Third-grade reading proficiency predicts later reading achievement and high school graduation, yet third-graders from historically marginalized groups experience differential learning opportunities and sometimes perform poorly in reading. Similar to the effects of summer learning loss, lost instructional opportunities due to COVID-19 have…

Throughout the Internet, many chatbots have been deployed by various organizations to answer questions asked by customers. In recent years, we have been running cybersecurity summer camps for youth. Due to COVID-19, our in-person camp has been changed to virtual camps. As a result, we decided to develop a chatbot to reduce the number of emails,…

Most people meet insects with fear and disgust, even though few insects pose health risks; in fact, many are beneficial and their absence would adversely affect human life. Such misunderstandings lead to insect conservation being important but unpopular. We addressed these concerns as part of a broader effort to establish an ongoing outreach…

Summer internships present an opportunity for Computer Science (CS) students to expand and test their skills in "the real world." These multi-faceted experiences call on students to use technical tools and critical thinking in collaboration with others to solve problems. There are many opportunities for learning and growth: which of…

Summer is a critical time for students with or at-risk for reading difficulties. This study examines the added benefit of a one-on-one intensive reading intervention presented during a school-based summer literacy program targeting first through fifth-grade students' foundational reading skills. The individually administered, UFLI-Intensive…

Purpose/Objectives: Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) participation rates often underserve the number of children in the community needing access to food. Each year, District 87 in Bloomington, Illinois offers children 18 years old and younger a free lunch at six feeding sites throughout the community as part of the SFSP. During the summer of…

This quasi-experimental pilot study examined the use of the Preschool Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum during the summer prior to kindergarten entry for preschool-age children. The purpose of the study was to examine if participation in the summer Preschool PATHS curriculum would lead to increased levels of…

Beginning in 2015, New Mexico State University's Office of Study Abroad, Faculty-Led International Program (FLIP) encouraged teachers to create a two-course/cross-disciplinary experience for students. During the summers of 2016 and 2018 the teachers conducted two-week FLIP trips to locations in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The…

The COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020 caused college classes to be changed from face-to-face classes to online classes. For some students, this was their first introduction to online courses. The pandemic resulted in many summer classes also to be online. Two graduate information systems courses typically taught in face-to-face four week summer…

Microscopy is not specifically mentioned in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and consequently secondary education limits its use to learning parts, procedures, and observing fixed specimen slides. However, when alternative approaches (See Section IV in this paper) are encouraged, microscopy provides opportunities for hands-on…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental quantitative exploration study was to determine if there was a statistically and practically significant effect of an educational program on summer learning loss in reading and mathematics in grades five and six students. Also, the study aimed to determine whether growth was impacted by demographic variables…

This study explored how a culturally relevant summer reading program may empower young Black students through social action and opportunities for reading engagement, thus supporting their reading motivation. The North Florida Freedom Schools (NFFS) was designed to realize social justice by providing free educational opportunities, especially for…

The COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting health and safety concerns caused the cancellation of many engineering education opportunities for high school students. To expose high school students to the field of neural engineering and encourage them to pursue academic pathways in biomedical engineering, the Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) at the…

The purpose of this study is to see if a summer literacy camp was able to help mitigate summer learning loss for students entering grades 1-5. Students attended a five-week summer program that focused on literacy with a STEM component. Some of the students who attended were economically disadvantaged, some were English Language Learners (ELLs),…

Background and Context: Sports and technology are often pitted as being at odds with one another. While there are several educational activities that make reference to sports we seldom see sports used as an authentic context for learning computing. Objective: We describe the design of Data in Motion, a curriculum that considers the bi-directional…