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How Collecting Meaningful Data Can Improve Your Programs: Space Foundation Case Study

January 5, 2023

January 5, 2023

Case Study: Space Foundation

Space Foundation is a nonprofit advocate organization, offering a gateway to education, information and collaboration for space exploration and space-inspired industries that define the global space ecosystem.

Overview

The Space Foundation was awarded a National Defense Education Program (NDEP) grant that funds the Innovative Space, STEM, and Entrepreneurship Inspired Learning project. The project aims to inspire and prepare underrepresented and military-connected students to pursue further education or careers in STEM fields through project-based learning.

 

Project goals

  • Provide professional development training to educators to bolster their skills that would all help the educators implement project-based learning and hands-on STEM lessons in their classrooms the adequate program experience for children to increase the interest in working in STEM.
  • Expose participants to a variety of potential career paths in STEM fields and within the Department of Defense (DoD).
  • Introduce STEM and DoD opportunities to underserved and underrepresented populations in the region to increase children’s interest in future careers in STEM or with the Department of Defense.

Need

The Space Foundation wanted to understand if they were impacting youth interest and knowledge of STEM careers. To do this, they knew they needed to collect data from a variety of school districts, teachers, and youth. They also needed to organize the resulting information and use it for decision-making. They selected VIA to help them address the problem.

Response

VIA worked with Space Foundation to ensure data sharing permissions were in place, that surveys were aligned to data needed and were appropriate for each audience, data could be entered and analyzed effectively, and results could be used for continuous quality improvement as well as funder reporting.

Deliverables

Evaluation Plan, Data Tracking Files, Survey Reports, & Final Report.

Results: Space Foundation now has improved data tracking systems and processes. They also have used results from the evaluation to improve programming to increase youth interest in STEM.

 

Are you collecting the data you need? Contact VIA to create a tailored solution for your program.

Call: 716.362.0627 | Email: [email protected]

Click here for the downloadable PDF.