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Year Published: 2016
Science Action Club is an afterschool program for middle school youth at the California Academy of Sciences where students explore the local environment and document their discoveries to better understand and protect our planet. In this selection of evaluation data from the 2014-2015 school year, participants demonstrated gains along three major categories of youth outcomes—interest in STEM, capacity to engage in STEM, and finding value in STEM.
Program Name: Science Action Club
Program Description: Science Action Club is a science and nature education afterschool program for middle school youth at the California Academy of Sciences. The Academy partners with afterschool programs to provide training, curriculum, and other resources. In Science Action Club, students explore the local environment and document their discoveries to better understand and protect our planet.
Scope of the Evaluation: Local
Program Type: Afterschool
Location: San Francisco, CA
Community Type: Urban
Grade level: Middle School
Program Demographics: 40 percent girls; 41 percent Asian, 32 percent Hispanic/Latino, 9 percent multi- or bi-racial, 6 percent white, 4 percent African American, 7 percent other. SAC partners exclusively with afterschool programs in communities where at least 40 percent of youth qualify for free and reduced price lunch.
Program Website: http://www.calacademy.org/science-action-club-sac
Evaluator: Gibson & Associates (2010-2012); Public Profit (2012-present)
Evaluation Methods: Science Action Club works with evaluators to design and administer surveys, and interview youth and activity leaders, conduct site visits and hold focus groups. Activity leaders submit ongoing feedback on the SAC activities, which we use to inform program revisions.
Evaluation Type: Non-experimental
Outcomes:
Below is a selection of evaluation data reported by the program around three major categories of youth outcomes—interest in STEM, capacity to productively engage in STEM, and finding value in STEM. These outcomes are an excerpt from a 2016 Afterschool Alliance paper, "The Impact of Afterschool STEM: Examples from the Field."
Capacity: I can do this
Value: This is important to me
Associated Evaluation: http://afterschoolalliance.org/documents/AfterschoolSTEMImpacts2016.pdf
Program Profile: View program profile