Project Directors: Sumru Erkut, Ph.D., Fern Marx, M.H.S.M., Jacqueline P. Fields, Ph.D.

Sumru Erkut, Fern Marx, and Jacqueline Fields carried out a three-year process evaluation of this after-school science exploration project. SCOPE, an inquiry-based science enrichment program that meets once a week, served upper-elementary and middle school-aged girls in Worcester at Girls, Inc. The program was implemented as part of a collaboration between UMass Medical Center, The EcoTarium, and Girls, Inc., Worcester. The weekly afternoon meetings that took place during the school year were preceded by the week-long, full-day Summer Institute. The girls worked on a different science theme over the course of the school year that was introduced during the Summer Institute. The program constituted sustained intervention, in that the girls had to commit to a full year's participation in SCOPE and the program succeeded in retaining many girls for more than one year. The evaluators identified eight elements that accounted for the survival of SCOPE as a collaborative endeavor for more than five years.