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Research-to-Practice Summer STEM Partnerships

What makes a summer STEM partnership work?

Schools and community partners invest in summer STEM to help students explore ideas, build projects and imagine future opportunities. Our research examines how teachers, university partners and undergraduate mentors can make those experiences work well together.

The question behind the study

What helps a partnership turn its people and resources into engaging learning for students?

Why this matters to districts: more than extra hands for a summer program

A university partnership can bring STEM expertise, undergraduate mentors and mentored experience for future teachers. The practical question is how to organize those contributions so they support the students your program serves. Across three qualitative studies of classroom and summer STEM partnerships, we examined teacher–mentor collaboration, mentors’ perspectives on students’ experiences, and the day-to-day coordination of a camp. Together, the findings offer guidance for planning staff roles, making activities meaningful and using feedback to improve the program.
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Meredith Kier Professor and Associate Dean for Community Engagement, Partnerships & Professional Learning

What the research tells us

Make room for the expertise mentors bring

Give mentors a voice in what students experience.

Invite mentors to preview activities and visits, share their own STEM learning stories and explain what they notice during the program. Their perspective can complement teachers’ expertise and help partners identify changes worth making.

Guidance for your next program

Four conversations before camp begins 
Bring teachers, mentors, program staff and university partners together to answer these questions:

(These recommendations draw on qualitative studies of collaboration and mentors’ perspectives. The studies do not establish that these practices caused gains in student achievement or STEM participation.)

  • How will mentors contribute?

    Identify their STEM knowledge, interests and experiences they are comfortable sharing. Give them time to build relationships and a clear role in planning and small-group learning.

  • What should students learn and create?

    Preview activities together. Connect projects to recognizable problems, set clear learning goals and check the fit with students’ interests, prior knowledge, materials and support needs.

  • Who can adjust the plan?

    Agree on who can change activities, respond to student needs and request help. Make it easy for a mentor or future teacher to raise a concern with the lead teacher.

  • How will feedback lead to action?

    Schedule brief team debriefs and ask students what is helping them learn. Record one change to try, who will make it and when the team will revisit it. Let mentors help plan college visits around students’ questions and interests.

Explore Partnership

Program design ♦ Mentor preparation ♦ Student engagement ♦ Using feedback

Partnership Inquiry Form

Partner with CILD

  • Bring us a question from your program.

    Are you developing a summer or after-school STEM program, adding mentors, or trying to understand why some activities engage students more than others? We welcome a conversation about a focused research–practice partnership that fits your goals and available resources.

  • What could we do together?

    District and community partners bring knowledge of students, staff, and local priorities. CILD can help frame a manageable research question, design a way to gather evidence, and interpret it with your team. The aim is guidance you can use to revise activities, organize mentoring, or plan the next program cycle.

Research and Contributors

William & Mary research team

This page draws on work by Meredith Kier, Lindy L. Johnson, Janise S. Parker, Amaiya S. Mauney, Jade A. Fountain, and Annamarie Warnke. Individual study credits appear below.

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Teacher–mentor collaboration in STEM classrooms

Kier, M. W., & Johnson, L. L. (2024). Middle school teachers and undergraduate mentors collaborating for culturally relevant STEM education. Urban Education, 59(3), 724–754. Read the study.

William & Mary contributors: Meredith Kier and Lindy L. Johnson. First published online in 2021; journal issue published in 2024.
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Undergraduate mentors’ perspectives on a summer STEM program

Kier, M. W., Johnson, L. L., Parker, J. S., Mauney, A. S., & Fountain, J. A. (2025). Centering marginalized voices in STEM education: Undergraduate mentors’ perspectives on equity in a summer enrichment program for persistently marginalized youth. School-University Partnerships, 18(2), 230–247. Read the study.

William & Mary contributors: Meredith Kier, Lindy L. Johnson, Janise S. Parker, Amaiya S. Mauney, and Jade A. Fountain.
A single column table with a research citation

Day-to-day coordination of a summer STEM partnership

Evolving joint activity in a university–school district summer STEM partnership. Manuscript in revision.

Research conducted by Meredith Kier and William & Mary Data Science alumna Annamarie Warnke. The case is identified; program and participant names in the manuscript are pseudonyms.
We also recognize the district educators, program staff, undergraduate mentors, future teachers, and students whose participation and perspectives made this work possible.