Over the past several decades, the concept of critical literacy has been applied to an increasing range of multimodal texts mediated by digital technologies. Expressive forms such as fan-fiction, digital storytelling, and gaming have presented unique opportunities for understanding critical literacy practices. Within the more specific field of…

Framing, implementing, and engaging youth in authentic scientific inquiry are highly valued in science education; however, we have very limited knowledge of the nature and use of tools that accomplish these. Therefore, we proposed that board game design is a meaningful tool for engaging youth in understanding environmental issues. We reported…

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has proliferated across the United States, and in the process, it has disrupted all sense of normalcy. Because adolescents are in a critical period for growth and development, youth are particularly susceptible to negative impacts of disruption from COVID-19. Therefore, sustaining youth development programs is essential to…

How can youth become leaders in their communities' resilience efforts? The Lentes en Cambio Climático (LECC) filmmaking program aimed to empower students to investigate how a changing climate affects their lives and use their own findings to inspire local resilience. Secondary students in LECC created films that explore the experiences of…

Purpose: This study aims to introduce the concept of communities of social media practice where more experienced users provide guidance to female novice users, enacting a form of legitimate peripheral participation to "onboard" newcomers. Design/methodology/approach: Through surveys with 968 early adolescents (average age was 13), the…

The education landscape, both in and out of school, has shifted dramatically, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to digital learning. This shift has compounded the need for digital media literacy, a wide-ranging and often-changing concept that encompasses the competence to use technical equipment, intelligently consume and process information, and…

Short-term outreach interventions are conducted to raise young students' awareness of the computer science (CS) field. Typically, these interventions are targeted at K--12 students, attempting to encourage them to study CS in higher education. This study is based on a series of extra-curricular outreach events that introduced students to the…

This book aims to provide readers with a general as well as an advanced overview of the key trends in childhood obesity. Obesity is an illness that occurs due to a combination of genetic, environmental, psychosocial, metabolic and hormonal factors. The prevalence of obesity has shown a great rise both in adults and children in the last 30 years.…

This article focuses on a bookmaking project that was conducted with pre-adolescent Serbian and Bosnian girls at a summer camp outside Sarajevo, Bosnia in 2005. During this camp, children from Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia were brought together by the Global Children's Organisation to engage in a variety of activities, including conflict resolution,…

This document reports on the model and method used to design, implement, coordinate, and evaluate a summer camp for young people with eating disorders. The basic approach used at the camp is described as the Sports Institute for Research model, a systems analysis model which focuses on: (1) the ultimate goal or mission; (2) obstacles or problems…

Describes workshops in which French and German youth spend three weeks together during the summer vacation learning each other's language and becoming acquainted with the other culture. Questions concerning teaching materials, instructors, methods, group dynamics, and incentives to learn another language are discussed. (AMH)

Summer reading programs are a staple in libraries nationwide and provide a valuable service: keeping teens productive and occupied when they are no longer busy in school. Producing creative programs at the library can be challenging when faced with this easily distracted teen demographic; that's where "Sizzling Summer Reading Programs" steps in.…

Playing computer games is an extremely popular leisure activity for children. In fact, the computer games market in the UK is now double that of the video rental market, and substantially larger than cinema box office sales, and under people under the age of 18 make up 38% of these game players. Based on the popularity and strong motivational…