Afterschool STEM Education
SAfG’s flagship program is its 27-week afterschool, hands-on STEM education for TK-6th grade girls and girl identifying youth held at 22 elementary schools in the San Francisco East Bay Area. A cohort of 30-35 girls from each school participates once a week for 27 weeks in STEM programming. Each year, hundreds of elementary school girls learn important 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration in our weekly lessons. Many return for a 2nd, 3rd and 4th year!
The students are introduced to three STEM themes each school year, e.g., biology, civil engineering, space science, environmental science, coding, chemistry, etc. Our curricula encourage dialogue, interdisciplinary thinking, and playful discovery. These instructional criteria are deemed essential by the STEM 2026 initiative for innovative STEM education.
SAfG's highly qualified teachers create learning environments that explicitly teach social emotional learning skills (SEL) and promote collaboration, communication, persistence, determination and making mistakes to learn STEM. We inspire the girls, engage their natural curiosity and help them believe they belong in STEM. By the end of each program, classes have transformed into a tighter-knit and more resilient community, and friendships have developed.
Our classes also help the girls connect their learning to the practical world! We regularly invite amazing women role models in STEM fields all over the Bay Area to our classes. As girls meet with these role models, they learn not only about new career options but start thinking about themselves in STEM careers. The Bay Area is rich with innovation and opportunity, and women from Silicon Valley's Big Tech to small start-up companies in Emeryville or Berkeley are volunteering with SAfG to help empower the young generation of girls.
Visit our Facebook page to see photos from our programs!
Watch these videos about our Programs in English or Spanish.
“Thank you so much for all you guys are doing for my child Julianna. She is in kindergarten but she loves to come to your program and she enjoys telling me what she learns.”
SAfG aims to keep kids engaged in STEM subjects through fun, hands-on programs that instill inventiveness and build intuitive understanding of concepts. Our classes prioritize learning practical skills and applying them creatively. We want students to not only understand concepts, but also have tools for applying that understanding.
Our teachers use the "6 C's of Being a Scientist" framework to guide each class: Curious, Creative, Confident, Collaborative, Committed and Changemaker. These characteristics are key anchors for teachers to when approaching projects and support explicit instruction around STEM practices.
These characteristics are key anchors for teachers when approaching projects and support explicit instruction around STEM practices.
Afterschool Program Sites
