adaptation and program development through coaching, and the opportunity to playtest key activities before final program presentations, and 3) fall implementation of program with mentor and materials kit support.

Continuing into the fall, our team will support the implementation of the programs and activities the educators created over the summer by providing some funding in the form of classroom kits and recruiting college/university student mentors. These mentors will act as teaching assistants for the cohorts of educators in each school and will also receive guidance and training from our MIT team to best prepare them for the fall semester.

Throughout this program, we will be conducting research to assess the impact of each cohorts’ programming on their students through surveys, interviews with educators and mentors, and artifact collection.

If you have any questions, please email us at fsa-team@mit.edu .

Next Steps: Apply for the Full STEAM Ahead Immersion Educator program HERE! A member of our team will reach out with next steps.