PAST Foundation
Beyond the textbook education most students experience in school every day, for more than two decades one local nonprofit has shown another way kids can interact with learning that continues to fuel their curiosity and creativity through its design thinking and problem-based learning model.
Recognized for excellence in STEM innovation by the U.S. Department of Education and recently awarded the 2025 Daniel G. Roberts Award for Excellence in Public Historical Archaeology by the Society for Historical Archaeology, The PAST Foundation’s STEM and workplace development programs continue to evolve how students and educators engage with learning and career planning.
From need to nonprofit
PAST Foundation
PAST Innovation Lab
Founder and CEO Dr. Annalies Corbin shares that, as she moved around for work in the early days of The PAST Foundation, the idea remained the same: Provide real-world scientific research and learning opportunities for students.
Driven by her background in anthropology and archaeology, Corbin worked with applied research scientists from across universities, museums and other institutions to give students real-world fieldwork experience. This led to the official creation of The Partnering Anthropology with Science and Technology (PAST) Foundation in 2000.
“We would bring in experts and partners from all over the world,” Corbin says. “They were really public-based projects, so schools were involved, community was involved… Students were the scientific research team, and it was always by design set up to work that way, so if we were going to do a thing, there were scientific experts involved, but the students were the worker bees, the folks actually doing the research.”
Before the headquarters was established in 2005, PAST operated concurrently in Columbus and out of East Carolina University, where Corbin worked, before an anonymous endowment allowed the Foundation to become a full-time, non-profit operation. Corbin opened the headquarters in Columbus, building a dedicated educational team to support it.
Now, in the PAST Innovation Lab – an education research and design prototyping facility and translational research center on Kinnear Road acquired in 2015 – Corbin and The PAST Foundation team have established year-round programming. It provides unique STEM education, research and career preparatory experiences for students, as well as offers tools for educators to use in-house and beyond.
In the design lab
PAST Foundation
With pre-K–12 programs ranging from after-school and summer programming to research and workplace development opportunities, students learn about various STEM pathways.
In the pre-K through third-grade program, students read original stories created by PAST and Ad Astra Media, such as Goodnight Little Doctor, to learn about STEM pathways and complete related hands-on design challenges.
PAST also offers industry-driven learning laboratories through partnerships with The Ohio State University and Metro Schools, Battelle’s STEM school. Through these programs, students gain early postsecondary credit from OSU, Columbus State Community College and/or the University of Cincinnati. High school students can also participate in paid workforce development internships with different industry partners, with focuses including media production, entrepreneurship and small business, as well as social justice and agricultural innovation.
Along with STEM-related areas of study, real-world career preparation is a basis for each in-house and partnering program, as Corbin shares its key to engaging with learning in an applicable way. The premise of career preparation experiences is also designed to emphasize not asking kids what they want to do professionally, but instead asking who they want to be and what they want to accomplish and explore, Corbin explains.
To further emphasize this exploration, each program’s lesson planning focuses on transdisciplinary, problem-based learning, as students learn how to apply each step of the design cycle – Identify, Brainstorm, Design, Build, Evaluate, Modify and Share – to their learning and projects. Whether each day focuses on a specific part of the cycle, or working through it at their own pace, the approach aims to teach kids to work through each problem as they come up.
Educational outreach
PAST Foundation
Expanding its programs outward into the community is a large part of what PAST does, increasing students’ exposure to design thinking and learning.
Locally, PAST partners with nearby schools, including Upper Arlington, Grandview Heights, Columbus City and Hilliard Schools, to provide opportunities for field trips or programming directly within the schools. Through Grandview Heights Schools, for example, students participate in the medical technology program and early IT microlearning.
Another facet of its community education programs is its Columbus EcosySTEM, a community network of learning hubs, field sites and virtual home bases that offer programming around Columbus for easier accessibility – an approach in collaboration with 100 Roads and Education Reimagined.
PAST Foundation
In its 26 years of operation, Corbin shares that PAST’s learning opportunities have reached more than 3.4 million students and 25,000 educators nationally and worldwide.
Regardless of which area of study or location the learning comes from, building the soft skills beyond the learning is one objective that the PAST team and its partners value.
“These kiddos grow in their knowledge in CAD, 3D printing, making music, all those kinds of things, but they’re also growing within their teamwork, their communication, all of those human skills,” Director of Student Experiences Ashley Price says.
PAST Foundation
Coming in the fall and beyond
As after-school programs return, programs will continue to run at several locations to help minimize transportation barriers. New programs will also be implemented year round in the Innovation Lab, with several on the books for the fall.
One such program is its microlearning environments – learning environments catered to smaller groups of students that provide hands-on learning experiences, personalized mentorship and exposure to real-world scenarios and applications. With current programs specializing in early IT, medicine and biotechnology, the foundation is launching a third microlearning program this fall in aviation technicians, and will be partnering with Columbus State and OSU.
New Maker Co-Op experience programming will also be available for homeschool families and members of a Scouts group.
More community events are anticipated, including a few Maker Mania events inviting families to jointly complete hands-on STEM activities.
Jane Dimel is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at jdimel@cityscenemediagroup.com.
