In this article, we explore how children of late elementary to middle school age, from low-income communities in an East-Central metropolitan area of Canada, described their interests in and attitudes toward science in an out-of-school science club program. We used the children's descriptions of emotional engagement to gain insights into the identity work being carried out in the science club. Our analysis was based on survey responses from 202 children enrolled for at least one academic year in the science club program at 21 different club sites and focus group commentary from a subset of 45 children attending 14 of the clubs. We added context to the children's perspectives by including commentary from semistructured interviews with nine science club staffers and insights from field notes made after club promotional events. Analysis revealed the enthusiasm of children and/or their families for science education prior to engaging with the clubs. The children's anticipation that club science would reflect their school-based science experiences was quickly dispelled by the hands-on nature of club activities and the positive relationships built with club staffers. Of concern was the finding that staff and children frequently reinforced a rigid dichotomy between school and club science. This distinction meant that, although children described themselves as improving their performance in school science, they often found it difficult to relate the fun enacted during club sessions to the learning that is required during school science classes. This finding is problematic given the club's focus on keeping children's options in formal and informal science education open for as long as possible. The paper concludes by using the insights provided by children and club staffers to propose ways of enhancing the club/school/home science connection to better support transfer of the positive outcomes of the club-based science identity work.

中文翻译：

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科学参与作为对基于社区的科学俱乐部培养的科学身份工作的洞察力

在本文中，我们探讨了来自加拿大中东部大都市区低收入社区的小学到中学晚期的儿童如何在校外科学俱乐部计划中描述他们对科学的兴趣和态度。我们使用孩子们对情感参与的描述来深入了解科学俱乐部正在进行的身份识别工作。我们的分析基于对在 21 个不同俱乐部地点参加科学俱乐部计划至少一学年的 202 名儿童的调查反馈以及来自参加 14 个俱乐部的 45 名儿童的子集的焦点小组评论。我们通过包括对九名科学俱乐部工作人员的半结构化访谈的评论以及俱乐部宣传活动后现场笔记的见解，为儿童的观点添加了背景信息。分析揭示了儿童和/或其家人在加入俱乐部之前对科学教育的热情。孩子们对俱乐部科学将反映他们在学校的科学经历的期望很快被俱乐部活动的动手性质以及与俱乐部工作人员建立的积极关系所驱散。令人担忧的是，发现工作人员和儿童经常强化学校和俱乐部科学之间的严格二分法。这种区别意味着，尽管孩子们描述自己在学校科学方面的表现有所提高，但他们经常发现很难将俱乐部课程中的乐趣与学校科学课程所需的学习联系起来。鉴于俱乐部专注于让儿童保持健康，这一发现是有问题的。正规和非正规科学教育的选择尽可能长。本文最后利用儿童和俱乐部工作人员提供的见解提出了增强俱乐部/学校/家庭科学联系的方法，以更好地支持以俱乐部为基础的科学身份工作的积极成果的转移。