Are Students More Engaged When Schools Offer Extracurricular Activities?

Science project. The very phrase is nearly synonymous with hands-on learning, learning-by-doing, collaboration. Are students more engaged and do they perform better in science if their school encourages them to work on science projects, participate in science fairs, belong to a science-related club or go on science-related field trips – in addition to teaching them the mandatory science curriculum? To find out, PISA 2006 asked school principals about what kinds of extracurricular science activities they offered their students and linked their responses with students’ performance on the PISA science test.