The focus of this literature review is out-of-school time activities in informal environments, a “vastly understudied” set of experiences (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development 1992), and the role these experiences can have in shaping the direction of youth to pursue STEM careers.
This 2010 ITEST Information Brief shares examples and data about how the ITEST program strives to connect workforce development needs and K-12 learning in and out of school.
America After 3PM is the nation’s most in-depth study of how America’s children spend their afternoons and spans a decade of data chronicling how children spend the hours between 3 and 6 p.m. — the hours after school ends and before parents typically return home from work.
The projects described in this booklet represent the work that has been funded by the Informal Science Education program at the National Science Foundation. The outcomes of these projects have provided a wide range of opportunities for students, teachers, and the general public to become more familiar and interested in learning about science. Just a few of the impacts that have come about as a result of this work are: Wired to Win is expected to reach between 8 to 10 million viewers over a 5 year distribution period. In Boston alone, over 68,000 individuals have seen the film. Terrascope Youth
This report from the Exploratorium's Learning and Youth Research and Evaluation Center (LYREC) highlights trends, questions, and findings related to out-of-school-time science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (OST STEM) programs by drawing on the efforts of some two dozen federally funded programs that participated and presented their work at a conference held in Washington, DC in October of 2009.
ITEST LRC Idea Brief Volume 1 , June 2005 This Idea Brief shares tips and tricks from four different ITEST projects around planning and implementing summer programs.
In this report, Inverness Research summarizes their findings based on evaluating the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)'s high school program over 10 years. The report includes: A discussion of the theory of action and the rationale that underlies the AMNH youth programs A description of three of the programs that have been offered and the evolution in program design that has taken place over the years A description of the core common features of the programs
The Sense of Belonging Scale is a measure of belonging first developed for use in an after-school youth development program. This 5-item scale uses a 5-point Likert scale for each item. Belonging scores were positively related to actual program attendance over a 6-month period, self-reported attendance in the last week, and protective factors found in communities. Belonging scores were moderately and negatively related to community-based risk factors. The link provides the Sense of Belonging Scale as well as its documentation. Authors provide instrument validity and/or reliability information.
Preparing Tomorrow's STEM Workforce through Exploration, Equity, and Engagement is a product of the previous ITEST Learning Resource Center (LRC) and includes a series of six articles (plus a preface) highlighting key themes and lessons learned in the first five years of the ITEST program.