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Evaluating the Impact of the Museum of Science’s YES Curriculum on Student STEM and Future-Ready Skills Outcomes

Principal Investigator

Christopher Doss – RAND; Tara Hofkens – RAND

Project Description

This study evaluates the impact of the Museum of Science’s Youth Engineering Solutions (YES) curriculum on upper elementary students’ persistence, problem solving, STEM knowledge, and STEM interest in out-of-school-time settings. As part of a randomized controlled trial, approximately 750 students in grades three through five across 30 out-of-school-time programs will be randomly assigned within programs to receive the YES curriculum. The study will collect student and educator survey data, implementation measures, and student work from an engineering design challenge. In addition to estimating program impacts, the study will develop and pilot artificial intelligence (AI)-based measures of persistence and problem solving and compare these measures with traditional survey-based approaches. The research will also examine how impacts vary by student characteristics, participation, and implementation fidelity.

Research Questions

  • What is the impact of the YES curriculum on students’ persistence, problem solving, and STEM-related knowledge and interest?
  • How do the impacts of the YES curriculum vary by student characteristics and levels of participation or implementation fidelity?
  • How can AI-based approaches be used to measure students’ persistence and problem solving, and how do these measures compare to traditional survey-based measures?

Status

In Progress

Study Type

RCT

Grantee

Museum of Science

RAND

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