Final Afterschool STEM Quarterly Research Review of 2024 - A focus on youth-led community impact

As 2024 comes to a close, we are delighted to share the winter edition of the Afterschool STEM Quarterly Research Review (ASQRR) with you! This newsletter aims to provide you with summaries of recent research from the field of afterschool, summer, and out-of-school time science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. We want to offer ideas and recommendations for how the findings can be applied to practice, further research, and policy.

At the Afterschool STEM Hub, an initiative of the Afterschool Alliance, we are passionate about sharing the many ways that afterschool, summer, and other out-of-school time STEM experiences support positive outcomes for youth. Beyond these valuable individual-focused outcomes, afterschool STEM programs are also uniquely poised to engage with complex community, national, and global challenges, such as the environment, the responsible use of technology, and other issues. A growing number of STEM programs inspire young people to use their imagination to solve problems and spark community change.

In this edition of the ASQRR, we focus on exactly these types of programs. The two articles we review evaluate both the programs’ impact on youth and the youths’ impact on their communities. As afterschool programs around the country support more intentional youth leadership, there is a growing need for more research like this to demonstrate that having youth at the table is not just beneficial but essential for intergenerational approaches to complex societal challenges. 

We hope you enjoy reading the newsletter and are able to take actionable steps to apply the information to your work and advocacy.

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We look forward to sharing the next edition of the newsletter with you in 2025! In the meantime, please check out our website and follow us on LinkedIn to stay informed on what we are doing.