Early exposure to embedded computing systems is crucial for students to be prepared for the embedded computing demands of today's world. However, exposure to systems knowledge often comes too late in the curriculum to stimulate students' interests and to provide a meaningful difference in how they direct their choice of electives for future…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an increase in Natural Resource Management (NRM) jobs within the next 10 years due to baby-boomer retirements and a 12% increase in demand for these occupations. Despite this trend, college enrollment in NRM disciplines has declined. Even more critical is the fact that the soon-to-be-majority Hispanic…

In the early twentieth century, a curriculum known as nature study flourished in major city school systems, streetcar suburbs, small towns, and even rural one-room schools. This object-based approach to learning about the natural world marked the first systematic attempt to introduce science into elementary education, and it came at a time when…

Research in both the anthropology and sociology of education has increasingly come to consider the institutional effects of migration, globalization, and transnationalism on learning environments. Yet, most studies examining transmigration and education have only looked at migrant children in schools rather than at the "transitions" they…

In response to requests from out-of-school time (OST) providers, the authors have created this practitioner's guidebook for integrating adolescent literacy development initiatives into a wide variety of OST programs. As readers will discover in subsequent chapters, the authors' definition of adolescent literacy development represents a…

As part of the "Ready to Learn" Initiative, Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), was charged with addressing the evaluation of Technological Enhancements for the outreach efforts of three producers: Out of the Blue's Super WHY! Technology Add-On; Sesame Workshop's The Electric Company School's Initiative Curriculum; and WordWorld's…

The decade since publication of "Place as Text: Approaches to Active Learning" has seen an explosion of interest and productivity in the field of experiential education. This monograph presents a story of an experiment and a blueprint of sorts for anyone interested in enriching an existing program or willing to experiment with pedagogy…

Graduates of the six regional 2007 "We the People: Project Citizen" professional development summer institutes were surveyed to determine how useful they found their institute experience, and to the extent to which their participation at the Center-sponsored institutes influenced their teaching of civics and government. The study was…

This article presents a story of the transformation of summer reading at Barnstable High School (BHS) in Massachusetts which took place during the last year of the author's practice as a school library media specialist before she began her work as a professor and researcher at Rutgers University. It is a true story about effecting change and…

This study investigated the relationship between social information processing (SIP) and both relational and overt, physical aggression in a longitudinally-followed sample of 228 adolescent girls (ages 11-18; 140 with ADHD and 88 comparison girls). During childhood, girls participated in naturalistic summer camps where peer rejection, overt…

Undergraduate research programs are becoming more prevalent, but research on the processes and outcomes is limited and deals largely with perceptions of student learning gains. This paper adds to the literature by describing undergraduate research activities from the student perspective. A phenomenological approach was used to analyze journals…

Preliminary research indicates that summer enrichment programs may have a positive impact on overall student development K-12, including academic motivation and engagement. The majority of this research has focused upon gifted students, although there is a burgeoning body of research detailing the impact of summer programs on at-risk or…

Through their participation in a seventh-grade talent search in 1996-1997, students qualified to attend a summer program at Duke University's Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP). of the North Carolina students in this group, some attended at least one summer program in middle school and others had qualified for but did not attend a summer…

As agriculture continues to evolve and become more complex, the demand for qualified college graduates to fill agricultural careers exceeds supply. This study focused on a summer enrichment program that strives to expose gifted and talented students to the diverse nature of agricultural careers through the integration of agriculture and science.…

Social skill development is emerging as an important issue for educators and practitioners in their work with adolescent youth. This presentation will use the results from two ongoing research projects to examine the relationship between adventure-based programming and social skill development in the lives of diverse youth. The first project is…