Iowa STEM Scale-Up Program awards announced for the 2025-26 school year

The Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council at the Iowa Department of Education is awarding more than 500 STEM Scale-Up Program awards to Iowa educators for the 2025-26 school year. This amounts to over $3 million in awarded STEM materials, curriculum and professional development training to boost STEM education opportunities for PK-12 learners in Iowa.

“Since 2012, the STEM Scale-Up Program has helped more Iowa educators access high-quality, evidence-based STEM materials and curriculum to use in their classrooms,” said Justin Lewis, Iowa Department of Education’s bureau chief for Iowa STEM. “Through the Scale-Up Program, the STEM Council is proud to have a hand in expanding student learning in STEM and connecting it with key industries in Iowa like agriculture, advanced manufacturing, medical science and more.”

The STEM Scale-Up Program provides educators and students throughout the state with access to some of the best available STEM educational opportunities from across the country.  More than 1,000 educators are signed up to deliver one of 13 selected programs offering exemplary STEM education and experiences for PK-12 students and educators in-school, afterschool and in other educational settings.

Through an annual application and review process, the STEM Council invites PK-12 STEM programs to scale their offerings across Iowa through the STEM Scale-Up Program. Programs are selected to cover a range of ages for grades PK-12 as well as STEM disciplines, including agriculture, engineering, computational thinking, mathematics, STEM careers and more. From the menu of selected program providers, Iowa educators are able to apply for the programs they wish to implement during the upcoming academic year. 
In addition to providing high-quality curriculum and materials, the program provides training for educators to implement awards effectively. Awarded educators participate in professional development over the summer in preparation to implement the awarded programs in their classrooms and out-of-school educational settings beginning in the fall.

A complete list of 2025-2026 STEM Scale-Up Program recipients can be found on the Department’s website.