Balancing Acts: Managing the Tensions Inherent in Long-Term Youth-Led Projects

Autor/inn/en	Eyerman, Suzanne; Hug, Sarah
Titel	Balancing Acts: Managing the Tensions Inherent in Long-Term Youth-Led Projects
Quelle	In: Afterschool Matters, (2020) 33, S.25-31 (7 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Schlagwörter	Youth Programs; Females; Adolescents; STEM Education; After School Programs; Problem Solving; Critical Thinking; Empowerment; Middle School Students; Curriculum Implementation; Student Projects; Active Learning + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Jugendsofortprogramm; Weibliches Geschlecht; Adolescent; Adolescence; Adoleszenz; Jugend; Jugendalter; Jugendlicher; STEM; After school education; After-school programs; Program; Programs; Programme; Außerschulische Jugendbildung; Programm; Problemlösen; Kritisches Denken; Middle school; Middle schools; Student; Students; Mittelschule; Mittelstufenschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Schulprojekt; Aktives Lernen
Abstract	For many years, Techbridge Girls focused its weekly sessions on stand-alone lessons that asked participants to develop products that fulfilled specific criteria, such as "create the bounciest rubber ball," "build the tallest paper tower," or "design the largest bubbles." These activities typically lasted one or two sessions. Recently, the organization became eager to expose participants to more comprehensive, and therefore lengthier, design experiences while also wanting to keep the projects manageable for participants, program coordinators, and teachers. How could a larger design experience be implemented so that it would still fit into the two-hour weekly timeframe, the supply budget, and the program's staffing restrictions? That is, how would Techbridge Girls manage the tensions inherent in implementing long-term projects with adolescents? This article explores how Techbridge Girls worked to stimulate long-term engagement and create opportunities for youth empowerment in semester-long community impact projects. It shows how staff and organization leaders used these long-term design projects to give participants opportunities for problem solving, critical thinking, and youth agency. Interview and focus group protocols emphasized the community impact projects that are the subject of this article. Though data was collected for all five years of the initiative from all sites, the analysis in this article relies on data from the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years and on data from six sites. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	National Institute on Out-of-School Time. Wellesley Centers for Women, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481. Tel: 781-283-2547; Fax: 781-283-3657; e-mail: niost@wellesley.edu; Web site: http://www.niost.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01