A project of the Afterschool Alliance.

The Impact of Afterschool STEM: Science Club

Year Published: 2016

Science Club is a partnership between Northwestern University and the Boys & Girls Club of Chicago, utilizing long-term mentoring relationships to engage low-income urban youth in science. In this selection of evaluation data from the 2013-2014 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 Club

Program Description: Science Club is a partnership between Northwestern University and the Boys & Girls Club of Chicago, utilizing long-term mentoring relationships to engage low-income urban youth in science. Every week, Northwestern graduate students lead small groups of students through designing and running hands-on science experiments.

Scope of the Evaluation: Local

Program Type: Afterschool

Location: Chicago, IL

Community Type: Urban

Grade level: Elementary School, Middle School

Program Demographics: 40 percent Asian-American/Pacific Islander, 33 percent African-American, 22 percent Hispanic/Latino; 5 percent Caucasian; 97 percent qualify for federal free or reduced price lunch; 35 percent are Limited English Proficient; 15 percent have special needs or disabilities.

Program Website: https://scienceclub.northwestern.edu/

Evaluator: Rockman et al and the Garibay Group

Evaluation Methods: Using a case-control methodology, Science Club measures changes in youth skills with a scenario-based skills interview and science fair scores. Youth attendance, interviews and surveys are also collected. Mentors participate in focus groups and self-report on changes in communication and teaching skills as well as attitudes toward science outreach.

Evaluation Type: Quasi-experimental;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."

Interest: I like to do this
  • Youth choose to go to Science Club among an array of options at a Boys & Girls Club—84 percent of participants attend weekly, participating for 1.5 years on average, with a 92 percent retention rate.
  • 94 percent of youth prefer learning hands-on science with Science Club over school-based science classes.
  • 82 percent of youth express a desire to continue in the program as a high school mentor.

Capacity: I can do this

  • The Science Club curriculum emphasizes the scientific method and the engineering design process. Science Club youth significantly outperform their aptitude‐matched peers in two independent, well‐ controlled oral assessments of science skills. These assessments include constructs of experimental design, use of variables, and data analysis. Science Club youth are also more confident conducting experiments than non‐participating youth (56 percent vs. 32 percent).
  • Twice as many Science Club students described experiments as a way to help them learn and find out new things compared to youth not in the program (64 percent vs. 33 percent).
  • 81 percent of Science Club youth described using science outside of school compared to the control group.

Value: This is important to me

  • Science Club youth are better able to describe how science is used in everyday life in comparison to their non‐participating peers.
  • 100 percent of students felt science was relevant to their careers after participation in Science Club, up from 70 percent at the start of the program. Students could also more specifically describe science careers.