Investigating the Implementation of the Be A Scientist! Project in New York City and Los Angeles - Summative Evaluation

Beginning in autumn 2011, Education Development Center’s Center for Children and Technology (EDC|CCT) worked closely with Iridescent to evaluate the impact of its Family Science after-school program on its participants and partners.1 Between September 2011 and April 2015, Iridescent held six series of five-week programs in New York and Los Angeles at nine different school and museum sites. The program activities centered on “design challenges” that introduced families to the engineering design process and supported the development of curiosity, creativity, and persistence. These five-week programs consisted of five unique sessions and were held seasonally, including spring 2011, fall 2011, spring 2012, spring 2013, spring 2014, and spring 2015, for a total of 259 sessions overall. The school-based programs took place in early evening during dinnertime (with pizza and refreshments provided to all attendees) to make it easier for whole families to attend the program together. Sessions held at the museum partner sites took place on Saturday mornings to allow families to enjoy the museums, free of charge, after the Family Science program. As a longitudinal program, Iridescent worked with the same eight schools and two museum partners over the five years.2 In total, Iridescent served 2,173 participants, including children and families, for 18,628 hours over the five years. In addition, teachers, teaching aides, and museum educators participated in program activities. Table 1 shows survey responses over time, as well as the number of Family Science sessions per series. Design CCT researchers employed a multi-method research approach to data collection that reflected the structure and goals of the program. Researchers developed a set of instruments during the first year of the program to collect feedback from program participants, including children, parents and adult family members, and Engineers as Teachers students (EasT), as well as school administrative staff and program staff. These instruments were reviewed and modified each year to reflect shifts in the program and in how participants responded to instrument items. Researchers worked closely with Iridescent to ensure that the changes in the programs were being accurately reflected in the survey instruments. Researchers used both qualitative and quantitative data analysis approaches in order to provide a rich and detailed description of the program, participants, and outcomes.

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