STEM Resources

Integrating the Colorado Academic Standards in science and mathematics and in all content areas to enhance STEM education is supported through a wide array of free instructional resources. This webpage will list just a few of these resources and will be updated regularly. Please note, the Colorado Department of Education does not endorse any resource or opportunity, but lists them strictly as an informational service.

This page is organized in three sections:

• Resources for STEM Educators
• Resources for STEM Students
• Resources for Parents/Support Providers

Resources for STEM Educators​

• CODAP 
  CODAP is a free, web-based data analysis platform from Concord Consortium designed for middle and high school students. It helps students develop data literacy skills by allowing students to explore, visualize, and interpret data across various subjects.

• OceanFirst Institute
  Create your own underwater adventure with our engaging, highly interactive online learning experiences. 

• OERColorado.org
  Where PK-12 Educators are empowered to use openly licsenced digital resources. 

• databot
  Free databot explorations in Physics. See student resource here and teacher resource here. 

• Culturally Relevant Engineering Design Framework
  Project ExCEED (Exploring Culturally relevant Engineering Education Design) provides teachers and students a roadmap for implementing engineering problems that are relevant to their lives, communities, and experiences.

• CIRES Education and Outreach Resources
  Free, high quality environtmental science materials. 

• Aspire Engineering Resources
  Free, high quality engineering instructional resources that focus on the future of transportation and sustainability for K-5, High School coming soon!

• TERC Video Library 
  View short 3-minute videos showcasing TERC’s innovative work aimed at broadening participation in high quality science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and CS learning experiences. 

• Department of Defense (DoD) Online Resources
  DoD STEM Education experts have developed many resources for STEM-focused projects. 

• ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World 
  Explore libraries of authentic data through these apps that provide interactive data visualization and analysis for students. 

• Girls Who Code
  Girls Who Code is on a mission to close the gender gap in technology and to change the image of what a programmer looks like and does. 

• aiEDU
  aiEDU is a non-profit that creates equitable learning experiences that build foundational AI literacy.

• Civil Air Patrol STEM Kits
  The Civil Air Patrol’s Aerospace Education STEM Kit program provides STEM resources for hands-on, inquiry-based learning. The STEM Kit program has been providing a selection of STEM Kits to CAP Unit Aerospace Education Officers (AEOs) and CAP educator members since January 23, 2013, to educate the next generation STEM workforce.  

• Colorado STEM Ecosystem 
  The STEM Ecosystems community strives to draw from the scientific idea of ecosystems to represent its research-based to build networks for the sharing of resources and expertise among leaders from education, business, and industry, non-profits, philanthropy, and others. 

• Arizona STEM Acceleration Project 
  Access free STEM resources.

• Purdue Global: Resources for Women in STEM 
  Access free STEM resources to support women in STEM. 

• Texas Instruments Free STEM resources
  Access free STEM, coding and computer science resources.

• CU Boulder Computational Thinking Classroom Resources
  Access free resources from CU Boulder that support students in STEM learning.

• Destination Imagination
  Encourages teams of learners to have fun, take risks, focus and frame challenges while incorporating STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the arts and service learning. Participants learn patience, flexibility, persistence, ethics, respect for others and their ideas, and the collaborative problem-solving process. Teams may showcase their solutions at a tournament.

• Edutopia

  • STEM toolkit

  • STEAM toolkit

  • Maker resources 

• STEMRevolution
  STEM Revolution is an educational 501C3 non-profit developed to engage students in cutting edge STEM environments.

• National Math and Science Initiative
  NMSI was formed to address one of this nation’s greatest economic and intellectual threats – the declining number of students who are prepared to take rigorous college courses in math and science and are equipped for careers in those fields. To flourish in the 21st Century, the United States must continue to generate intellectual capital that can drive the economic engine of our future prosperity. This crucial project was initiated as a public-private partnership, led by private donors such as Exxon Mobil Corporation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

• National Science Digital Library
  The National Science Digital Library provides high quality online educational resources for teaching and learning, with current emphasis on the STEM disciplines—both formal and informal, institutional and individual, in local, state, national, and international educational settings.

• Next Generation Science Standards
  Through a collaborative, state-led process managed by Achieve, new K–12 science standards have been developed that are rich in content and practice and arranged in a coherent manner across disciplines and grades to provide all students an internationally-benchmarked science education. The NGSS are based on the Framework for K–12 Science Education developed by the National Research Council.

• NGSS Engineering Hub
  NGSS Engineering Design-Aligned Curriculum. The TeachEngineering hands-on activities by grade and focus on the engineering design component of the NGSS.

