Off-class activities tailored to students of lower socio-economic status (İntel Student Program-İstanbul case)

In our study, it is aimed to equip the students of 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades at public elementary schools, in societies of lower and medium classes, with personal, academic and social qualifications. In order to provide off-class activities in this country, the Intel Student Program Learning Centers (the schools where the Intel Student Program is carried out are considered as learning centers) are tried to be socio-economically taken advantage of. Through this program, the students can acquire technological-literacy, critical-thinking and teamwork skills, and this way they can contribute to their professional skills in the future. In our study towards Intel Student Program, the multi-stage sampling technique is adopted. Our study includes 983 students of 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades attending the elementary schools which were chosen by this sampling method. The findings of this research include socio-economic conditions which are consistent with the target mass of the Intel Student Program Learning Centers? programs. The elementary school students of lower and medium socio-economic classes indicated their desire to participate off-class activities and professional skill trainings. Among off-class activities, the sports and computer branches are the most desired. The students indicated that they need professional skill training on computer branch in particular. The surveys conducted in this research indicate that the students? preferences on the off-class activities branches differ based on the schools. This research revealed that the factors of age, gender, education level of father, whether there exists a study room at home, the case of after-school work, have an impact on the preferences. The preferences of the students on professional education differ based on the household income, age and gender. The relations between the students? preferences and the factors of age, gender, education level of father and household income are meaningfully correlated. The Intel Student Program helped students acquire technogical-literacy and teamwork skills as off-class activities. It was observed that the factors of students? age, gender, previous computer training, and computer ownership had no impact on the fundamentals of the program. In the study, the duration of the program is determined to be sufficient. Almost all of the students indicated satisfaction from the training program. Key Words: Primary School Education, Off-Class Activity, Socio-Economic Status, Professional Training.