Afterschool Impacts Database
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The Impact of Afterschool STEM: Science Action Club
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."
- Despite competition from many other afterschool options, clubs maintain an average attendance of 15 youth per club per semester.
- 78 percent of participants agreed with the statements, “I get excited to find out that I will be doing a science activity in afterschool” and “Being in Science Action Club makes me want to learn more about science outside of school.”
- In reflecting on the completed session, 93 percent of program staff agreed that "Most youth were actively engaged in the Science Action Club activities" and 86 percent supported the statement that “Youth said they enjoyed the activities in Science Action Club.”
Capacity: I can do this
- 100 percent of participants contribute directly to a national citizen science project by making observations, collecting data and thinking critically about the implications of their findings.
- 90 percent of youth report feeling confident using technology (like computers or iPads) to do science activities in Science Action Club.
Value: This is important to me
- The majority of participants (86 percent) believe that learning about science can help them to better understand the natural world.
- 81 percent of youth believe that the data they personally collect in Science Action Club is scientifically important.
Associated Evaluation: http://afterschoolalliance.org/documents/AfterschoolSTEMImpacts2016.pdf
Program Profile: View program profile
