Teachers tell us that kids learn best when they have an interest in the subject, are in a relaxed atmosphere, and take an active part in learning. Sending your child to an after school science program is more than a daycare option or extended learning experience. After school science programs educate your child in a variety of ways, often without them even knowing it!
Benefits of attending an after school science club.
- Make new friends
- Build social skills and self-esteem
- Support Common Core learning
- Improve grades
- Improve attendance
- Improve behavior
- Make New Friends
Afterschool science clubs give kids a new opportunity to make friends in an environment where everyone has a shared interest. Clubs are often smaller and have more adult supervision helping kids experience making new friends without the usual cliques and social issues sometimes found in larger school classrooms.
Build Social Skills & Self Esteem
The hands-on experiments in science club require kids to work together learning cooperation and communication skills in a fun and stress-free (no tests) setting. This improves students' self-esteem and confidence inside and outside of the science club. This is confirmed through studies with The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning who found that “evidence-based approaches to improving students' personal and social skills were consistently successful in producing multiple benefits for youth including improvements in children's personal, social and academic skills, as well as their self-esteem.”
Support Common Core Learning
Science clubs use the Scientific Method aka Scientific and Engineering Practices. Hands-on learning and the weekly programs allow for long-term projects encouraging participants to ask questions and to think critically. This evidence-based reasoning, analyzing, and shared activity aligns with the Common Core standards and skills required in science, language arts and mathematics.
Improves grades
Enrolling a child in an after school science club helps boosts their understanding of the subject matter that may be a part of their current or future school curriculum. According to the Afterschool Alliance, and the Policy Studies Association “regular participation in afterschool is linked to significantly improved work habits, overall behavior, and reduced behavior problems, thus facilitating academic improvements.”
Improves attendance
Various studies have shown improved attendance at school when enrolled in an after school club. As mentioned, making new friends with a shared interest increases a sense of belonging, a connection to the club leader, and the relaxed atmosphere that academic enrichment programs provide can improve a child’s desire to attend school.
Improves behavior
Elizabeth Burmaster (Wisconsin State Superintendent) is quoted as saying “afterschool activities that support student learning... decreased behavior problems for youth.” The Harvard Family Research Project has also found that participation in afterschool programs is associated with decreased behavioral problems. All of our STEM clubs and camps start with a review of expectations for behavior and safety procedures.
THE MOST IMPORTANT BENEFIT!
Mr. Bond’s Science Guys have been making science fun, cool and easy for kids across Tennessee for over 20 years. Taking the fear out of learning science and focusing on FUN experiments is their number one priority. Over and over again during their clubs, camps, in-school field trips, and other hands-on science programs, the Science Guys have seen kids develop a love for science. In turn, students develop critical thinking, are encouraged to ask questions and learn that things don’t always go as expected!
Learn more about Mr. Bond’s Science Guys Science Clubs, Camps and other programs at MrBondScienceGuy.com.
Resources
- http://afterschoolalliance.org//documents/issue_briefs/issue_sch_success_31.pdf
- https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/tutors/afterschool-programs/benefits-afterschool-programs-kids-with-learning-attention-issues
- http://afterschoolalliance.org//documents/issue_briefs/issue_common_core_63.pdf
- http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/
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