Social-Emotional Learning in an After-School Setting With a STEM Program in Scouting

• In Event: 63.064 - Measuring the Impact of Emotions in Informal Learning Environments

Abstract

Objectives: In this study, we seek to understand the impact that an after-school STEM program from the Boy Scouts of America had on the social-emotional learning of students aged 11-14 throughout the United States who participated. This specifically regarded how students used both the Scout Oath and Law, as well as curriculum designed to cultivate both character development and other efforts devoted to community building with STEM programs.

Perspective: Social-emotional learning, defined here as growth in behavior management and problem solving amongst peer groups (Zins & Elias, 2007) has become one of the defining cornerstones of measurement within modern education in the advent of the 21st century (Peppler, 2017). This is especially true for out of school learning, where the promises of enriching students through both learning and character development has been stressed by both educators and administrators (Bang et al, 2014). This growth in social emotional learning is also reflective of many characteristics of out of school learning including project building and leadership development amongst peers, qualities also seen in programs focused on character development for youth, such as the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The STEM Scouts program has been part of the BSA since 2014, where the first group (called a ‘lab’) was designed at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. In 2015, it was expanded to 12 new cities throughout the United States, where the program was available to youth in between the ages of 8 through 18.

Methods: In this study, middle school aged students (n = 1,500) participating in the STEM Scouts program of the Boy Scouts of America were studied in terms of the effects of the program on social-emotional learning over the course of a nine month school year. These students came from all 22 cities throughout the United States that were participating in this program during the school year, after school once a week for 90 minutes.

Results: Using anonymous surveys taken both at the beginning and end of the school year, results showcase that there was a 15% growth of character development amongst participants in this program, with students in open-ended questions about their social emotional learning attributing their growth to working closely with their peers on science and engineering projects that were focused on community development.

Significance: The need for understanding how our programs affect youth in not only in academic achievement in the 21st century, but also social-emotional development, is crucial. With the growth of informal learning programs (CITE), researchers and educators need to understand the effect of activities such as STEM Scouts on the socio-emotional development of the youth. The results of this study show the effect of the STEM Scouts activity on social-emotional learning, suggesting that these types of programs devoted to both informal science and character development can be used by educators as a tool to improve behavior and provides an opportunity for researchers to expand on these findings through further studies.

Author

• Kristen Vogt Veggeberg, BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA