Boys & Girls Club of America • Girls Inc.
National 4-H Council • Y-USA

IMAGINE SCIENCEPROGRAM UPDATE
Summer 2022

THE POWER OF COLLABORATION: In Action

INTRODUCTION

Careers in mathematics, science, engineering, and technology
are among the fastest growing and most rewarding professions intoday’s economy. But for many of the nation’s underserved
youth, these opportunities can seem far out of reach.
In 2015, four of the nation’s largest youth-serving organizations—Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Girls Inc., the National 4-H Council,
and the YMCA of the USA—joined forces to launch ImagineScience. Their mission is to build excitement and confidence inyoung people from low-income communities in pursuing STEMcareers. To date, partners working in eleven communities
nationwide have brought Imagine Science to over 40,000 underrepresented youth.

58%
GIRLS

89%
YOUTH OF COLOR

83%

The effort is getting results—71 percent of participating students
showed an increase in their enthusiasm for STEM learning
according to an independent evaluation, and 54 percent said
they were interested in pursuing a STEM career compared to anational benchmark of 46 percent.

FROM LOW-INCOME
HOUSEHOLDS

Getting youth excited about STEM takes high-quality programs,
and the secret to delivering them, partners say, is a high andoften unprecedented level of collaboration across organizations.
In the words of one Executive Director from NYC Imagine
Science: “It’s more brains, more ideas, more innovation, morescale and impact.”

NEW TO IMAGINE SCIENCEPARTNERSIn this special program update we hope you’ll enjoy learning
more about Imagine Science in action in two of our communities:
Lancaster, PA and Greater Houston/Texas Coastal Prairies, TX.

71%

36%
YOUTH IMPACTSTEM ENGAGEMENT(VS. 69% National Benchmark)

PROGRAM PARTNERS

50%
STEM IDENTITY(VS. 42% National Benchmark)

CONVENING PARTNER

54%
STEM CAREER INTEREST(VS. 46% National Benchmark)

2IMAGINE SCIENCE LANCASTER, PA

WHAT’S NEW
EXPANDING IMAGING SCIENCEIMPACT IN PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster, Pennsylvania is one of Imagine Science’s newest community
sites, launched in 2021. Nationally affiliated partners—Boys & Girls Clubof Lancaster, Penn State Extension - Lancaster County 4-H, Girls Inc. ofGreater Philadelphia & Southern New Jersey, and local partner BrightSide Opportunities Center—are pooling expertise and resources tocreate afterschool and summertime learning that sparks young
people’s interest in STEM careers. Nearly all participants are students ofcolor or girls, groups historically underrepresented in STEM fields.
Before Imagine Science, STEM activities at Camp Hogan would havebeen “pulled off Pinterest on the fly by college student counselors whodidn’t always know what they were doing,” said Mary Reidy, director ofprograms at Boys & Girls Club of Lancaster.
During the summer of 2022, over 300 participants signed up for Imagine
Science in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and were able to wade into astream that winds along the edge of Boys & Girls Club of Lancaster’sCamp Hogan and study it like environmental scientists. To assess water
quality, they collected samples to test for pH levels and nitrates andsearch for macro-invertebrates like crayfish, snails, and dragonflies.
This summer’s STEM activities came from the 4-H Rain to Drain
curriculum. Through hands-on investigations, students learned about thecauses and effects of stormwater runoff, how it’s managed, and how
green infrastructure like rainwater and permeable pavement can help
reduce it. Penn State Extension, which designed the curriculum, recently
trained staff from all the Imagine Science Lancaster partners.

Through hands-on investigations, kids
learned about the causes and effects ofstormwater runoff, how it’s managed,
and how green infrastructure like rainwaterand permeable pavement can help reduce it.

3

IMAGINE SCIENCE LANCASTER, PA“It’s been a great, exciting, informative summer,” said Megan Runkle,
program director at Boys & Girls Club of Lancaster’s Jack Walker
Clubhouse, who adapted the Rain to Drain curriculum for her program.
Girls Inc. of Greater Philadelphia & Southern New Jersey also provided
valuable training for Boys & Girls Club staff, Runkle said, including on how
to facilitate student-led STEM investigations. She said she’s thrilled that herImagine Science partners are helping move her program “towards morevaluable activities that challenge kids to solve a problem, conduct anexperiment, test a hypothesis and redesign based on the results.”
Penn State Extension also sees the benefit of the partnership, said LoriLittle, 4-H educator. Providing curriculum and training to other Imagine
Science partners allowed her to reach almost 400 students in 2021 without
hiring more staff, she said. “We also love that we can work with otheragencies and help reach urban youth, which is not our forte.”
Imagine Science programs in Lancaster run year-round. At Jack Walker
Clubhouse, afterschool programs in the spring and fall delved into other 4-H
curricula, such as Mars Base Camp, which had students design, build, test,and redesign Mars rovers, among other projects. But the summertime is whenthe Boys & Girls Club serves its largest number of Imagine Science students.
In summer 2021, the Boys and Girls Club of Lancaster served more than
200 youth with an Imagine Science program that followed the 4-H
Pollinators curriculum. Activities were both indoor, such as building modelsof ants and bees from craft supplies, and in the field observing andcollecting data, such as on which flowers attract different species ofpollinators. Some of the children attending might have missed out if notfor an innovative partnership. The Boys & Girls Club arranged for School
District of Lancaster to bus 65 elementary students assigned to summer
school to the Boys & Girls Club in the afternoons or on days whensummer school was out.
The pollinators curriculum was a hit with kids, Reidy said. “As the summer
went on, I would hear 6-,7-, 8-year-olds walking around at camp talking
to their friends about pollinators,” she recalled. “I think it’s the repetitionof the theme and connection to the environment around them. It wasrelevant to the kids because the camp was out in nature.”
At the Boys and Girls Club of Lancaster, Imagine Science helped build
relationships that drew new opportunities for students beyond the program.
Imagine Science’s robust science curriculum attracted two volunteers from alocal engineering company who helped enrich Imagine Science but alsooffered additional STEM programs during the school year.

