To promote health equity, it is crucial to educate the next generation of healthcare workers about disparities early on during their education. We developed a virtual research program at a medical school in the United States of America with the goal of increasing the awareness of youth about the complexities of health inequities. The program was…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine any correlations between an increase in knowledge from activities which utilize self-paced learning, inquiry-guided learning, and collaborative learning pedagogical strategies and students' intentions to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and computer science…

This study explored a place-based summer enrichment offering for gifted rural students through the lens of a critical pedagogy of place (Greenwood, 2003). To ameliorate well-documented opportunity gaps for rural students, we established a residential camp on our university's campus where middle school students engaged in STEM and humanities…

Student focusing and noticing, which drive reasoning, are important but under researched aspects of student learning. Quadratic functions representations are perceptually and conceptually complex and thus, offer much for students to focus on and notice. Our study compared a teacher's goals for student focusing and noticing during quadratic…

There is a lack of consensus among school districts on how best to mitigate reading and math learning loss during the summer months. 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…

Background: Authentic research experiences and mentoring have positive impacts on fostering STEM engagement among youth from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM. Programs applying an experiential learning approach often incorporate one or both of these elements, however, there is little research on how these factors impact youth's STEM engagement…

In a classroom environment where students are encouraged to talk and share their thinking about mathematics, it comes as no surprise to find an abundance of ideas flooding the room. Yet, what does one do with all these ideas? How do teachers and students use these ideas as they learn in the classroom? Moreover, how do teachers and students manage…

In an article written by Matthew Randazzo (2017) titled "Students Shouldn't Live in STEM Deserts," he revealed that a limited number of educational opportunities exist for students to gain essential STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) skills. This need for more STEM minds is bolstered by a widespread economic shift…

Climate change is the one of the most controversial issues in environmental history since natural processes and human activities lead to causation. This complexity often thwarts communication and education efforts. Some research suggests that place-based approaches are effective for delivering climate change instruction because they feature local…

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic affected formal and informal education programs in the USA. The pandemic had a devastating impact on programs that required a dedicated physical space and in-person laboratory research. The distinguishing feature of New Hampshire Academy of Science (NHAS) programs is the participation of secondary school students in…

When COVID-19 shut down in-person programs across the world in 2020, we (the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab)) as practitioners were in unknown territory. This paper outlines the structure of a 10-week online Summer Exploration Series (SES) program along with the evaluation performed by staff at the MagLab in 2020. The goal of the…

Backward transfer is when learning about a new topic influences an individual's prior ways of reasoning about a topic they previously learned about. This study looked at how quadratic functions instruction differentially influenced students' prior ways of reasoning about linear functions. Specifically, we compared students at three levels of…

Despite interest in online learning for meeting student needs at scale, existing research finds relatively low levels of engagement in most forms of virtual learning, especially among economically disadvantaged students. This is concerning as the COVID-19 pandemic forced a dramatic increase in remote learning among students and educators who did…

This article uses key concepts of Anzaldúan philosophy to describe the Mosquitoes & Me summer camp as "ciencia zurda" or "left-handed science." It details a day-in-the-life portrait of Elena, a first-generation Latina middle schooler, as she experiences the opportunities that Mosquitoes & Me provided for self-other…

The American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) partnered with Girls Who Code (GWC) to conduct an independent study evaluating the effectiveness of two GWC summer virtual programs, the Summer Immersion Program (SIP) and the Self-Paced Program (SPP), on promoting the pursuit of Computer Science (CS)-related postsecondary education for high school…