Local volunteer opportunities hold the potential for university students to develop as leaders and engaged members of the academic community, but students taking prescribed (sometimes termed developmental education) courses may be overlooked as candidates for these kinds of opportunities. Taking an anti-deficit stance, university faculty may…

This study focused on K-12 students attending outreach activities (i.e. activities from STEM-based industry emphasizing applications of STEM content in the STEM field), with the main objective being to motivate students for a future career in STEM. Outreach activities can be regarded as environments that extend the regular in-class learning…

The STEM Public Outreach Team (SPOT) at the University of Washington Bothell (UWB) provides training and community building opportunities for diverse STEM students that impact their persistence in STEM majors and careers. The University of Washington Center for Evaluation and Research for STEM Equity (CERSE) evaluated the experiences of SPOT…

Previous studies highlight the positive effects of science outreach labs, in particular on students' motivational variables. However, out-of-school learning is generally associated with high novelty and specific setting characteristics that can impact learning and development. Indeed, previous studies call for further research on students'…

All over the world, educational science outreach programs in which students can perform laboratory work have been developed. A common goal of these programs is to counteract students' decreasing motivation in STEM education. In Germany, several outreach science labs have been established over the last 20 years. It is assumed that the…

Molecular School (MS) is an extracurricular initiative intended to show relevant and complex concepts of chemical sciences to precollege students. The main goal is to motivate the participants to expand their awareness of chemical sciences and to acknowledge its relevance in everyday life, in order to stimulate the students to engage in chemistry…

How does a university serve the needs of students in the face of a global pandemic? In truly unprecedented times, administrators were pushed to perform in new modalities and under very different circumstances. For many months, change was the only constant and student support needs were a whole new world to navigate. The purpose of this…

When students drop out of high school there are substantial social and economic consequences that can persist throughout their lives. They are more likely to be unemployed, to become teenage parents, to become involved in the criminal justice system, and to suffer a lifetime of low wages. Dropout rates soared during the COVID-19 pandemic as…

Outreach activities have been an ongoing commitment of the American Chemical Society and other scientific organizations, yet formal assessment of outcomes has been infrequent. We have designed a simple, reliable, and robust format for assessing attitudinal and motivational characteristics of participants attending informal public events that…

Despite ongoing efforts to increase diversity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEM) fields, disparities persist. MYHealth Summer Launch is a virtual, out-of-school STEM outreach program aiming to increase participation of historically marginalized students in health research to develop researcher identity and…

Background and context: This study investigates differences in views of girl and boy members of a CS club. Objective: Understanding differences in the views of girls and boys regarding perceived parental attitudes and values, social support, appreciation of CS, and engagement in science and CS. Understanding differences in girls' and boys' view of…

This book is a collection of chapters addressing numerous features of motivation and success. It includes five chapters divided into two sections: "The Lens of Motivation" and "The Lens of Success". The book demonstrates how motivation can breed success with chapters on entrepreneurship, innovation, socio-culturalism and more.

Gender bias, reduced sense of belonging, and lower physics self-efficacy are among the challenges faced by women who choose to study physics. Prior studies focusing on this underrepresented group have examined the experiences and impacts of formal educational settings, leaving the impact of informal physics programs, frequently called outreach…

This report highlights the following four matters that warrant particular attention as the 2021-2022 school year gets underway: (1) Outreaching and reengaging disconnected students; (2) Improving differentiated instruction; (3) Broadly embedding social emotional learning and development; and (4) Reorganizing student/learning supports. To address…

Dual enrollment equity pathways (DEEP) is a research-based framework for rethinking dual enrollment as a more equitable on-ramp to college programs of study that lead to family-supporting, career-path jobs for students who might not otherwise pursue education after college. The DEEP approach involves community colleges and K-12 schools partnering…