Informal science learning programs provide youth with opportunities to explore environmental challenges and potential solutions, often in personally relevant community contexts. Yet limited information is available regarding learning outcomes of such programs. In programming led by a university-based science education program and a youth-serving organization, 30 youth explored air quality science (including wildfire smoke) as one component of a week-long Summer Academy. Youth participated in approximately 12 hours of hands-on learning, including measuring air quality using handheld sensors and building and testing a box fan filter system, before developing posters and oral presentations to share their knowledge and reflections with their families and community leaders during a final event. Each group created a hand-made poster, with a unique look and writing style, that represented their science learning and the meaning they made. In addition to demonstrating awareness about local air quality issues, youth addressed actions they could take in their communities to measure and improve air quality. The adapted poster format and accompanying presentations provided youth with an opportunity to communicate their science learning and share new insights with others, while also providing a mechanism for project staff to assess youth learning outcomes.