With funding from the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program at the National Science Foundation, the La Fuerza–STEM project will attempt to broaden participation of families in informal science learning using La Fuerza de Creer, a popular Spanish-language telenovela that reaches over 7 million U.S. viewers. The five-episode telenovela series will model positive informal science interactions between caregivers and their children and provide positive role models of scientists. The project team will then use the telenovela as the foundation for a five-session workshop series for caregivers to further explore how to engage in these informal science learning opportunities with their children. Research is infused at every step of the project, which will examine the relationship between both the telenovela and the workshops and caregivers’ practices and attitudes toward science. The La Fuerza–STEM project seeks to expand informal science learning building on families’ strengths and interests and tapping their power—la fuerza—to engage children in exploring science.

EDC is collaborating with Univision and Literacy Partners to carry out this project.