Call to Action: 

1. Contemplate and outline a list of potential partnerships for your school district.
2. Consider STEM programming and how it correlates to other entities in your community.
3. Curate design ideas to discuss with your facilities team and other collaborative partners.

Abstract: This presentation will showcase the complex trajectory leading toward the successful opening of the Tulsa Public School’s Stem Center within the Discovery Lab Museum in Tulsa, OK. Creative partnerships are often critical to create successful and long-term solutions for our community’s most needed commodity, public school children. We will showcase how the design team spearheaded the unique collaboration between the Museum and the District, bringing together two clients to accomplish their independent vision and missions in a symbiotic facility, amid other challenges of designing within a highly intricate public-private park (and during a pandemic). We will address some of the challenges involved in the project design, including a condo agreement, financing, and programming, as well as some of the lessons learned along the way.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn about integrating and managing a project within a complex partnership of public, private and consulting partners to create an integrated project team.
2. Understand the challenges of providing a collaborative structure for STEM Programming through a non-profit organizational structure.
3. Learn ways to provide community engagement to a diverse stakeholder group with a combination of public and private funds.
4. Explore how to think about providing equitable in STEM Programming across a school district.