Program Offerings
Elementary School Programs
Building Block Club
Building Block Club is designed for K-2 students to build their natural curiosity in STEM, led by caring mentors, and includes the utilization of visualization, and literacy components to help early childhood learners.
The Launch Pathway is for our youngest students, in grades K through 2. This pathway is designed to be a student-led inquiry model, where they have the opportunity to entertain their curiosity.
Facilitators and mentors help foster, guide, and build on interests to ensure positive, early STEM experiences. The “Launch” phase builds natural curiosity for our youngest learners K-3 that and includes:
- Literacy-based STEM activities wherein students listen to STEM mentors read stories or watch videos before engaging in design challenges related to the story.
- Visualization techniques and challenges to promote STEM learning lead to a generalization of essential concepts/practices.
- Launch phase programs build self-efficacy around a student’s ability to learn and do STEM.
Mini Medical
Students work with their facilitator to learn about the building blocks of food, and the importance of making healthy choices, as well as the implication of food deserts which affect South and West side communities and what we can do to help. Students may also learn about the human body, including mental and physical health and the multiple metrics that health care professionals use to gauge our health, as students learn to measure their heart rates and blood pressure. Mini medical has also included dissections of mammals such as fetal pigs to learn about organs and how our body compares to that of another mammal.
Little Sisters4Science, Little Brothers4Science, and STEMQuest
Little Sisters4Science (LS4S) is the counterpart to PE’s anchor Sisters4Science program, which allows girls in third to fifth grade the opportunity to engage in high-quality, hands-on STEM experiences and to develop a STEM identity in a low-pressure environment. LS4S programs were established in recognition that students must develop an interest in STEM by middle school so they can choose particular courses in high school, continue STEM study in college, and earn a career in STEM. During the culminating Reflection of Knowledge event, girls share what they learned in the program. LS4S rounds out a solid STEM foundation, giving girls exposure to main STEM ideas and setting them up to be successful in Explore, where concepts become more focused and challenging.
Similarly, Little Brothers4Science (LB4S) allows boys in third to fifth grade the opportunity to explore and develop their own STEM identify and learn of the rich history of men, especially young men of color, in STEM, and how the young men can be trailblazers in STEM.
In environments where gender specific programming is not feasible, STEMQuest is PE’s program model which aims to achieve similar goals in a co-ed setting.
Middle School Programs
Sisters4Science
Sisters4Science is a program for girls led by female facilitators who emphasize leadership development through scientific exploration. Designed to get girls interested in science, keep girls interested in science, and equip girls with skills and experiences that enable them to pursue science, Sisters4Science creates a science-rich learning environment that puts girls at the center.
Brothers4Science
Brothers4Science is a program for middle school urban boys in areas with a lack of STEM education and enrichment. Designed to get boys interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); keep boys interested in STEM, and equip boys with skills and experiences that enable them to pursue STEM. Brothers4Science is intended to help boys develop self-esteem about their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and decisions, expose them to a wide variety of roles played by men in science.
High School Programs
High school programs led by Project Exploration tend to align with the Explore and Pursue phases of the Youth-Science Matrix, which means students are engaged in discrete STEM disciplines or in an apprentice-level engagement with a STEM mentor. However, across all program models, PE seeks to reinforce the following NGSS Standards:
- HS-PS2-1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
- HS-PS3-3 Energy
- HS-LS1-3, 6, 7 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- HS-LS2-8 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- HS-ESS1-1, 2, 3, 4, 6 Earth’s Place in the Universe
- HS-ETS1-1, 2, 3, 4 Engineering Design
The specific curriculums that Project Exploration is equipped to implement include, but are not limited to the following:
Explore Engineering
Explore Engineering leverages multiple established curriculums, from Ten80 Student Racing Challenge, a rigorous automotive engineering curriculum to teach teens engineering concepts employed in car racing, and build their own model race car that will be entered into a nationwide engineering competition to ProjEx Launch, a curriculum in which students engineer and launch model rockets from scratch using every day materials.
Environmental Adventurers
Environmental Adventurers is aimed at engaging diverse, urban youth in the environmental sciences, biology, anatomy, and zoology subjects to develop skills in research in a meaningful and hands-on way.
Forensic Investigators
Forensic Investigators a popular and rigorous program that teens gain hands-on experience in a variety of subdisciplines, including latent fingerprints, firearms and tread wear, biology/DNA, microscopy, and drug chemistry.
Sports Science
Sports Science works with teens to study how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sports and physical activity promote health and performance.
Partner with us!
If you are interested in partnering with PE to provide high-quality STEM programs to your students, please complete our school- and community-based partner interest form below!