The "Discover Engineering Summer Camp" program is intended to educate young women about engineering careers. Program evaluation and follow-up surveys show the experience increases awareness among participants of engineering as a career, and follow-up surveys show that 60% pursue engineering and cite the camp as having influenced their decision.…

Describes a comprehensive summer program for freshmen at a large research university. Freshmen enroll in common courses, are housed together, attend workshops on using university resources, and receive the assistance of an upper-division mentor. Evaluation suggests that freshmen who participate in transitional programs are significantly more…

Discusses a program in which the Iowa High School Press Association, along with a partner newspaper, awards an internship to a high school journalism advisor every summer. Recounts the experiences of an adviser working at West Liberty High School who made it her goal to better relations between the weekly town newspaper and the school newspaper.…

Project YES, a West Virginia summer intervention for at-risk youth, focuses on academic enrichment, fitness and health, self-concept, empowerment, reflective learning, nutrition, and multiculturalism. It is a multidisciplinary and collaborative effort of several different agencies. (SK)

At McMaster University, an increasingly older and well-qualified pool of nursing applicants can complete Year-One requirements in an eight-week summer program. Students are highly enthusiastic and appreciative of the cost savings. Faculty perceive student benefits, but their summer teaching load is heavy. (SK)

Describes a course combining theory and clinical experience in which nursing students complete placements in youth summer camps while participating in intensive theory classes. Explains the value of such placements in developing community relationships and exposing students to public health practice. (SK)

Integration of technique and imagination is an essential but rarely explicitly discussed topic in music education literature or in the performing arts classroom. Exploring how master teacher Phyllis Curtin puts the two together and how students describe their integrative experiences in her class, the author tackles the paradoxes and complexity of…

Researchers have found that training in phonemic awareness (PA), a fundamental element for reading acquisition, is effective in varying degrees, depending on characteristics of the audience. In this study, the authors explored the relative effectiveness of 3 programs--Fast ForWord, Earobics, and LiPS. The authors randomly assigned 60 students with…

Increased use of high-stakes testing has been accompanied by an expansion of summer school programming. Few investigations focus on student experience within these programs. Using multiple methods, we examined how low-performing students attending the Chicago Public Schools' Summer Bridge program perceived their summer learning environments.…

Children's daily physical activity patterns are influenced by many factors outside of their immediate control (e.g., school, parents' availability, time allowed outdoors). Because all children do not have an equal opportunity to participate in physical activity, investigating the relationship of psychosocial variables and actual voluntary activity…

A place-based learning community called "Klamath Connection" was designed to improve the academic performance of freshman in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) majors at Humboldt State University, a midsize public institution in a location geographically and culturally unfamiliar to the majority of its students. The…

The School of Education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City is addressing the urban teacher retention challenge through its Institute for Urban Education (IUE). IUE focuses on recruiting individuals from underrepresented populations who have a commitment to their urban communities. Its curriculum is distinguished by five features: (1) an…

The effects of a voluntary summer reading intervention with teacher and parent scaffolding were investigated in an experimental study. A total of 24 teachers and 400 children in Grades 3, 4, and 5 were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: control, books only, books with oral reading scaffolding, and books with oral reading and…

Describes a six-week summer science institute for providing secondary students with research experience conducted at East Carolina University. (SL)

Virtually all public libraries in the United States provide some type of summer library reading program during the traditional summer vacation period. Summer library reading programs provide opportunities for students of many ages and abilities to practice their reading skills and maintain skills that are developed during the school year. Fiore…