The project will conduct a mapping study to describe the contexts, characteristics and practices of a national sample of science-focused Out-of-School Time (OST) programs and identify exemplar programs for further study. A Field Study will seek more detailed knowledge about these programs by interviewing participants, alumni, and other stakeholders, and observing program activities. The results of these studies will be presented at a working conference at the end of the project to discuss how to develop a survey instrument to measure important youth outcomes from OST programs and collect baseline data for an anticipated longitudinal study.
This project will provide new descriptive materials about the operation and practice of the out of school learning of science. It will produce a literature review, a list of organizations that provide out of school science training and a plan for future data collection. A qualitative study will be conducted to answer questions such as to what extent OST science experiences spark interest or rather nurture or sustain it and how these outcomes fit within the broader context of lifelong learning and development. The study is intended to create a new typology of youth OST science programs that sufficiently describe crucial features that differentiate such programs.
A major challenge facing educators in STEM-related areas is capturing data about youth engagement in learning that would allow for a comparison of educational programs. The challenge of this comparison stems not only from the variety of disciplines that each youth-based out-of-school time program might focus on its primary scientific discipline, but also from the differences in program format and implementation. The project developed a framework that allows for program to program comparisons by focusing on the learning activities used by these programs. This project developed a seven-part typology of learning activities that examines differences based on the pdagogy used by out-of-school time prorgams. The seven part typology categorizes learning activities into disovering, creating/making, collaborating, competing, caretaking, teaching, and perfomring. OST programs may include two, three, or even all seven of these learning activities. Youth are often attracted to OST programs because of the activities that the programs offer. As a result, this project developed a survey instrument that identifies youth preferences in these seven categories of learning activities as well as developing a protocol for the analysis of OST pograms for the learning activities that they include. The utility of this approach also extends to teaching and learning activities in formal educational settings. As a result, educators in formal settings have begun to take notice of this framework as a means of helping classroom teachers to understand, communcate, and improve their teaching practice. The rpoject has generated work in the development of a survey tool, curriculum analysis tools, and a program acttivity observation tool. Work on these instruments continues.
