4-H Science Initiative: Youth Engagement, Attitudes, and Knowledge Study. Revised

Abstract

In 2006 4-H National Headquarters at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National 4-H Council introduced a new initiative aimed at increasing the number and quality of science, engineering, and technology programs that 4-H offers around the country, and increasing the number of youth involved in these programs. By engaging youth in informal science educational opportunities through the 4-H Science Initiative, the organization hopes to increase: science interest and literacy among youth, the number of youth pursuing post-secondary education in scientific fields, and the number of youth pursuing science-related careers. With the support of the Noyce Foundation, National 4-H Council has contracted with Policy Studies Associates (PSA) to evaluate the implementation of this new initiative. The National 4-H Science Evaluation Design Team created a logic model for the initiative that outlines the short- and long-term goals of the initiative. This year's evaluation had three key objectives: (1) to gather program-level information about the implementation of 4-H science programs from science educators, (2) to collect information from participants about their attitudes toward science and their opinions of their 4-H Science programs, and (3) to look for any associations between youth-level data and the characteristics of the 4-H Science programs in which youth are enrolled. In order to meet these goals, a survey was conducted of science educators leading 4-H Science programs, and a survey of youth participants. The science educator survey was administered in spring 2011 had an overall response rate of 62 percent. Youth surveys were administered in a random sample of programs in late May and June 2011.Youth surveys were received from 19 of the 21 programs in the sample, for a program-level response rate of 91 percent. The first section of this report describes findings from the survey of all 4-H Science educators in the seven states participating in the evaluation, the second section presents data from the YEAK survey, and the final sections summarize this evaluation's findings and present recommendations.