Grassroots Organizations:

C-STEM
C-STEM was founded in Houston, Texas to increase opportunities in STEM fields for underrepresented populations. Every year the organization organizes a robotics completion and presentation of the year’s work. C-STEM also provides training for teachers leading the robotics teams.¹¹

Environmental Justice Media 
Environmental Justice Media is a nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to supporting youth in creating media about urban environmental issues. The organization was founded by Michael Cermak, a sociologist and teacher at Boston College currently obtaining a PhD on using hip hop in art and science classrooms in urban public schools. See a video made by students connecting their science education to their personal lives.¹²

Cool Girls Science and Art Club
Cool Girls Science and Art Club’s mission is to increase interest in science, technology engineering, and math by having girls-only groups meet after school and go on field trips. Classroom programs and community events are also part of the organization’s work.¹³

Girl Start

Through its comprehensive programming, Girlstart provides a year-round, intensive suite of STEM education programs for K-12 girls. The organization focuses on serving girls of minority and/or low-income backgrounds.¹⁴

Sisters Science Club
The Sisters Science Club was founded in Sisters, Oregon by two retired scientists named Robert Collins (former academic neurologist) and Cal Allen (former chemical engineer) in January 2011 in response to statistics that had just been released revealing poor performance of American students in science and a stark dearth of science resources that they observed in the surrounding schools. The organization sent local science teachers to the NSTA meeting which allowed them to gain new pedagogical approaches and new partnerships with each other. The Sisters Science Club has also sponsored a Science Fair and works with teachers to locate and address the science needs in local schools. Science performance among students in Sisters has greatly increased. According to the founders, “In a nation with very few scientists among state and national elected officials, where policy debates are often shockingly uninformed, and where the lay media dumbs down science daily, we’ve found that a local community science club can make a difference.”¹⁵

Project Exploration 
Project Exploration is a nonprofit science education organization that works to provide access to science for minority and female students. One program provided for by the organization is Sisters4Science which is an after school program for girls of color in urban middle and high schools designed to get girls interested in science and give them the necessary tools to be successful in the field.¹⁶

Stem Trek
STEM-Trek is a global, grassroots, nonprofit organization that supports minority STEM students through a variety of programs and support for travel and professional development. Participants are encouraged to use what they gain to advocate for social justice.¹⁷

Urban Advantage
Urban Advantage is a collaboration between urban public school systems and zoos, museums, and science centers to expose urban public school students to science from a young age. The program is particularly targeted at providing minority and underprivileged students with opportunities that they would not otherwise have. The program was created in 2004 by the American Museum of Natural History with help from other science-related institutions.¹⁸