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…

Day camps are a powerful context for youth development. The American Camp Association and Leave No Trace have been integral in supporting youth development by identifying outcomes associated with participation in outdoor recreation. Recreation majors in the programming class used the camp as a service-learning component of the class that offered…

Camp scholars have designed structured curricula to engender specific outcomes and to break down the "black box" of programming. Implementation evaluation explores how well a program operates when delivered, further breaking down the black box. The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation of a new structured camp…

Low-income minority females are disproportionately affected by obesity. The relevance of summer months to weight gain is often overlooked. Some evidence suggests that summer programming, such as day camps, may offer increased opportunities for structured physical activities resulting in less weight gain. This study examined the effectiveness of…

Objective: The authors assess changes in knowledge and feeling connected to the field of child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) after participation in a brief mentoring program held at two CAP conferences. Methods: Similar mentorship programs were implemented at two CAP conferences, one national (N=119 participants), one international (N=53). The…

Staff at a day program were trained in Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC) strategies and techniques. The goal was to provide training that would allow staff at the centre to use communication strategies when working with their clients. Two training sessions were provided on AAC and communication strategies for all staff at the centre.…

An Electrical Engineering Summer Academy for Pre-College Students was held at the University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, during the summers of 2007 and 2008. The Academy participants included students having just completed 7th to 11th grade and teachers from middle school through high school. The students and teachers participated in team-building,…

Observations in 100 congregated community and institutional day-program sites for individuals with severe disabilities indicated that approximately half of consumer time was spent in purposeful activity, 75 percent of which was age-appropriate. In 20 percent of the sites most activity was age-inappropriate. Recommended program evaluation and…

Results from an outcome study of 50 adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems in a partial hospitalization program reflect parental involvement during the treatment process. High parental involvement is related to greater improvement in school and home functioning, reduced rehospitalization, and reduced pathology and problem severity…

This study evaluated 2,815 adults with developmental disabilities in 328 Illinois intermediate care and skilled nursing facilities. Only 10 percent were determined to be appropriately placed in medical settings; 27 percent were enrolled in day training programs; and many individuals recommended for alternative residential settings had medical and…

This chapter presents the findings from a network analysis of a demonstration program for the developmentally disabled to show the application of graphical network analysis in program evaluation. The developmentally disabled demonstration (DDD) program was a five-year pilot project to provide person-centered service environments to people with …

This study identified risk factors associated with unsuccessful discharge status of 134 students with serious emotional/behavioral disorders enrolled in a secondary-level, therapeutic day-treatment program. Major risk factors found were student substance abuse, involvement with juvenile services, and family living status. Application of…

Describes an experimental program at the University of Surrey (England) to show children that education can be enjoyable and is not necessarily the regimented, apprehensive affair from which many suffer. The existing teenage program was extended to include younger children and school-vacation day programs were added to the evening classes. (MF)

Camp program evaluation is useful in documenting effectiveness to funders and in assessing and monitoring campers' problem behaviors. An example from Camp Fire Boys and Girls in Des Moines, Iowa, discusses developing an evaluation, identifying program objectives, choosing an evaluation method, content of the evaluation instrument, outcome results,…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of Camp Invention, a hands-on creativity and science day camp run in partnership with about 400 schools nationwide. A survey of 17,526 campers, parents, and staff supported the positive impact of Camp Invention for both boys and girls, in urban and suburban settings, and on attitudes towards creativity,…