SRI International Awarded National Science Foundation Contract to Study Afterschool Science Programs

MENLO PARK, Calif. —January 21 , 2010—SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development institute, today announced a $2.4 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a five-year research study focused on science in afterschool settings. Researchers will examine the types and quality of science offerings within afterschool programs and the factors that influence them.

The study will examine publicly funded elementary and middle school grantees of California’s Afterschool Education and Safety (ASES) program. California’s afterschool context is a rich environment for this study, since it offers diverse demographics, as well as strong and consistent funding. Proposition 49, approved by California voters in 2002, provides more than $500 million in funding each year for afterschool programming. California is also home to several pre-eminent institutions that support science education, including the Exploratorium in San Francisco, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, and the University of California’s Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley.

SRI’s research study will explore the social networks connecting afterschool programs with each other and with outside institutions such as science museums and technical assistance providers.

"We will examine the network links between afterschool providers and science institutions to understand how the network structure influences students’ exposure to high-quality science learning materials," said principal investigator Barbara Means, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International. "The larger goal of the study is to create new knowledge that helps afterschool and informal science stakeholders improve programs and broaden their impact."

SRI will work in collaboration with the California Afterschool Network and independent consultants Jason Freeman, Joseph Ames, and Steve Fowler on this research. Inverness Research will provide independent evaluation of the project.

Findings from the study will be available to practitioners, intermediaries, policymakers, funders, and others with an interest in improving the quality of informal science and afterschool learning.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF grant number DRL-0917536.