Lead poisoning from ingestion of bullet fragments in gut piles and unretrieved deer carcasses continues to cause mortality in bald eagles. To address this issue, the Midwest region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) initiated an outreach program during 2016-2018 encouraging hunters to voluntarily use nonlead ammunition while deer…

Retaining college-level science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students remains a priority in higher education. A variety of methods have been shown to increase retention, including mentorship, tutoring, course enhancements, community building, and engagement in high-impact practices such as undergraduate research. In 2011, an…

The Latino population in the United States is large and growing. As a whole, however, it has been challenged with inequitable educational attainment rates compared to other groups, meriting the attention of public agencies, postsecondary institutions, and advocates. Latino economic and career success -- and the success of our overall economy --…

How can researchers and practitioners meaningfully engage the public in matters of environmental stewardship and landscape conservation? Traditional approaches to answering this question have erroneously relied upon the assumption that the simple combination of knowledge and awareness of environmental challenges will motivate desirable behavior…

Development of benchtop, portable Fourier transform nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and infrared (IR) spectrometers has opened up opportunities for creating university-high school partnerships that provide high school students with hands-on experience with NMR and IR instruments. With recent changes to the international baccalaureate chemistry…

In this policy brief, the authors examine and provide examples of the ways that public libraries have become invaluable partners in supporting family STEM learning. Although emerging research points to the strong influence of families on children's growth and development, a focus on joint parent and child STEM learning is still nascent. This brief…

Undergraduates can become effective agents of environmental outreach when challenged to produce evidence-based messages to inform the public about local environmental issues. We recount our experience partnering our undergraduate students with community organizations dedicated to water stewardship to create a "Pedal and Paddle Pollution…

The concept of a community college implies some connection to the community beyond mere setting. A tribal community college suggests even more--a college which maintains its roots in traditional Native culture and serves the tribal community in a unique way. Located in northwest Wisconsin within the traditional homelands of the Ojibwe people, the…

More high quality child care is needed in the United States. This article evaluates the Better Kid Care (BKC) program produced by Pennsylvania State University Extension. Child care staff in Wisconsin were interviewed about changes they had made in their early childhood programs following participation in the BKC program. Findings show that 2…

Demonstration shows are a popular form of chemical education outreach used to increase interest, engagement, and appreciation of chemistry. Although practitioners often include instructional elements, evaluation has been limited to children's attitudes toward science rather than their understanding of the underlying concepts presented. In 2006, we…

This dissertation contains chapters that explore higher education policy issues related to student outcomes. In the first chapter, I examine the results of a controlled randomized trial of a brief, inexpensive phone call outreach to a sample of Pell eligible students at the University of Missouri intended to increase FAFSA filing, on-time FAFSA…

The assertion that choice-driven competition between schools will improve school quality rests on several largely unexamined assumptions. One is that choice increases the competitive pressure experienced by school leaders. A second is that schools will seek to become more effective in response to competitive pressure. In this article, we use…

While library programming for children is a staple in most public libraries, it is quite rare in the academic setting. In 2006 the education librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire began offering literacy programs in a library that traditionally discouraged children and community members from using its resources. Successful programs…

Health literacy, the ability to obtain and understand information and services to make good health decisions, has received much attention recently. Literacy is a stronger predictor of health status than age, income, race, ethnicity, employment status, or educational level. Inadequate health literacy costs the United States an estimated $100-$236…

A 50-state analysis of postsecondary correctional education policy conducted by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) in 2005 found that 68 percent of all postsecondary correctional education is provided by community colleges. The IHEP findings were the basis for this review of partnerships between community colleges and prisons. This…