The USI program was established by the NSF to effect sustained school reform in urban centers. The expanded Science Scholars program features a few modifications, including a change in the target age group from grades 7 through 12, to grades 4 through 8. According to Steckler, this allows the program to reach young girls before peer pressure and other influences have convinced them that girls cannot or should not excel in the sciences. Significantly, the program is also administered at the girls' schools instead of at SDSC, allowing for greater integration with classroom science lessons and involvement of teachers. Where the prior Scholars program took advantage of SDSC's computing facilities, a classroom set of laptops, fully loaded with educational software, now rotates among the participating elementary schools.
Middle schools use their own computer labs with program-provided software.
The school-day program features an elective curriculum of scientific enrichment and is offered weekly to girls in grades 4 through 6 and to interested middle school groups in schools with majority populations that are underrepresented in science. In the 1997-1998 school year more than 2,000 girls participated in the program. Families of girls participating in the school-day elective also become involved in the program through family science nights, exposing them to the work and materials their girls are using throughout the year. Activities include working with computers, microscopes, bridge building, gears, soap bubbles, fossils, and chromatography. Each family will also go home with a goodie bag that will contain experiments like Rubber Flubber and science toys like magnets, magnifying glasses, and slinkies.