I remembering reminding a group of teachers that Richard Feynman was a total hooligan and really incorrigible in a lot of ways. But he had unlimited mental abilities.
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There is a paucity of research on what drives free-choice as it relates to STEM selection and how that changes with demographics.
** Dabney, K. P., Tai, R. H., Almarode, J. T., Miller-Friedmann, J. L., Sonnert, G., Sadler, P. M., & Hazari, Z. (2012).
Out-of-school time science activities and their association with career interest in STEM.
International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 2(1), 63-79
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2011.629455
** Wang, X. (2013).
Why Students Choose STEM Majors Motivation, High School Learning, and Postsecondary Context of Support.
American Educational Research Journal, 0002831213488622.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0002831213488622
So a good research project would be a mixed method qualitative with focus group interview of YLTs and participants to understand why are they participating in TSC events, and what have been features of their formal STEM learning.