The expectations of first-year students are becoming more widely researched and understood. How to realign perceptions and prepare students for the transition from secondary school to tertiary education is less well considered. This paper presents an account of a pre-university preparation programme embedded in the senior years of secondary…

Global competitiveness of the United States is often suggested as a key outcome of developing a capable science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce, a goal supported by many local, state, and national programs. Examining the effectiveness of such programs, however, may require assessment techniques that are outside their…

A study of teachers' responses to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in a graduate course in Literature and Education for Sustainable Development, at the School of Education, The University of the West Indies, Mona, revealed that ESD can change indifference to the "commons" to one of mindfulness about local and global…

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…

Over the past three years, California State University, Bakersfield received NSF funding to support hands-on explorations in "network security" and "cryptography" through Research Experience Vitalizing Science-University Program (REVS-UP). In addition to the summer bridge component, the grant included development of…

Over the past decade, the federal investment in higher education has grown, the public demand for a postsecondary degree has risen, and skepticism about the value and meaning of the degree has increased. This confluence has prompted a more intense federal interest in having clear and comparable information about colleges and universities available…

Respondents to our 2011 survey on the impact of Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) grants administered by HUD between 1994 and 2005 reported deep and lasting impacts on their respective institutions. These grants affected institutional structures, embedded community engagement within institutional cultures and academic curricula, and…

The University of Missouri Extension needed to develop an annual program review process that collaboratively engaged county-level stakeholders. The results from the first 2 years highlight the results, challenges, and implications of the design process. The annual review process needs to be adaptive, responsive, and reflective from year to year…

This paper explores the management and outcomes of a specific model of intergenerational learning, concerned with student digital leader support in a number of secondary schools in England. A local educational partnership set up a student digital leader project late in 2011, which aimed to develop a range of skills and outcomes for both the…

Expanding and diversifying the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce is a national priority. The National Science Foundation is investing efforts at post secondary education institutions to engage individuals who have been historically underrepresented in STEM. This paper investigated the use of strategies to broaden…

College students have a tendency to become stressed from both their schoolwork and their personal lives. As the end of a semester approaches, the stress levels begin to rise for everyone. The procrastinators, the planners, and even those ahead in their work become tenser even with small problems, such as slow printers or an unavailable book needed…

Community colleges are disproportionally over-enrolled with both low income students and students of color, while four-year institutions are under-enrolled with the same groups. The vast majority of these students enter the community college with a goal of transferring to the four-year institutions they were unable to access from high school, yet…

This study highlights the positive impact of participation in an engineering ambassador program on students from two universities: Oregon State University which is a large public university in a college town with a 13% minority student body, and Howard University, a medium sized private university with a relatively small engineering program in an…

University-based Extension specialists often face the dilemma of scheduling time for both teaching and outreach activities. Service learning projects that give hands-on experience in the application of classroom activities while giving back to the community can bridge this gap. A demonstration forest and service learning techniques were used to…

Regional and rural students in Australia face unique challenges when aspiring to higher education. These challenges reflect systematic disadvantage experienced by rural and regional populations as a whole. In an effort to redress these inequities, and aided by the Australian Government's Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program…