This memo from James F. Lane Senior Advisor, Office of the Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, announces the supplemental grant awards under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and provides recommendations for how to support evidence-based practices intended to increase attendance and engagement of students in the middle…

Research suggests that the likelihood of students entering into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers can be increased by promoting and maintaining students' interest in STEM during middle school years, a critical developmental stage when students' interests begin to solidify. One way to attract students to STEM is…

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…

With this study, the contribution of the waste management themed summer program, which includes enriched activities considering the learning needs of gifted students, has contributed to the students' environmental attitudes, creative thinking skills and critical thinking dispositions. A five-day program was applied to gifted (n = 29) fifth grade…

This study investigated the implementation of a place-based socioscientific issue curricular unit designed to improve rising middle school students' abilities to think critically about the pros and cons of hydraulic fracturing and engage in evidence-based reasoning on whether the practice should be banned in Massachusetts. Forty-three rising…

The 2018 STEM Summer Camp was held on the campuses of a middle school in the Southeast. Students from Title I schools across the district were invited to take part in the month-long STEM program, focused on advancing content competency through Mathematics, Science, Language Arts, and STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics) Inquiry.…

Many talented students in under-resourced schools do not reach their full potential. Research shows that by sixth grade, children born into poverty have likely spent 6,000 fewer hours learning than their middle-class counterparts. Higher Achievement, an intensive summer and after-school program, aims to close that learning gap. It offers…

Nearly 30 years ago, Math Corps--a summer camp for middle school students in Detroit who could benefit from mentoring and positive influences--was started at Wayne State University (WSU). In 2015, the National Science Foundation awarded an Advancing Informal Science, Technology, Education, and Mathematics (STEM) Learning grant to WSU. As part of…

In response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a cancer research education program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center designed for Native American middle school, high school and undergraduate students adapted activities to be delivered online. There are considerable challenges to adapting in-person science programming to online delivery that…

To bridge the gap for English language learners (ELLs) in science, hybrid language affords the opportunity for students to communicate through various modes, including natural language, visual representations, mathematical expressions, and manual-technical operations. The purpose of this study was to investigate how ELLs use hybrid language (a) to…

Gifted girls of color represent a potentially untapped resource for increasing and sustaining a diverse science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. Girls of color possess unique mathematics and science gifts and talents that can remain unrealized if not addressed before middle school. Culturally responsive STEM…

Co-teaching, defined by Friend and Cook (2013) as substantive instruction by two or more professionals of a diverse group of learners in a shared space, has long been a key feature of middle level instruction. This article reports on a four-year formative experiment (Reinking & Bradley, 2008) intended to generate insights to guide teachers'…

Adopting an asset-based and resilience-building framework, the present study examines the effects of out-of-school activities on advancing the academic achievement, leadership skills, and service orientation of youth of color placed at risk who attended one of over 60 independent urban middle schools that follow the NativityMiguel model of…

Although careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics have expanded in the United States, science literacy skills for K-12 students have declined from 2001 to 2011. Limited research has been conducted on the impact of science enrichment programs on the science literacy skills of K-12 students, particularly in marine science. The…

High-quality afterschool and summer programming serve an important role in Nebraska communities. They engage students emotionally, intellectually, and socially (National Research Council, 2015). They provide safe and caring supervision for children who might otherwise be unsupervised outside of school hours, they also discourage negative…