As you begin programming this academic year, Boston After School & Beyond would like to invite you to participate in an assessment to measure your youth participants’ interest in science.
A September 2010 report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology addressing ways to improve K-12 STEM education pointed out that raising STEM proficiency is only half the battle—inspiring young people to learn STEM and pursue STEM careers is just as important. An oft-cited 2006 study by University of Virginia Associate Professor Robert Tai and colleagues found that interest in science was a more important factor than proficiency for predicting which middle-school students would ultimately earn science degrees in college.
Are your science program activities as effective as they can be in producing the results you want to see?
Is your program having an impact on student interest in science?
In partnership with the Harvard’s Program in Education, Afterschool and Resiliency (PEAR), we have the capacity to administer the PEAR Common Instrument survey to many youth in the Boston area. Designed by PEAR, the Common Instrument is a survey to collect information about students’ attitudes towards Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) on two occasions (pre-post).
If you meet the criteria outlined below, we would love to work with you. For your participation, you will receive the pre-post survey results for your youth as well as aggregate reporting for Boston. Please share this opportunity with your colleagues involved in after school science programming.
In order to participate, programs must:
1. Serve youth in 4th-12th grades
2. Seek to generate interest in STEM areas through your after school programming
3. Provide specific instruction in STEM
4. Be able to administer the 15 minute survey at both the beginning of your programming and again at the end with the same youth.
Please let Maura Boyce (mboyce@bostonbeyond.org) know ASAP if you are interested in administering the science interest survey to youth in your program either this fall or winter. We are happy to answer any questions you have.