Design It! Building Design Challenges in After School Programs: Final Evaluation Report

Design It! Building Design Challenges in After School Programs, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a collaboration between the Education Development Center (EDC), the National Institute for Out-of-School Time (NIOST) and science centers/museums and after school programs located in community-based organizations (CBOs) in six cities. The project's primary goal was to improve the quality of programming in after school programs by establishing long term relationships between science centers/museums and after school programs and developing, incorporating and institutionalizing hands-on, inquiry-based design activities in the programs. Central to this goal was the development of a series of units of hands-on design related activities covering everything from Cranes and Trebuchets to Pinballs and Balloon-powered Cars. These units were implemented in varying degrees by over forty after school programs in the six geographic areas.