The National Security Agency (NSA) awards Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) designations to institutions that commit to producing cybersecurity professionals who will work in careers that reduce vulnerabilities in our national infrastructure. A review of the curricula in the 327 institutions and their degree programs reveal that only two…

Much has been published about developing a cybersecurity curriculum for institutes of higher learning (IHL). Now that a growing number of IHLs globally offer such programs, a need exists on how to guide, maintain, and improve the relevancy of existing curricula. Just as cybersecurity professionals must be hone their skills continually to keep with…

Through a content analysis of 200 "tweets," this study was an exploration into the distinct features of text posted to NASA's "Twitter" site and the potential for these posts to serve as more engaging scientific text than traditional textbooks for adolescents. Results of the content analysis indicated the tweets and linked…

Studies of the rise of social science research in education typically focus on the Progressive Era, from 1890 to 1930, the period in which the American Educational Research Association (AERA) was founded. As central as this story is to the intellectual history of education as a field, however, it obscures an earlier set of events that arguably is…

This study examined the learning opportunities provided to students through the use of complex geological data supporting scientific inquiry. Through analysis of argumentative discourse in a high school Earth science classroom, uses of US Geological Survey (USGS) data were contrasted with uses of geoscience textbook data. To examine these…

The federal budget and the rising national debt are crucial concerns in American politics. Yet, they are issues about which average citizens, and particularly young citizens, are presumed to have limited knowledge and very little to say. They are also topics that are not generally seen as engaging to students in introductory political science…

Much of the research on the use of simulations in the political science classroom focuses on how simulations model different events in the real world, including political campaigns, international diplomacy, and legislative bargaining. In the case of American Politics, many simulations focus on the behavior of Congress and the legislative process,…

Why are Americans, and young Americans in particular, so turned off to government and politics? And, what can be done to arrest these trends? In this article, I suggest that three primary, and mutually reinforcing, trends, which can be summed up as the "relevance factor," the "negativity factor," and the "triumphant market factor," have conspired…

Reforming school finance systems to support performance standards entails estimating the cost of an adequate education. Cost of adequacy (COA) studies have been done in more than 30 states. Recently Eric Hanushek challenged the legitimacy of COA research, calling it alchemy and pseudoscience. The objectives of this study are to present reliability…

This paper is an exploratory study of Professor Don Jansiewicz's GAME of POLITICS (The Game) simulation. The course instructor employs The Game in his introductory American Politics class as a learning tool for better understanding the legislative-executive process. Our exploratory study used legislative-executive process questions as part of two…

This publication resulted from an investigation by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) into alleged inaccuracies in a National Science Foundation (NSF) report "Pre-college Science Curriculum Activities of the National Science Foundation." Five NSF supported curriculum improvement projects were investigated. Generally, inaccurate and…

Federal government science policy and R&D investment are two major factors for the success of research universities in the United States. This case analysis examines how the University of California at Berkeley shifted from a regional to a globally oriented research university by the influence of federal government science policy and R&D…

In March, 1986, the National Science Foundation (NSF) commissioned a study designed to assess initiatives available to NSF to address problems and opportunities in K-12 science education. The first part of this volume presents a detailed discussion of "core functions" for the NSF in K-12 science education (promoting professional…

Presented in this volume is the final report of the first phase of a study designed to assess initiatives available to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to address problems and opportunities in K-12 science education. The report begins with a discussion of NSF's mission in K-12 science education, followed by a review of the problems that limit…

This report summarizes the findings and conclusions from the first phase of a study entitled "Assessment of Initiatives Available to Address Problems and Opportunities in K-12 Science Education." The study was done for the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of its response to a congressional requirement that NSF seek outside…