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IMAGINE SCIENCE GREATER HOUSTON, TX

WHAT’S NEW
MULTIPLYING IMAGINE SCIENCEIMPACT IN TEXAS
Expanding the Imagine Science partnershipto include the rapidly growing counties
surrounding the Greater Houston metro area
made sense… especially as many newcomers
are low-income people of color.

In Summer 2022, Imagine Science Greater Houston partners launched anew collaborative project to serve the five surrounding counties andinclude new 4-H partners in Fort Bend, Galveston and other counties.
“We saw how great an impact Imagine Science had on youth inunderserved communities in Greater Houston,” said Kimber Williams,
program manager for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston “so wewanted to extend it to areas outside Harris County.”
Greater Houston’s four Imagine Science partners—the Boys & Girls Clubsof Greater Houston, YMCA of Greater Houston, Girls Inc. of Greater
Houston, and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service—spearheaded theexpansion. Each reached out to its affiliates in the surrounding counties
to collaborate on the plan. The new, expanded collaboration will beknown as Texas Coastal Prairies and will serve more than 700 students
at 15 sites in its first year.
“I am really, really excited about having Imagine Science,” said Andrea
Clark, club director of Mission Bend Boys & Girls Club in Fort Bend
County. Since the clubhouse opened in late 2020, parents have been
clamoring for STEM programs, she said, and without Imagine Science,
her staff would have been left on its own to search the internet foractivities. Through Imagine Science, her club now has access tocurriculum and training from STEM specialists at Texas A&M AgriLife
Extension Service and other Imagine Science partners, she said.
“Parents are excited that we’re doing STEM this summer, and I think mykids will really enjoy it.”5

IMAGINE SCIENCE GREATER HOUSTON, TX

Texas Coastal Prairies sites were able to select from a variety of rich
STEM curricula. This summer, many are opting for Nature Explore, aninvestigation of Texas ecology, including plant and wildlife habitats andfood webs. Activities engage students in “what actual stem professionals
do in their field, such as identifying specific habitats for native flora andfauna,” explained Jaden Kelly, Harris County 4-H extension agent for
Texas AgriLife. He designed the curriculum and piloted it last summer atYMCAs in and around Harris County.
Expanding the Imagine Science partnership to include the rapidly
growing counties surrounding the Greater Houston metro area madesense, he said, especially as many newcomers are low-income people ofcolor. “The kids we want to serve are there,” he explained, “and they are
there in big numbers.”“We saw how great an impact
Imagine Science had on youth inunderserved communities in Greater
Houston, so we wanted to extend it
to areas outside Harris County.”

Imagine Science Partners in Greater Houston want to do more than
expand the initiative to surrounding counties. They aim to inspire theirBoys & Girls Clubs, YMCAs, Girls Inc. and 4-H counterparts in other large
metro areas in Texas to form similar partnerships.
“Imagine Science, to me, is a model that should be replicated across thestate,” said David Wright, urban program director at Texas A&M AgriLife
Extension Service, who is leading the effort he dubbed “Amplify.”
Practices the Imagine Science partners are advocating include sharing
STEM curricula and professional development, collaborating on grant
proposals, and observing each other’s STEM programs to provide
feedback and spur improvement. “All of us at the table in Greater
Houston found out things we didn’t know,” Wright explained. “We foundout what we were good at and things we need to do a better job at.
We came together to create a really unique program.”
6IMAGINE SCIENCE HOUSTON, TX

To spread the word on the benefits of working together, Imagine
Science partners are speaking at statewide and national conferences.
Kimber Williams and Jaden Kelly did a joint presentation for a Texas
A&M AgriLife Extension Service urban summit called “Collaboration notCompetition.” They also spoke to at a Junior Master Gardener nationalleadership conference. So far, they’ve followed up with interested
groups both in-state and as far away as Michigan, Kelly said.
Greater Houston partners are also reaching out individually to contacts
in other metro areas. In Fort Worth, Fralonda Aubrey, a program director
for the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Tarrant County, is talking with Kelly
about bringing 4-H programs to her club.
“Most organizations operate on their own, having their own curriculum,
their own services, their own ideas,” said Aubrey, who formerly
participated with Imagine Science in Greater Houston. “But when you
get together and share you are able to give an experience theywouldn’t get if that partnership hadn’t happened.”
Wright observed that it takes time for busy youth organizations to buildrelationships and commit to new partnerships. But the interest is growing,
he said. “I think two years from now we’ll have most of our counterpartsin urban counties in Texas sitting at a table talking about how we canwork together,” he predicted.” There are too many benefits for us not towork together.”7

Imagine Science is a collaboration of four leading national youth organizations and the STEM Next
Opportunity Fund formed to bridge the STEM gap by igniting the imaginations of historically underrepresented youth. We believe that prolonged, informal exposure to STEM increases a child's interestand builds a foundation for proficiency through high school and beyond. To learn more or make adonation visit, www.imaginesci.org/Boys & Girls Club of America • Girls Inc.
National 4-H Council • Y-USA