LGBTQIA + college students are navigating a variety of social environments on college campuses. Faculty support, interaction with the LGBTQIA + community, and LGBTQIA + curriculum content are important ways that help support LGBTQIA + students thrive in college. Camp Qmunity is an interdisciplinary LGBTQIA + summer intensive program that allows…

Current visions of science education advocate that students should engage with science in the classroom in ways that mirror the work of scientists in order to develop science proficiency. For this goal, teachers are tasked with the complex responsibility of supporting students in understanding not only the conceptual knowledge of science, but also…

This study is a two-iteration design-based research project that investigated how youths' science learning and socio-emotional attitudes toward science were influenced by a summer camp with a personal genetics approach. A multidisciplinary team developed a 2-week camp curriculum that included personal DNA tests, family genealogy projects, and…

Many high school students learn about nutrient cycling during biology, environmental science, and agriculture classes. These lessons often focus on soil and plants, and nutrient cycling is usually taught independently from climate change. Scientists know that animals, including fish, can have strong effects on nutrient cycling (i.e., nitrogen and…

The Junior Knight Camp is an annual summer program that specifically supports elementary school students in an effort to increase knowledge of social studies using an interdisciplinary thematic approach. This interdisciplinary approach includes STEM, the arts, literacy, and physical education. The camp operates on multiple campuses of the…

Purpose: To examine the impact of an out-of-school swimming program on children and youth from one underserved community. Method: Participants were 200 children and youth who attended the out-of-school swimming program during two consecutive summers. The theoretical framework employed drew from previous research on socialization. A mixed-methods…

Introduction: Albinism is a genetic condition caused by a lack of pigment in the eyes, with some forms of albinism also affecting pigmentation in the hair and skin. Individuals with albinism experience some degree of visual impairment as well as hypopigmentation. Both visual impairment and physical appearance may contribute to students with…

Digital safety involves protecting oneself, and one's personal information to mitigate the risks that are inherently associated with using digital technologies. This study employed a multi-method design to explore 26 inservice and preservice elementary teacher experiences from attending a professional development on digital safety and facilitating…

Students who develop interest in STEM careers by the eighth grade are more likely to pursue careers in STEM (Tai et al., 2006). Interest development can happen through a variety of sources, including informal learning experiences such as out of school programs and summer camps. This study looks at one such informal STEM experience, an engineering…

This article evaluates Make it Happen Summer School according to Bernstein's writing on classification, framing, and recontextualisation. The project was a collaboration between a university and an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) that aimed to develop a curriculum for creative practitioners so they could learn to propose…

The purpose of this paper is to present a profile of middle-school-age youth who participated in a weeklong experiential residential camp focused on helping campers learn about and interact with money, personal finance topics, and mainstream financial service providers. Based on pre- and post-test data, it was determined an experiential real-world…

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the UCSF Summer Student Research Program (SSRP) in enhancing research-related skills, academic outcomes, and post-baccalaureate aspirations of underrepresented minority (URM) and non-URM undergraduate students in biomedical sciences and STEM fields. The SSRP, spanning 9 weeks, provides immersive research…

To promote health equity, it is crucial to educate the next generation of healthcare workers about disparities early on during their education. We developed a virtual research program at a medical school in the United States of America with the goal of increasing the awareness of youth about the complexities of health inequities. The program was…

We report a program for a summer science academy in chemistry, a section of the Chicago Academic Achievement Program (CAAP) at the University of Chicago, as a gateway to STEM for incoming first-generation students and other underrepresented student groups. Our program emphasized diversity in classrooms, students' psychological safety and a sense…

As change agents at our university, we sought to facilitate a transition within our STEM college toward more extensive use of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) that promote student-centered learning. We sought a multifaceted approach for this challenge, with the goal of achieving lasting change among the faculty, resulting in the…