The high demand for scientists and engineers in the workforce means that there is a continuing need for more strategies to increase student completion in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. The challenge lies in finding and enacting effective strategies to increase students' completion of STEM degrees and in recruiting…

When high school students are asked what's the best part of science class, many will say it's the field trips. Students enjoy engaging in authentic, community-based science outside the classroom. To capitalize on this, Patrick Willis created the Bird Box Survey Project for his introductory field biology class. The project takes students…

The University of North Texas's Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science began admitting students to its 2-year early college entrance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program in the fall of 1988. This program provided accelerated entry for top students in Texas in the areas of mathematics and science. Approximately 200…

The main areas of difficulty experienced by those teaching and learning organic chemistry at high school and introductory university level in Ireland have been identified, and the findings support previous studies in Ireland and globally. Using these findings and insights from chemistry education research (CER), the Organic Chemistry in Action!…

We explore the use of iPads in a diverse urban high school and the ways in which teachers and students were supported to integrate these tools into their instruction. We provided 4 English teachers with 20 iPads with little or no professional development about how to integrate them into their instruction. Using a formative experiment design, we…

This paper describes practical procedures in mentoring/tutoring students through self-assessment (SA) to establish and maintain partnership in learning. High school teachers ("n"?=?10) allow their students ("N"?=?515: 359 males) to engage in activities that help them identify standards and/or criteria to apply to their work and…

The test scores aren't in yet, but by almost every other measure that matters--school climate, instructional strategies, staff satisfaction--the former Shawnee High School isn't the same place it was just a year ago. More than half the teachers are new to the persistently low-performing school. Those who remain say they no longer feel that their…

Response to intervention (RTI) protocols at the secondary level require a systems approach that is supported by professional learning teams (PLTs). PLTs create viable courses in which most students experience success and work together to plan further interventions. PLT protocol work begins with the design of uniform summative assessments and is…

There is a need for effective prevention programmes aimed at reducing risk behaviour among South African adolescents. HealthWise South Africa is a school-based programme designed to reduce sexual and substance use risk behaviour, and promote positive use of leisure time among high-school learners (students). Based on successful programmes in the…

The current study is a formative evaluation of an integrated, school-based program for urban minority youth transitioning into high school. The design of this pilot project was quasi-experimental in nature, with one freshman physical education class assigned to receive the intervention and one to receive no program or "treatment as usual." The…

The purpose of this paper is to present the Large Unit District Association virtual high school (LUDA-VHS) project and discuss its design, development, and implementation. A model developed at the Center for the Application of Information Technologies for designing online classes will be presented and discussed. The focus of the paper will be to…

This paper describes the process evaluation of an organ donation education program for high school students aged 15-18 years of which the effectiveness was established. The program consisted of three components: a video with group discussion, an interactive computer-tailored program and a registration training session. A cross-sectional survey was…