Cambio means change.
Museums are uniquely positioned to build capacity for authentic and sustained collaborations with their communities. By evolving their organizational practices, museums can open their doors wider to authentic Latinx engagement.
Cambio was a professional-development project for informal learning institutions – zoos, children’s museums, science centers, and other similar organizations – across the United States, funded by the National Science Foundation. It was built on the premise that by developing cultural competence specific to Latinx communities and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) coupled with intentional changes in practice, museums can be more welcoming and inclusive of their Latinx communities, cultures, and audiences.
Cambio offered museum professionals a yearlong professional development program, along with practical resources and tools, to help museums shift their internal practices to better create STEM experiences that are culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining to Latinx audiences.
Building on Experience
Cambio leveraged CCLI* (Cultural Competence Learning Institute), a professional development initiative for diversity and inclusion, and the actionable insights from the Exploratorium’s National Science Foundation-funded GENIAL Summit for engaging Latinx in informal science institutions. Our faculty of seasoned facilitators, museum educators, CEOs, researchers, and scientists drew from experience, active work in their fields, advice from cross-industry advisors, and a commitment to co-learning.
Over five years, twenty informal learning institutions from across the country partnered with Cambio to effect change. They ranged from children’s museums to interactive science centers to zoos. All came to Cambio with a commitment to better serving their local Latinx audiences with culturally relevant, authentic STEM experiences.
Grounded in the three strands of Latinx Communities, Cultural Expressions of STEM, and Shifts in Organizational Practice, participating museums:
- Met in person to build community and jumpstart learning
- Held monthly virtual meetings with coaches and faculty to facilitate knowledge-building
- Devised a locally relevant Strategic Initiative focused on Latinx communities and STEM
- Convened with Cambio Alumni at a Culminating Summit at the end of the grant period
Cambio was a multi-year professional development initiative, made possible through the generous support of the National Science Foundation (NSF). This website and accompanying materials are based upon work supported by NSF under grant 1906595. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.