• Research + Practice Collaboratory
  Research and Practice collaboratory engages researchers and practitioners around the country in an effort to address the long-standing gap between educational research and practice in STEM education.

• Six STEM Starter Tools
  Don’t know where to start with STEM? Consider these six tips from MiddleWeb.

• STEM Education Coalition
  Works to support STEM programs for teachers and students at the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and other agencies that offer STEM-related programs.

• STEM PD: Expert Advice
  Teacher professional development is a key piece of any successful STEM initiative. This article contains a few pieces of advice from the experts.

• National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)
  NSTA is the largest organization in the world committed to promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all. They have a special section for STEM called the STEM Classroom.

• PBS STEM Education Resource Center
  PBS offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds related to STEM learning through television and online content.

• STEM Education Coalition
  The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Coalition works to support STEM programs for teachers and students at the U. S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and other agencies that offer STEM related programs.

• STEM Magazine
  This magazine is published and edited by Wayne Carley, a STEM educator in Georgia. STEM Magazine focuses on inspiring and fueling the creative process of curriculum while balancing everything else that comes with teaching.

• eNet Colorado
  eNetColorado’s mission is to provide educators and districts statewide access to high-quality content and resources that support the improvement of student achievement.

• TeachEngineering Digital Library

​​TeachEngineering is a searchable, web-based digital library collection comprised of standards-based engineering curricula for use by K-12 educators to make applied science and math come alive through engineering design in K-12 settings. 

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Resources for STEM Students

• STEM Flights is a national nonprofit organization that combines STEM content with a free flight experience for middle and high school students.
  • Students apply here and can access additional STEM resources here
• Women in STEM Guide from EDUMED
  • Options, Opportunities, and Resources
• AI Degree and Certificate Programs
  • AI Degree Guide
• BestColleges STEM Resources
  • The Complete Guide for BIPOC Students in STEM
• Student STEM Resume Supports from NovoResume
  • Computer Science Resume Supports
  • Data Scientist Resume Supports 
• DataSciencePrograms.org Student Degree Finder: Use this resource to find careers in data science that align with student interests while learning more about career options 
• AnalyticsDegrees.org:Use this resource to learn more about degrees in the field of data analytics. 
• Cybersecurity.org Resources: Learn more about a career in cybersecurity!​
  • A Guide to Math in Cybersecurity  
  • Women in Cybersecurity 
  • Cybersecurity Recommended Reading 
  • Code Like a Hacker Guide 
• CU Discovery STEM Courses
  Summer courses designed for K-12 students. 
• STEMblazers
  STEMblazers is a Metro area nonprofit organization empowering high school girls to seek out a STEM career.  STEMblazers does this through after school meetings with professional women in STEM fields.  They also offer field trips, job shadowing, and mentorship opportunities to experience hands-on the many opportunities in the Colorado area.
• National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP)
  The Program Directory lists organizations and programs that focus on motivating girls to pursue careers in STEM. The purpose of this directory is to help organizations and individuals network, share resources, and collaborate on STEM-related projects for girls. 
• Women in Computer Science Resource that includes schools with the highest women computer science graduates, scholarships for women in STEM and more.
• Women in STEM Guide This guide introduces the issues surrounding the lack of women in STEM fields and serves as a resource for girls and young women who are interested in pursuing careers in STEM. It includes in-depth research, information about degrees programs, how campuses are changing to foster a welcoming environment for women, female STEM pioneers, and scholarships.
• Colorado Youth Corps Association 
  Colorado Youth Corps  invites youth of all ages to engage in their natural Colorado landscape through educational experiences that encourage participants to interact with the outdoors in a way that encourages healthy, active outdoor lifestyles, conservation, natural resources stewardship, and recreation participation.
• Engineer Girl
  This site was created to bring awareness to engineering opportunities that represent girls and women.
• Scratch
  Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.
• STEM Opportunities for Women
  Resource providing information about STEM related careers and education pathways.

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Resources for Parents/Support Providers

• A Parent's Guide to STEM
  The goal of the Parent’s Guide to STEM seeks to help connect STEM to everyday life, and provide a pathway for exploration of these fields. 
• Green 360 Careers
  Green 360 is about cultivating changemaking solutions to our environmental challenges. Green 360 connects high school and college age students with tools, information, and people they need to make informed choices and create pathways to green careers.
• Career Counseling- National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) 
  NAPE released a Toolkit, which is designed to effectively reach and encourage all students to consider a future career in STEM.
• A Parent's Guide to 21st-Century Learning
  Download or share this free PDF with grade-specific resources to help parents nurture 21st-century skills at home.  

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