Despite growing interest in apprenticeship, many employers remain unsure how to get started--especially when it comes to hiring younger workers. This brief examines how the Urban Institute and the Institute for Workplace Skills and Innovation America supported employers in designing and launching youth apprenticeship programs, drawing on five…

Chemistry is a vital and highly relevant field of science that is under-represented in science centers and museums. Amidst concerns that the public is ambivalent about the chemistry field, the "Explore Science: Let's Do Chemistry" project sought to understand how to design hands-on activities that could increase the feelings of interest,…

Recent studies have identified that engaging middle school students (grades 6-8) in STEM activities increases their chances of choosing STEM-related disciplines when entering college; however, very few university-sponsored opportunities are available for these students. This paper describes an outreach day for middle school students consisting of…

Professional societies and institutes have stressed the importance of a dialogue between scientists and the public over the past decades. Especially the life sciences include many highly relevant research topics pertaining not only to scientific progress but also to decision-making in society. Surprisingly, few educational researchers and…

Museums are a place of experiential and inquiry learning for young children. We know that children's experiences at museums can provide novel opportunities to interact with rare artefacts, can extend concepts explored in early childhood curricula and encourage knowledge sharing with families. Research on the efficacy or outcomes of museum programs…

Previous research suggests that early experience of and exposure to the world of work is an important predictor of a child's future involvement in a STEM career. Many interventions have focused on those in secondary education age 11 years and above. Far fewer interventions have explored the impact of STEM outreach engagements among younger age…

This paper describes an engineering outreach programme designed to increase the interest of under-represented youth in engineering and to disseminate pre-engineering design challenge materials to K-12 educators and volunteers. Given university students' critical role as facilitators of the outreach programme, researchers conducted a two-year…

Sustainability Camps provide an opportunity for Extension educators to be in the forefront of sustainability outreach and to meet the growing demand for sustainability education. This article shares development, implementation, and evaluation of an Extension Sustainability Camp for youth, grades 4-6. Camp impact was measured via daily pre-and…

This article highlights findings from an evaluation that explored the impact of mobile versus clinic-based testing, rapid versus central-lab based testing, incentives for testing, and the use of a computer counseling program to guide counseling and automate evaluation in a mobile program reaching people of color at risk for HIV. The program's…

In 2001, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the multi-year, multi-million dollar Washington State Achievers Scholarship program. Concerned about disparities in college participation for low-income students in the state of Washington versus their wealthier peers, the Gates Foundation partnered with the College Success Foundation…

Community-based educational programs play a significant role in the education and positive development of youth. Over the last decade, the Oregon 4-H Youth Development program has made special efforts to reach and engage Latino youth and families in non-formal educational programs. Latino families most often do not access community-based…

Points out that successful telephone hotlines for children share several common denominators, including a pro-family philosophy, the use of highly trained volunteers, a sensitivity to cultural and language differences, and other administrative and legal factors. Advocates the establishment of a national children's help line. (BB)

Many short-duration science outreach interventions have important societal goals of raising science literacy and increasing the size and diversity of the science workforce. Yet, these long-term outcomes are inherently challenging to evaluate. We present findings from a qualitative research study of an inquiry-based, life science outreach program…

Freshmen Pre-Orientation Programs (FPOPs) can be powerful outreach tools for incoming college students and provide an exciting introduction to the field of engineering. The benefits reach not only the first year students, but also the upperclassmen who help to run the programs and the departments that sponsor them. A family of three engineering…

Describes a three-tiered approach that the Omega Boys Club of San Francisco uses to help stop violence among inner-city youth. Essential steps of the plan are to provide appropriate information through effective communication channels, to show youth alternative ways of living that allow them to release their negative behavior, and to teach them…