Club to Classroom: What Impact Do After-School Clubs Have on Academic Choices?

• In Event: STEM Learning to STEM Careers

Abstract

After school activities funded by the National Science Foundations’ ITEST program are intended to increase positive attitudes towards STEM fields and encourage participants’ choice of a STEM career. The Science Journalism Pathways to STEM Careers project, also known as Science Reporters Clubs, is intended to engage middle school girls who might otherwise not be interested in STEM topics in scientific inquiry. Girls in ten schools across Washington state participated in an after school program in which they selected a story from the media on a STEM-related topic. They investigated the story to test the validity of the science presented, conducting hands-on science activities, interviewing scientists, and researching the topic through varied sources. Simultaneously, they learned video production skills in order to make a film that presented their findings. The attraction of the program to girls who indicated their lack of interest in science was the opportunity to write and make videos. Data from three years of the project indicate that there was a change in attitudes toward STEM, as measured on pre-post tests. There was also an increase in participants’ expressed plans to take STEM courses, particularly AP courses, in high school. Follow up data indicates the degree to which those positive attitudes and academic choices continue into high school.

A second, and often unexplored impact of the project is on the teachers who lead the after school clubs. In keeping with the interest in reaching students not initially interested in STEM, the teachers leading the clubs were not science teachers, but were language arts and social studies teachers. At the beginning of the project, a number of teachers said that science was not a favored subject, and often stated that this was why they had chosen another focus for their teaching career. Yet leading the after school clubs meant that teachers themselves were engaged in inquiry-based STEM activities. Follow up studies explore the degree to which these activities are reflected in their regular classroom, whether through the inclusion of STEM topics in their curriculum or the use of video technologies in teaching.

Finally, this presentation explores the need for longitudinal studies of students participating in varied after school programs. While numerous studies of the proximate value of after school STEM activities indicates that they have a significant impact on participant, there is not sufficient data to show whether this investment in after school learning has a long-term impact on the STEM workforce, and which factors in such programs have the greatest impact.

Author

• Karen L Michaelson, University of Maryland - Baltimore County