ANDERSON, Ind. — As she links electrical wires to plastic disks and cubes, 13-year-old Alaisha Arthur doesn’t seem to mind that her school day is extended while she participates in the Boys and Girls Club of Indiana’s new STEM program.

The eighth-grader is one of about 20 students in Grades 6 through 12 participating in the monthlong science, technology, engineering and math program, “Boiler Bang!”

“I kind of like it because it’s kind of like school but it’s not really,” Arthur said. “I like to build stuff, and I wanted to do stuff with math.”

The Anderson Township Trustee’s Girls and Boys Club opened in September, and joined forces with Purdue Polytechnic University at Anderson to start the county’s first free recreational STEM program.

As schools are pushed to focus measurable academic results through standardized tests, programs like music, arts and technology are often reduced or cut. After school programs like Boiler Bang! provide supplementary classes that students may otherwise not have access to.

According to a study done by Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and STEM Next, more than 70 percent of students who participated in after school STEM programs showed positive gains in all related subjects and careers, as well as in their knowledge and technologic skills.

Arthur, who is considering a career as a doctor or lawyer, said the after-school program is right up her alley because math is her favorite subject.

“I like everything where you have to have one answer, not multiple answers,” she said.

The program, which takes place on the Purdue Polytechnic campus from 4:30 to 7 p.m., includes a wood shop class on Mondays and a robotics class on Wednesdays.

Larry McClendon, the Girls and Boys Club after-school program director, said it’s important for young people to continue learning even after the school day ends.

“We want to have more than recreation with the kids,” he said. “When you think of a STEM program, it covers it all for the kids and gets them college prepared.”

Many of the students who attend the after-school program might not have exposure to college preparation programs through their schools, McClendon said. Boiler Bang! closes that gap.

“That’s the importance of quality after-school programs. They enhance what happens in school,” he said.

Spending time on a college campus also normalizes the experience for the students, allowing them to feel as if they belong there, McClendon said.

Boiler Bang! also is good for those preparing for a trade rather than college, McClendon said.

“I think we can excite them in a way the teachers can’t excite them,” he said.

Lorri Barnett, business leadership, industrial tech and supply chain lecturer at Purdue Polytechnic, leads the Boiler Bang! classes.

“For me, personally, it’s about engaging the community and what we have to offer here,” she said. “Partnering with the Girls and Boys Club allows us to show what we have here and to give back to the community in a small way.”

Though STEM education is a primary goal of the Boiler Bang! program, students also receive valuable education about the ongoing attendance and performance standards that remain crucial as they continue their educations and enter the workforce.

For example, program guidelines encourage attendance by not permitting students to attend Boiler Bang! on days when they are absent from school and the students must maintain a grade point average of at least a 2.5.

Barnett said if she was able to reach one child and introduce her to things many take for granted, it was worth the experience.

“It’s about little insights where we see their face light up,” she said. “Maybe we open their eyes to the endless possibilities about who they might be when they grow up.”

Bibbs writes for the Anderson, Indiana Herald Bulletin.