Program Overview
Meaningful Math: Museum and Community Partnerships brings together museums, math experts, and community-based organizations in four unique locations across the country to co-create local math programming that highlights the beauty of math, fosters curiosity, and elevates mathematical thinking.
PARTICIPANTS
The Franklin Institute (TFI)
TFI leads three museums on a year-long co-creation process, supporting their work with community partners and math experts.
Museums
Trained in co-creation by TFI, museums work with community partners to understand partner and end-user needs, using their informal education experience to build math programs unique to their local communities.
Community Partners
Working with their local museum lead, community partners bring their knowledge of their communities' values, cultures, and needs to co-create their math program. Additional community partners join the project in Year 2 to train in and deliver the designed math program.
Math Experts
Math professionals local to each community serve as subject matter experts and as resources for finding inspiration and beauty in math.
PHASE 1 (January-December 2025)
In 2025, The Franklin Institute recruited three museums, who each identified and partnered with a local community organization with whom they are co-creating their local math program. Trained in co-creation by TFI, each museum facilitated a three-workshop series with their community partner in order to understand partner and audience needs, imagine how to best respond to local interests and values, and ultimately create a math program that is unique to their community. During the workshop series, local math experts joined to provide inspiration and serve as a resource in math content.
What is Co-creation?
What Our Partners Are Saying About Co-creation
PHASE 2 (January-March 2026)
Building on the deep community partner collaboration, as well as the data collected from them during the 2025 co-creation workshop series, each museum moves into the content development and training phase.
During this time:
Museums develop the full math programming and all supporting resources
Community Partners participate in ongoing feedback
Math Experts provide content knowledge
Museums each also recruit two additional local community partners who will train in and deliver the co-created math program in Summer and Fall 2026.
PHASE 3 (April-November 2026)
In Spring 2026, each museum will train their three community partners in their co-created math program, which partners will deliver in their communities in Summer and Fall 2026.
