University Students Promoting Science in the Community

Project SEARCH (Science Education and Research for Children) has brought these undergraduate students here today. It is an outreach program designed to bring the science resources of a large research university to classrooms and community centers. For the past 9 years, SEARCH students have spent 4 hours each week doing hands-on-science experiments, dissecting frogs, demonstrating microscopes, lecturing about the planets, playing computer games, exploring the World Wide Web, and creating Web pages.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Silver Anniversary in Smithfield

Publication celebrating Bryant\u27s 25 years in Smithfield, Rhode Island and the inauguration of Bryant\u27s 7th president, Ronald K. Machtley. The theme of the inauguration was A Silver Anniversary ... A Golden Opportunity

Sensing and Measuring the Environment Workshop as Exposure to Engineering Technology for High School Students in a Summer Residential Camp

Summer programs are the latest trend in extracurricular STEM education programs offered by universities. Efforts are made towards residential summer programs, which have the ability to expose students not only to specially designed STEM activities but to the university campus environment and student life, as well. These types of programs are expected to have better success in getting students engaged and to capture their interest in STEM fields. This paper presents one example of designing and implementing a summer residential workshop in order to expose high school students to the field of engineering technology, specifically to electrical circuits, electrical prototyping, microprocessor based design, sensing and measuring the environment, and the Internet of Things. The camp includes other workshops that are focusing on other areas of STEM, specifically science and mathematics. The paper presents the workshop setting, the activities organized, and the feedback received from students

Spartan Daily, March 5, 2001

Volume 116, Issue 27https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/9663/thumbnail.jp

A Systematic Review of Studies on Educational Robotics

There has been a steady increase in the number of studies investigating educational robotics and its impact on academic and social skills of young learners. Educational robots are used both in and out of school environments to enhance K–12 students’ interest, engagement, and academic achievement in various fields of STEM education. Some prior studies show evidence for the general benefits of educational robotics as being effective in providing impactful learning experiences. However, there appears to be a need to determine the specific benefits which have been achieved through robotics implementation in K–12 formal and informal learning settings. In this study, we present a systematic review of the literature on K–12 educational robotics. Based on our review process with specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, and a repeatable method of systematic review, we found 147 studies published from the years 2000 to 2018. We classified these studies under five themes: (1) general effectiveness of educational robotics; (2) students’ learning and transfer skills; (3) creativity and motivation; (4) diversity and broadening participation; and (5) teachers’ professional development. The study outlines the research questions, presents the synthesis of literature, and discusses findings across themes. It also provides guidelines for educators, practitioners, and researchers in areas of educational robotics and STEM education, and presents dimensions of future research

Recruitment, Preparation, Retention: A case study of computing culture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Computer science is seeing a decline in enrollment at all levels of education, including undergraduate and graduate study. This paper reports on the results of a study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which evaluated students attitudes regarding three areas which can contribute to improved enrollment in the Department of Computer Science: Recruitment, preparation and retention. The results of our study saw two themes. First, the department's tight research focus appears to draw significant attention from other activities -- such as teaching, service, and other community-building activities -- that are necessary for a department's excellence. Yet, as demonstrated by our second theme, one partial solution is to better promote such activities already employed by the department to its students and faculty. Based on our results, we make recommendations for improvements and enhancements based on the current state of practice at peer institutions.Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures. For better quality figures, please download the .pdf from http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/research/techreports.php?report=UIUCDCS-R-2007-281

The Role of Environmental Education in Steam Education

Research has shown that both STEAM education and environmental education have similar goals: equipping students with 21st-century skills such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. These skills are essential for students to know in order to be successful in their future careers. However, while both STEAM education and environmental education have similar goals, they are often not taught together. This project takes time to answer the question: How can incorporating more environmental education into STEAM help create students that are equipped with skills needed for future careers? The supplemental curriculum designed for this project is intended to be woven into a pre-existing STEAM curriculum, Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Launch. The project involved creating two environmental education lessons to fit into current STEAM units. The lessons teach about the environment, contain a STEAM component, expose students to nature, and have a teamwork aspect. The curriculum is designed to fit within PLTW Launch, but lessons can be adapted to be stand-alone and be taught by any educator, regardless of position or experience. The goal of this project was to interweave STEAM education and environmental education to have students experience nature and teach essential communication, teamwork, and critical thinking skills to best prepare students for their futures

Spartan Daily, April 25, 2006

Volume 126, Issue 46https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10246/thumbnail.jp

Investigating Impacts on the Environmental Literacy of Secondary School Students Attending a Summer Science Program

An environmentally literate public is crucial for combatting our world’s problems. This study evaluated impacts from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s Outreach Department’s program: Summer Camps Investigating Ecology in Neighborhood and City Environments (SCIENCE). Environmental literacy was assessed by administering pre-, post-, and follow-up tests to both SCIENCE participants and a comparison group. Counselors were interviewed to determine how their expectations matched participants’ performance. Environmental attitude scores were higher for SCIENCE versus the comparison group, but attitude scores did not increase over the program. Environmental knowledge was higher at the end of the program for both SCIENCE and the comparison group, but gains in environmental knowledge did not differ between them. Counselors understand they had limited impacts but still overestimated the scores participants would receive. These results add to the understanding of how best to increase environmental literacy with non-formal education experiences

Make Your Job Summer Program: A Report to the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship

Make Your Job Summer Program condenses the material in NFTE's year-long high school curriculum into an intensive two-week course. Over the course of these two weeks, from 9-5 pm each day, students learn about businesses and entrepreneurship while simultaneously designing their business plans. At the end of the program, students present their business plans to a panel of judges to compete for seed money. At two of the 18 sites, NFTE also offered an 8- 10 week version of the program called Startup Summer. Startup Summer is for students who already participated in NFTE during the school year and takes the program a step further by helping them execute their business plans. Students in Startup Summer continue to receive support in launching their businesses into the school year. 378 students participated in the BizCamps and 77 participated in Startup Summer (at the Los Angeles and New York City sites). Although some sites had run NFTE-related summer programs in prior years, other sites were running the summer program for the first time. Two of these BizCamps (Girl Empower BizCamps) served female students exclusively.Our research examines both the impact and implementation of the program and considers:- the types of students who enrolled in the program and why;- how the students experienced the program;- the perceived match between program design and student backgrounds and abilities;- how staff understood the goals and expectations of the program;- the capacities and resources that supported implementation;- the challenges experienced in delivering the program; and- how the program was adapted across sites