Project A Academy A Evaluation
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Project A Academy A Evaluation
prepared by:
Evaluator A
for the:
Institute X
University Y
August __, 2002
Project A is a science education initiative involving
collaboration between Project A at the University of X and
the District. Project A is substantively organized
around robotics and aims to increase participation rates,
achievement levels, and intrinsic motivation in science and
technology for middle school aged girls as well as economically
disadvantaged youth, both boys and girls, groups that are
similarly underrepresented in these fields. In addition to
curriculum development, the project is creating a number of
flexible programmatic delivery and dissemination models that
can be adopted as appropriate in classrooms, after-school
programs, and other informal learning settings, and can be
tailored to support general science curricula.
The AA Academy is one facet of the Project A development
and dissemination effort. In 2002, two week-long sessions
of the AA Academy were held at the Institute X on the University
of Y campus, one all girl session and one mixed session. Youth,
working with partners and project staff including science
learning specialists, graduate students, and high school aged
assistors, learned to build, design and program robots.
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Project A has a two-fold mission: to promote science
and technology to youth that are underrepresented in this
field by increasing their awareness of these fields; and,
to raise youth's fluency and literacy level in smart technology.
The digital divide is typically understood as a gap between
users and non-users--between those with and without access
to technology and basic user skills; Project A, however,
aims to work on the gulf in fluency between users and creators
of technology applications. The project recognizes that technology
users' limited acquisition of program control structures contrasts
with technology creators' engagement in novel problem-solving
activities, and thus represents another, perhaps more intransigent
aspect of differential access. To advance the goal of promoting
literacy in smart technology, the Project A Academy
A provides students with opportunities to engage with technology
as creators.
The 2002 AA Academy evaluation builds on the 2001 evaluation.
It focuses on how the academy experience is meaningful to
students who participate, including investigation into the
connections between the academy activities and students' past
and present life experience both in and out of school, students'
receptivity toward future robotics and technology-related
activities, and students' thinking about how robotics and
science generally figure into future possible academic and
career pursuits. Since it has been the focus of other Project
A design research, the extent and nature of students'
substantive learning was not directly investigated in this
evaluation. Instead, a series of experiential and programmatic
questions guided inquiry:
- How does the AA Academy figure into students' thinking
of themselves as learners generally and as learners of science
and technology in particular?
- What evidence is manifest about the influence the AA Academy
for cultivating student awareness of science and technology
career trajectories and for promoting student interest in
technology?
- What are students' points of view on the gender mix composition
of the AA Academy sessions and what bearing does sex and
age appear to have on these attitudes?
- What do findings suggest might be effective strategies
for the project's promotion of students' learning experiences
with smart technology?
Data were collected from students through individual semi-structured
interviews (Bernard 1988; Mishler 1986). Interviews were tape-recorded
and transcribed (see Appendix A for the interview guide).
Quoted statements in the report were selected to provide evidence
of the range and nuance of students' perspectives. Students
were generally forthcoming during the interviews, although
some provided more elaboration than others. This is manifest
in this report by variation in the length of illustrative
statements presented, rather than in the initial selection
of statements for inclusion—in other words, the comments
of students who were less talkative are included, but these
quotes are shorter than the comments of more talkative students.
Although not a staff member, the evaluator has worked closely
with Project A staff in order to understand the issues
most central to ongoing programmatic development and assessment.
The evaluation has therefore been positioned to examine the
program, its accomplishments, and challenges from an external
point of view, but has sufficient familiarity with the program
to maximize the relevance and utility of findings (Patton
1997).
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An all girl AA Academy session was held from June 24-28,
2002. This session was designed at a beginner level, and aside
from a few girls who for scheduling reasons signed up for
this session, it included girls with no previous experience.
A total of 16 girls participated, including one rising 6th
grader, nine rising 7th graders, and six rising 8th graders.
All the girls except for one 7th grade Caucasian girl were
African American or mixed race/ethnicity.
A mixed AA Academy session was held from July 8-12, 2002.
This session was designed at an intermediate level and involved
students with some previous robotics experience. Seven boys
and four girls participated, including one rising 6th grader,
seven rising 7th graders, two rising 8th graders and one rising
9th grader. All participants, expect for two Caucasian boys,
a 6th grader and a 7th grader, were African American or mixed
race/ethnicity.
In comparison to 2001, the age distribution of the 2002 student
participants was less variable, including mostly 7th graders
(59%) and 8th graders (29%). In another point of contrast
to last year's participants, the 2002 students hailed from
a more diverse pool of urban schools. While the five students
attended Middle School A and three attended Middle School
B, one or two participating students attended over a dozen
other schools, among them schools B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I,
J, K, and L.
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