Research on retention in the 4-H youth development program has consistently shown that one of the primary indicators for youths' dropping out of 4-H is being a first-year member. Extension 4-H professionals from California, Idaho, Wyoming, and New Jersey formed a team to study this issue. Our team surveyed first-year members and their…

Academic programs targeted for first-time students can help their persistence in STEM majors. Our project, ASCEND STEM, included three first-year experiences (FYEs) designed to offer students the skills that would help them successfully traverse potential barriers to academic success. In the FYEs, we sought to strengthen the learning power,…

The purpose of this study was to investigate mathematics-related anxiety and attitudes among Latina preservice teachers. Three sections from the Inventory of Mathematics Attitudes, Experience, and Self Awareness were administered to preservice teachers enrolled in a curriculum and instruction mathematics course during the 1st semester of a…

Stress levels in college students are increasing at an alarmingly fast pace. To combat this rising tide, universities need effective tools to promote student well-being and help them to recognize and manage their stress. One approach is to teach students basic lifestyle skills to cope with stress and achieve wellness. This is important as it not…

In this study, the effects of teacher education on preservice secondary science and mathematics teacher readiness (defined as an understanding of how to implement current standards, how to teach English learners, and the belief teachers have about their abilities and skills as educators) and teacher performance assessment (edTPA) scores were…

The purpose of this project was to determine the effectiveness of the Helping Administer to the Needs of the Student with Diabetes in Schools (H.A.N.D.S.?) continuing education program in improving the level of experience and competence in performing services associated with diabetes care. This program is a live course for school nurses providing…

This study served to investigate how information literacy instruction can alleviate information anxiety in online learners. While there has been much research to demonstrate that hands-on or activity-based learning is beneficial in reducing library anxiety, those studies have not been conducted for the online classroom. Using a required,…

A visual aid teaching tool, the DanceChemistry video series, has been developed to teach fundamental chemistry concepts through dance. These educational videos portray chemical interactions at the molecular level using dancers to represent chemical species. Students reported that the DanceChemistry videos helped them visualize chemistry ideas in a…

Twenty years ago, a major curriculum revision at a large, comprehensive university in the Western United States led to the implementation of an integrated lecture/laboratory (studio) experience for our engineering students taking general chemistry. Based on these twenty years of experience, construction of four purpose-built studio classrooms to…

Numerous classroom-based interventions have aimed to improve sexual health outcomes for young people, yet few have shown strong, lasting effects. Ecological approaches that address multiple levels of a young person's environment offer largely untapped potential to positively change sexual behaviour. This paper presents results of a…

Open educational resources (OERs) provide a potential alternative to costly textbooks and can allow content to be edited and adapted to a variety of classroom environments. At the University of California, Davis, the OER "ChemWiki" project, as part of the greater STEMWiki Hyperlibrary, was developed to supplant traditional post-secondary…

Despite the awareness of the importance of self-efficacy, this concept has been studied in a limited sense among community college students (Collins & Bissell, 2004), but it has been shown to be significantly related to career decisions among enrollees (Kelly & Hatcher, 2013). The literature does not address what types of experiences can…

An activity for eliciting student involvement in collaborative decision-making and problem-solving with adults--the student listening circle workshop--is examined for the first time through an experimental study of its effects on participating students. A student listening circle is a facilitated focus group in which students articulate to adults…

This article investigates why students reported liking a student-driven learning design better than a highly guided design despite equivalent gains in knowledge assessments in both conditions. We created two learning designs based on the distinction in the literature between student-driven and teacher-led approaches. One teacher assigned each of…

Flipped classrooms have the potential to improve student learning and metacognitive skills as a result of increased time for active learning and group work and student control over pacing, when compared with traditional lecture-based courses. We are currently running a 4-year controlled study to examine the impact of flipping an Introductory…