Manufacturers have expressed concerns about talent shortages, citing the perceptions held by students/parents of the industry as a major contributing factor. At the same time, policymakers/educational leaders continue to call for STEM education programming to maintain competitiveness in such industries. Accordingly, manufacturers have launched…

A one-hour guided discourse was designed to support developing the outreach communication skills of physics experts with middle school students. The participants consisted of 12 physics researchers who conduct research in the field of nanoscale science and technology (NST). The guided discourse consisted of a professional development task for…

Virtual reality (VR) and electronic field trips (EFT) can introduce youth to natural environments, climate change mitigation strategies, and related STEM careers. We developed a VR and EFT outreach program featuring scientists working on living shorelines for coastal restoration as a response to sea-level rise and examined the program's impacts on…

Informal outreach programs can provide authentic science experiences for elementary school students, who may not have these experiences in formal school settings. Research indicates that students lose interest in science in middle school, so it's important to reach them early. To address this need, we designed a summer camp focused on exposing…

The Native American Astronomy Outreach Program (NAAOP) at Lowell Observatory is an in-class STEM enrichment program that pairs astronomers with 4th-8th grade teachers at Native-serving schools in northern Arizona. The astronomer works with the teacher to present hands-on astronomy activities to their class with the goal of getting students excited…

Affective and cognitive outcomes of science teaching in schools may be enhanced by science outreach labs (SOLs). Particularly interesting is whether and how to connect SOL visits to in-school science learning. Recent studies--among others, in this journal--have confirmed SOLs' positive affective effects. However, research remains inconclusive…

Recent studies have identified that engaging middle school students (grades 6-8) in STEM activities increases their chances of choosing STEM-related disciplines when entering college; however, very few university-sponsored opportunities are available for these students. This paper describes an outreach day for middle school students consisting of…

Background: A growing part of the efforts to promote student engagement and success in undergraduate STEM are the family of Student Support and Outreach Programs (SSOPs), which task undergraduate students with providing support and mentoring to their peers and near-peers. Research has shown that these programs can provide a variety of benefits for…

Mentorship has been shown to have a positive influence on mentees but less research is available on the impacts for mentors, particularly those involved in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) outreach. As we work to enhance STEM engagement through outreach programs that include mentoring, understanding the impact on mentors that…

Numeracy has increasingly become a topic of importance and concern in our contemporary society. Student success in numeracy is influenced by the positive attitudes and values they hold about mathematics. This outreach project sought to foster the development of such attitudes and values through the design, implementation, and evaluation of a…

Substantial, involved, and expensive efforts to promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge and career interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are enthusiastically supported by many scientific, federal, and local organizations. The articulated underlying goals for these efforts include an enhanced public…

This study investigates the impact of an informal science outreach programme built around theories of identity formation and self-efficacy on middle school girls' science affinities. A lottery-based, randomised control trial was used to identify programme effects on four science affinity outcomes: science interests, efficacy with science, science…

Higher education institutions are in a great position to create authentic programming to support local underfunded or underperforming public school districts. This article gives an overview of an education outreach collaborative between a 4-year public university, local schools, and a community institution and highlights lessons learned from the…

Objective: This study evaluated the longitudinal impact of the Teen Outreach Programme (TOP) on adolescent pregnancy, sexual behaviour, risky sex and sexual intentions in non-metropolitan high schools. Design: Pair-matched, cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting: Non-metropolitan public high schools in Florida, USA. Methods: TOP was…

Research on innovative, integrated outreach programs guided three separate week-long outreach camps held across two summers (2018 and 2019). These camps introduced computer science through real-world applications and hands-on activities, each dealing with cybersecurity principles. The camps utilized low-cost hardware and free software to provide a…