This article discusses the preliminary results of a semester-long partnership between an undergraduate course and a local Black community to map culture and history of the neighborhood. Students of Ball State University and residents of the Whitely community in Muncie, Indiana, worked together in spring 2022 to collect data and produce maps that…

Microplastics have been found in the most remote locations on Earth as well as in where we live, work, and play. Despite increasing research focus on microplastics, efforts to inform the public about their omnipresence have lagged. To bridge this gap between research and public knowledge, we developed a museum exhibit with interactive and…

Students benefit from exploring nature and participating in outdoor activities that challenge them emotionally and physically. The purpose of this article is to describe an outdoor education class with 21 undergraduate physical education teacher education (PETE) students and the benefits of participating in this experience. The second purpose is…

Using the Pennsylvania Department of Education Family/Community Standards, university professors from the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford collaborated with multiple community clubs such as the Rotary and Kiwanis as well as local agencies including St. Bonaventure University on the development and implementation of a family literacy day event…

Twenty-five years ago, the aspirational vision of a newly formed national SENCER initiative led one of the authors (Wood) to initiate a long-term relationship between the Smithsonian Institution and George Mason University, involving a residential, immersive approach to education focused on biodiversity conservation. In the Smithsonian-Mason…

This article speaks to the challenge of public land-grant universities addressing public need through community--academic partnerships and presents a case study to explain and illustrate these challenges. Included in this approach is the acknowledgment that as universities strive to bring the community perspective to their knowledge production,…

Jon's Heroes in Training (JHT) represents a strong cross-sector collaboration that was created and has evolved over the past five years. JHT is an after-school program where children (ages 3-22) with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis come to the local university to engage in high-quality physical education lessons designed and…

In the last 15 years, demand has surged among college students for mental health care and many campuses are struggling to keep up with the demand for services. Primary care services represent a pathway where individuals can receive mental health care without accessing specialty mental health services. There is evidence that integrating mental…

'Why study the arts at school?' This book offers a fresh perspective on this question. Informed by rigorous research, the book argues that the arts help young people to develop key skills, knowledge and practices that support them to become both critical appreciative audiences and socially engaged cultural producers. Drawing on a three-year study…

This article shares how three African-centered Black men partnered with a school system to develop and implement an Africentric rites of passage program for seventh- and eighth-grade Black male students. The proposed school-based intervention aimed to socialize, educate, and cultivate Black boys in preparation for manhood. Theoretically, the…

Each August, prior to going back to school, all school-age students and their parents in the southeast Ohio community served by the Gallia County Health Department have an opportunity to visit the county health fair. This program, which draws 350 to 400 people each year, is a collaborative effort of the county health department, job and family…

In rural Appalachian communities of southeast Ohio, where generational poverty is high, communities and schools worked together to both create meaningful learning experiences and ensure that basic needs were met before students started the school year. Families of students who attended Summer Advantage--a 21-day summer school program for…

Students and their families living in poverty need support to reach their potential through education. In small, rural communities, such as the Appalachian area of Ohio, strong partnerships work to mutually support educators, families, and students. Educational service centers work with governmental agencies, state grants, local community…

Dancers embody movement with an individualized approach, informed by their own unique physicality, creativity, and lived experience. In this paper, the author describes an integrative dance course in higher education that invites adult community members with developmental and intellectual disabilities to dance alongside college students twice per…

Investing in school mental health programs has the potential to improve youths' access to mental health services. Barriers to the implementation of school mental health programs include limited workforce capacity, competing priorities, and lack of coordinated care. The current paper describes the history, development, and key components of the…