Indianapolis GEMS Club: Engagement in Informal Mathematics and Science Learning.

There continues to be a need for the representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. To address this need, the Girls Excelling in Mathematics and Science (GEMS) research team at Purdue started a GEMS club at Lew Wallace School in Indianapolis, referred to as Indy GEMS Club. GEMS research assistants Maria Eloisa Nuguid, Yi Zhu, and Grace Gochnauer worked with Professor Elizabeth Suazo-Flores. This article is a description of the first Indy GEMS Club experience that consisted of hands-on activities created by GEMS founder Laura Reasoner Jones. The activities were hidden Legos, cup stacking, building a zipline, creating a water filter, and making a coin battery. Once a week for four weeks, the Purdue GEMS team met with a group of 12 to 18 energetic third and fourth grade girls ready to engage in these informal STEM activities together. The girls communicated, collaborated, and most importantly had fun doing STEM in an environment that is different from a traditional classroom setting. There was an opportunity to engage the girls in an outdoor setting for the water filter activity. We were invited for a second semester at Lew Wallace School for Spring of 2023. For upcoming Indy GEMS Club, we are developing visuospatial research-based activities that involve analyzing space with imagery through drawing, creating, building, and inquiry. We argue that Indy GEMS Club will continue to benefit the community and students by providing them with opportunities to collaborate and engage in rich, hands-on, and interactive activities that portray them as doers of science and mathematics

Youth and Family Factors Affecting Completion of a Diversion Program

The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ) has launched several diversion programs for at-risk youth in the state of Florida. Prior studies revealed the efficacy of diversion programming in helping mentally ill individuals, the community, and the criminal justice system. This study addressed a gap in the literature regarding how youth and family factors and characteristics can determine program completion. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate youth and family factors and characteristics associated with program completion for participants in diversion programs in the state of Florida. The family systems theory used for this study supports the idea on how family dynamics can potentially influence family-related factors among family members and how they relate to individual and family factors that affect program completion. Participants (N = 7,068) were collected from the archival data of the FDJJ who participated in a diversion services program in the state of Florida for the fiscal year 2017-2018. Spearman correlations and logistic regression models were used to answer all research questions to show the relationship between the independent variable (program completion) and each of the four dependent variables (substance use, interpersonal stress, undermined authority and relatedness, and family discord). Findings showed youth factors/characteristics, family factors, and family discord predicted juvenile justice diversion program completion. One important implication in this study is for positive social change that may offer social transformation for most at-risk youth, which is the focus and heart of juvenile justice programs

Influenza Vaccination in School-aged Children

Should schools in the United States require children between the ages of six months to 17 years to have flu vaccination shots? Influenza is a serious disease that can lead to hospitalization and sometimes even death. According to the Center of Disease Control (CDC), every flu season varies, and an influenza infection can affect people differently. Millions of people get the flu every year, hundreds of thousands of people are hospitalized, and thousands or tens of thousands of people die from flu-related causes every year. Everyone is at risk for influenza, but the highest risk lies within children who are still developing their immune systems. However, with vaccines, this risk is easily preventable and can decrease a person’s chances of acquiring the infection. As such, the CDC recommends that every person six months and older should be vaccinated annually. This is even more important for children because they attend schools where they have maximum exposure to various strains of influenza six to ten hours daily. They can easily spread and contract the disease in their school environment, specifically from children that are not vaccinated. This leads to the hypothesis that children six months to 17 years should be required to receive influenza vaccinations.https://scholar.dominican.edu/ug-student-posters/1070/thumbnail.jp

PROJECT E-MAIL (ELECTRONIC-MATERIALS, AUDIO AND INCENTIVES FOR LEARNERS): AN ACTION RESEARCH

In this study, the Project E-MAIL or Electronic-Material, Audio, and Incentives for Learners during the quarantine period were investigated for the incoming Grade 10 Beauty care students. The Pre-Test was given to 32 participants; however, there are only 17 students who accomplished all the online activities and given the Post Test and survey through Google Form. The research has also studied those participants who did not achieve online tasks and also provided an online survey. The difference of Pre-Test and Post Test Mean is -4.05882 with a standard deviation of 1.85306, and the p-value is .000, which less than .001 found that teaching intervention (Project E-MAIL) improves the participant’s performance. &nbsp