@article{fcf6f5155ae04fdfa1f889f9a73cf77c,
title = "NE STEM 4U afterschool intervention leads to gains in STEM content knowledge for middle school youth",
abstract = "Afterschool interventions in STEM are linked to learning gains during the school day. These opportunities engage and excite students about STEM concepts since they observe a more hands-on, project-oriented approach. Often these opportunities for afterschool interventions are infrequent in nature and leave gaps for students in their maturation and understanding. Herein we describe the first report of an afterschool intervention, named NE STEM 4U, targeting socioeconomically disadvantaged middle school youth via a twice weekly, year-long intervention, studied across two years. We assessed the impact of this program on i.) short-term, individual student gains in STEM content knowledge and ii.) delivery of the program in terms of appropriateness for age group and content using the DoS observation tool. We observed statistically significant gains in STEM content knowledge over short-term assessment using a multiple-group, pre-test post-test research design comparing scores in content before and after the intervention. In this report, we highlight the impact of this nascent program in Omaha Public Schools.",
keywords = "NE STEM 4U, STEM, afterschool, assessment, content knowledge, mentoring",
author = "Christine Cutucache and Taylor Boham and Jamie Luhr and Amie Sommers and Nikolaus Stevenson and Erkko Sointu and Kati M{\"a}kitalo-Siegl and Sirpa K{\"a}rkk{\"a}inen and Teemu Valtonen and Neal Grandgenett and William Tapprich",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the The Sherwood Foundation [2614]. Funding Information: Thanks to the Nebraska Children{\textquoteright}s Learning Center Network and Beyond School Bells, particularly Jeff Cole and Julie Sigmon, for assisting in DoS training opportunities for our staff. The authors acknowledge The Sherwood Foundation (C.C., N.G., and W.T.), UNO{\textquoteright}s Office of Research and Creative Activity (T.B.), Nebraska Research Initiatives (W.T. and C.C.), and the Nebraska University Foundation (C.C.) for funding of this project. Thanks to Collective for Youth staff for helping to make these opportunities possible to youth at a citywide level. Thanks especially to Megan Addison, Gwyn Williams, and Nicole Everingham. Thanks also to all youth participants, the Omaha Public Schools afterschool site directors, and the administrative leadership at Omaha Public Schools, including Dr. Chris Schaben. The authors declare no conflict of interest. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019, {\textcopyright} 2019 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.",
year = "2018",
month = jan,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1080/2331186X.2018.1558915",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "5",
pages = "1--12",
journal = "Cogent Education",
issn = "2331-186X",
publisher = "Taylor and Francis Ltd.",
number = "1",
}