2007 Evaluation demonstrates that Kinetic City After School significantly increases reading/writing proficiency along with science skills

A July 2007 study conducted by the independent research company Edumetrics found that children participating in the Kinetic City After School program showed improvements not only in their knowledge of standards-based science content-- which is to be expected of a science program-- but also in their ability to read a seventh-grade level reading assignment, and compose a letter based on the information in the passage.

Children doubled their knowledge of the science content, showed more interest in science careers, and were more likely to have engaged in science activities "just for fun."

Children also showed substantial improvement in their ability to read a difficult passage and incorporate information from the passage into a letter. Children's writing assignments were graded on a scale of 0 to 3, with 0 representing no response or a completely incorrect response and 3 representing a complete and correct letter plus an extra credit assignment. Nearly  66% of participants received 0's prior to participating in Kinetic City, and fewer than 3% got 2’s or 3’s. After participation, just 34% of the children were unable to complete the assignment, and nearly 25% got 2’s and 3’s. The increase in the numbers of students who showed proficiency—from 3 % of the students before participation to 25% of the students afterward—was particularly striking.

Complete 2007 Kinetic City After School Evaluation (PDF, 540 K)

2005 Kinetic City After School Evaluation Shows Student Improvement

An evaluation of student performance before and after participation in Kinetic City After School was performed by Edumetrics in the Spring of 2005. Completed in July of 2005, the report shows substantial gains in children’s knowledge of science content, gains in motivation to participate in science activities outside of school, and increases in the numbers of children who predict that they will work in a science-related field. The evaluation also revealed substantial improvements in students’ ability to read a complex passage and respond with a creative writing assignment in which they demonstrate their knowledge of the material in the essay.

Complete 2005 Kinetic City After School Evaluation (PDF, 1.2 MB)

2001 Kinetic City After School Formative and Summative Evaluation Results

In the Spring of 2001, the AAAS commissioned an independent evaluator, Edumetrics, to evaluate the program, including a controlled test of how well children learned national science standard based content as a result of participating in Kinetic City.

The study found that even after just two months, children improved their knowledge of the science content dramatically, as revealed by comparing pre-tests, given before the program began, and post-tests, given at the end.

In addition, it found that children who performed the Kinetic City learning activities, but did not have access to the Kinetic City website and on-line story game, improved, but far less dramatically than children who participated in the full program.

Finally, the survey asked children their opinion about the website and program, and found that children had very positive feelings about Kinetic City. The evaluation was performed on a prototype of the website. With the information gained from the evaluation, we created the program and website now available.

Complete 2001 Kinetic City After School Evaluation (PDF,196K)