STEM Activities in After-School: Building Confidence, Motivation, and Knowledge Through High Quality Programming

• In Event: Advances in Out-of-School Time Research: Examining Relationships, Program Practices, and Professional Development

Abstract

Many after-school programs face the challenge of training their workers to deliver science, an area where the workforce has little experience. TASC has designed a training program to prepare youth workers to effectively deliver science. The current study investigates how students’ participation in activities impacts their motivation, confidence, and knowledge about science in after-school sites whose staff members best implemented the techniques from the trainings. Students from the high-quality sites scored significantly higher on all outcomes than students from the randomly selected sites, and their attendance in science was correlated with these outcomes. A regression model predicting participants’ science confidence was significant, explaining 26.3% of the variance in the outcome with ‘total hours in STEM after-school’ was a significant predictor.

Authors

• Christopher Smith, National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME)

• Anne-Marie Hoxie, New York City Department of Education