Discovery Youth Goals

 

Below are the goals that CDM outlined in the original proposal describing Discovery Youth (DY). Beneath each goal is a brief description of the most relevant success and challenge that arose in each case as articulated in interviews, focus groups, and the projects that participants created.

 

The Successes and Challenges pages of this site discuss these findings in more detail and include the many successes and challenges that popped up during the program year that were not part of the original goals of the program.

 

Goal: By June 2003, 70 young adolescents (45 in Year One and 25 in Year Two) will produce 27 media pieces for radio, video, and the Web

 

• Success: Extremely high-quality video, animation, and puppetry pieces produced
• Challenge: Balancing trade-offs of quality vs. quantity

 

Goal: By June 2003, 75 percent of participants will indicate increased confidence, greater social skills, and development of stronger relationships with peers.

 

• Success: Participants exhibit tremendous confidence in their work, and have built meaningful relationships with adults and peers that have produced a caring community
• Challenge: Measuring confidence outside of DY setting is challenging

 

Goal: By June 2003, 75 percent of participants will indicate having experienced a positive relationship with one or more caring adults (program staff, project advisors, professionals)

 

• Success: One of the absolute successes of DY is the supportive, caring, and positive relationships that the participants have with the staff. "I feel like I can tell them anything" - DY Participant
• Challenge: High rate of staff turnover means that participants are continually rebuilding relationships with staff

 

Goal: By June 2003, 70 young adolescents will increase their health knowledge through research and media design projects as measured by youth questionnaires and lead health awareness projects for younger museum visitors.

 

• Success: Participants wrote, designed, and performed large scale puppet show for multiple audiences
• Challenge: Difficult to develop tools that accurately reflect health knowledge gained in DY

 

Goal: By June 2003, 700 young people in Santa Clara County will be exposed to high-quality, health-related radio, video, and Web presentations led by program participants

 

• Success: Participants gained experience in how to learn new technologies quickly.
• Challenge: Producing radio and web projects has less appeal to participants and staff than video, animation, and digital imagery.

 

Goal: By June 2003, through service learning projects, participants will design and implement health-related activities that benefit 10,000 young children in Zoom Zone

 

• Success: Participants love the responsibility of teaching younger visitors in the Zoom Zone and throughout the Museum
• Challenge: Continue high level of service in the Zoom Zone