This document provides a template for creating presentation slides to advocate for afterschool and summer STEM learning programs. It outlines a story arc approach with four questions: 1) Why does this matter to society? 2) How does this issue work? 3) What's getting in the way? 4) What can we do about it? Sample slides answer each question, citing research about the importance of STEM skills for careers and the economy, how afterschool programs spark interest in STEM subjects, and the lack of access to such programs in some areas. The document encourages using data and sharing one's own program details to effectively make the case for expanding access to afterschool STEM opportunities.

1. Presentation Slide Toolkit
A template for building your own presentation slides, with example language
and graphics to make the case for afterschool and summer STEM learning.

2. Telling the story of afterschool STEM
A well-framed story answers the public’s big questions
about social issues:
1. Why does this matter to society?
2. How does this issue work?
3. If it’s not working, what’s getting in the way?
4. What can we do about it?
Whether you’re creating slides for a keynote speech,
conference workshop, webinar, or presentation to potential
partners make sure you follow this complete story arc.
Don’t forget to use data and examples to back up your
claims!

3. Other Helpful Resources
There are other Afterschool STEM Hub resources that
are useful in creating presentation slides.
1. Framing with Visuals– Presentation slides are meant
to be highly visual. Learn what considerations to
make when designing graphics and choosing photos.
2. Talking Points – Be sure to include the facts. Find
additional supporting data points.
3. Tell Your Program’s Story– More resources from
the Afterschool STEM hub that can help!

4. The following slides are not intended to
be delivered beginning to end. Rather, it
offers multiple answers to the story arc
with example language and graphics to
enhance your own presentations.

5. Spelling out “STEM”: Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Math

6. 1| Why does this matter?

7. We need creative thinkers & communicators
Top two categories of skills needed in the
years ahead:
• “Expert thinking” – solving new problems
for which there are no routine solutions.
• “Complex communication” – persuading,
explaining, conveying a particular
interpretation of information.
• STEM learning builds both!
Source: The New Division of Labor: How Computers are Creating the Next Job
Market. Levey, F. & Murnane, R. 2004.

8. Innovation in science & engineering powers
our economy forward
• Tomorrow’s economy will be primarily
driven by innovation, especially in
science and engineering.
• One job in the high-tech sector leads
to 4 jobs in local goods and services.
Source: STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future. U.S. Department of Commerce. 2011.

9. 2| How does it work?

10. Afterschool STEM: It’s Time to Activate!
• 75% of Nobel Prize winners in the
sciences say that their passion for
science was first sparked in non-
school environments.
Source: Science by Stealth. Friedman, L. & Quinn, J. 2006.

11. Afterschool STEM: It’s Time to Activate!
• School-age children only spend 20%
of their waking hours in school.
• To make the most of the other 80% ,
we need to give children chances to
be inspired and engaged in learning
in new ways and environments.
Source: Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success, Berliner, D.
2009.

12. Students need access to STEM programs
• 69% of parents with children in
afterschool programs report that their
child gets some form of STEM
programming and 76% of these children
are offered it at least once a week.
• And yet—for every child in an
afterschool program, two more are
waiting to get in. Demand far outstrips
supply!
Source: America After 3PM. Afterschool Alliance. 2014.

13. Frequency Builds STEM Fluency
• Students who were immersed in STEM
after school developed greater fluency
in these subjects.
• Among 1,600 youth in 160 afterschool
programs, more than 70% of students
reported positive gains in their attitudes
toward STEM, their personal STEM
identity, STEM career knowledge, and
21st century skills.
Source: America After 3PM. Afterschool Alliance. 2014.
Afterschool & STEM system-building evaluation 2016. The Pear Institute. 2017.

14. Talk about your program!
How does your STEM program allow for
the kind of immersion that builds fluency?
How does it spark interest and activate
learning?
Research has found that the public lacks a
clear grasp of what happens in non-school
educational settings—specifically how
these contexts improve STEM knowledge
and skills, and, in turn, why afterschool
and summer STEM learning is important.
Explanatory examples give people a
concrete understanding of these

15. 3| What’s the problem?

16. Opportunities to learn are like charging
stations

17. Opportunities to power up STEM learning are
reliable in some places, but patchy in others
A 2014 analysis of student
preparation in STEM found wide
variation across the nation:
• In Massachusetts, 1 in 6
students earned at least one
advanced high school credit.
• In Mississippi, the rate was 1 in
80 students
Source: Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on School Effectiveness. U.S.
Chamber of Commerce Foundation. 2014.

18. 4| What can we do?

19. We need every student—regardless of zip
code—to have access to afterschool STEM
Policies that create greater access
abound in some states, but lag in
others:
• 17 states have passed legislation
that directly supports afterschool
• 21 states fund afterschool programs
• As of 2018, all 50 states have
initiatives promoting quality in
afterschool (up from 34 in 2011).
Sources: 50 State Afterschool Network: Scan of Quality Systems. American Institutes for
Research. 2017.
Operation Shoestring: Mississippi Statewide Afterschool Network. Charles Stewart Mott

20. Good luck and happy presenting!