Modern Blanket Toss: Findings and Observations

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
The evaluation addresses three primary questions:
1) How does participation in Modern Blanket Toss
activities impact students’ likelihood to pursue STEM
careers?
2) How does participation in the Modern Blanket Toss
project impact students’ academic performance?
3) What factors contributed to or hindered the
achievement of these two short-term outcomes?
The evaluation uses quasi-experimental design to address questions 1 and
2: students from the four Upward Bound communities participating in the
project will serve as the test group, and students from the remaining six
Upward Bound communities will serve as a control group. The evaluation
will adopt a descriptive design to answer question 3.
To assess students’ satisfaction with and engagement in project activities,
each year the evaluation used
1) a pre- and post- interview with students who attended the summer
component, and
2) a pre- and post- survey with all participating students. Larson conducted
surveys of Upward Bound site coordinators at the beginning of the
project, after the summer component, and at the end of each school
year in order to assess their preparation and knowledge of STEM
content.
In the formative stages, evaluation data was used to inform project
development and measure factors that may contribute to or hinder the
achievement of short-term outcomes. Formative evaluation data will be
analyzed using parametric and nonparametric statistics (e.g., t-tests, chisquares,
analysis of variance [ANOVA]) to measure changes in
understanding and to correlate observed changes with factors -
satisfaction, engagement, prior knowledge and interest, local coordinator
preparation - that may have influenced changes in learning, interest and
self-confidence. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. These
results were used to improve the program materials and activities.
Results that indicate changes in the key indicators of likelihood to pursue a
STEM career, and changes in key academic indicators, will be used for both
formative and summative purposes. Students completed surveys before
and after the summer component as well as in the fall and spring of each
school year, while academic data (see below) was collected each spring.
Results from program participants will be compared to the control group
annually to inform project development, and was compared longitudinally
over the three-year project period to provide summative evaluation
results.
Reports were provided to program staff after major project activities,
annually, and at the end of the three-year project. Formal presentations of
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