The current study investigated the hypothesis that implementing a mindfulness intervention could significantly alleviate anxiety caused by a deficit in reading comprehension, as well as improve trait mindfulness and efficacy. Students with reading difficulties enrolled in a corrective reading intervention program served as participants. All…

A science camp for blind or visually impaired (BVI) students, covering mainly hands-on chemistry experiments, is described. The scientific experiments are detailed, and the feedback of the students is recorded, highlighting the benefits of the camp and its impact. BVI students actively participated in conducting the scientific experiments using…

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have been noted to enhance student learning by supporting spatial reasoning and visualization, long-term memory, engagement, and increased motivation. The researchers situated the exploration of these tools for learning within the culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) in mathematics education. The…

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields have been traditionally entered by men, often establishing women as underrepresented in many of these fields. This research study focuses on participants at a STEM camp for middle- and high-school girls designed to introduce them to technology. The camp was held 4 times over 3 years, with…

The current research sought to examine the impact of a week-long mathematics camp on motivation and self-efficacy beliefs of participating middle school students. Middle school students participated in a one-week mathematics camp on a college campus, where they worked on authentic mathematics activities that were applied to real world concepts.…

Females' participation in outdoor recreation is often limited for a variety of reasons including social gender norms, a lack of exposure, and fear. Research has uncovered a wide range of positive outcomes for those females who do participate ranging from enhanced self-esteem and confidence to improved body image, indicating the importance of…

We describe two established STEM camps that went virtual following the outbreak of COVID-19 during the summer of 2020. Our Summer Research Opportunity (SRO) camp engages middle school science fair winners in a forensic research opportunity, while The Immokalee Foundation (TIF) camp introduces middle school students from historically…

Background: Summer camps can promote positive youth development. Unfortunately, racial, ethnic, and economic disparities contribute to inequities in camp participation and related research on marginalized youth. Consequently, it is not clear what types of camping programs work best for marginalized youth. Purpose: To conduct a quasi-experimental…

The purpose of this research paper was to examine the relationship between vocational relevancy and adventure STEM education in the context of a four-day adventure STEM camp. Middle school students participated in a variety of adventure activities designed to teach STEM concepts. Using a concurrent triangulation mixed methods design, 246 students…

Nearly 30 years ago, Math Corps--a summer camp for middle school students in Detroit who could benefit from mentoring and positive influences--was started at Wayne State University (WSU). In 2015, the National Science Foundation awarded an Advancing Informal Science, Technology, Education, and Mathematics (STEM) Learning grant to WSU. As part of…

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines play a pivotal role in societal progress and economic prosperity, in addition to enhancing individual lives. However, U.S. students lack strong STEM performance in an international context. The pool of STEM-proficient workers is thus insufficient to fuel the nation, with females…

Motivated by a desire to encourage girls to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) studies, librarians at the Marston Science Library (Marston) at the University of Florida (UF) developed Girls Tech Camp (GTC), a summer camp designed to introduce middle-school girls to creative technologies used in these fields. This week-long…

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…

Females are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. They also tend to display less favorable dispositions towards STEM than males. This study investigates the influence of a five-day residential summer mathematics and technology camp on middle school girls' beliefs about mathematics as a gendered…

There has been a growing need felt by practitioners, researchers, and evaluators to obtain a common measure of science engagement that can be used in different out-of-school time (OST) science learning settings. We report on the development and validation of a novel 10-item self-report instrument designed to measure, communicate, and ultimately…