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National Aviation Day is celebrated annually on August 19th, which is Orville Wright's birthday. Aviation Day is a great opportunity to explore the history and revolutionary technologies that led to the first aircrafts taking flight, as well as those trailblazing aviators who conquered uncharted territories up above. While we learn about aviation’s past, we can also look towards its future, from diverse career opportunities to how the purpose of air travel continues to evolve today. See the resources below for ideas on how to celebrate at your program! 

• NASA suggestions for National Aviation Day

• NASA aeronautics activities 

• NISE Network Exploring the Solar System: Stomp Rockets

STEM Festival in Rio Rancho August 9

The R4Creating STEM Festival is an annual, hands-on, free community event that celebrates science, technology, engineering, arts, and math through engaging activities, live demonstrations, and interactive exhibits. Designed for families, students, and educators, the festival is a day of fun and excitement that inspires curiosity, sparks creativity, and showcases the power of STEM education in shaping the future. The STEM Festival is Aug 9th, from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm, in the Hilltop Plaza in Rio Rancho, located at 1650 Rio Rancho Blvd. in Rio Rancho. Food trucks will be on site, so make a whole afternoon of it! Register

Take the Afterschool STEM Hub's Survey! 

The Afterschool STEM Hub wants to hear from you! They want to provide you with the most effective resources to build support for the afterschool STEM field. So we’d love your help to figure out which  existing resources are most useful to you and what is missing. Please help them serve the afterschool STEM community better by answering this short survey.

DiscoverE presents Future City

Future City is a hands-on, cross-curricular program that brings STEM to life for middle school students through real-world challenges. This year’s theme, “Farm to Table,” invites students to design a futuristic city that eliminates food waste while keeping citizens healthy and safe. By imagining, researching, and building sustainable cities, students experience engineering in action—developing innovative solutions to some of today’s most pressing global issues.

Learn more and find a Future City region: https://bit.ly/3IsQJ2i

Explore the Guidelines

The purpose of the guidelines is to offer promising practices for out-of-school time (OST) programs to recruit, engage & inspire more girls in STEM. Coming together to create a shared framework opens the doors for new ways to work together, develop training, and build new supports for the OST field to accelerate STEM change in our communities.

Activities on Science Buddies

Science Buddies offers engaging hands-on activities and every activity cites careers appropriate to the STEM content and skills.  An added bonus is the opportunity to “ask an expert” giving youth access to STEM educators and STEM experts. Select activities by grade level (K-12) or area of STEM (Earth and Space Science, Physical Science, Mathematics and Computing,  Life Science, and Engineering)

Our latest Women in STEM Spotlight 

is on Erica Reed, a  a Junior at Navajo Preparatory School and 2025 Advancing Young Women in STEM Scholarship recipient. Read more of her story on Instagram!