When students drop out of high school there are substantial social and economic consequences that can persist throughout their lives. They are more likely to be unemployed, to become teenage parents, to become involved in the criminal justice system, and to suffer a lifetime of low wages. Dropout rates soared during the COVID-19 pandemic as…

Although many have suggested the use of games to motivate active learning, studies that evaluate the learning outcomes of games with high school students are scarce. Here, we present the evaluation of the board game "Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized" as an active learning tool to teach fossilization and Earth systems thinking with rising…

Climate change is a timely topic and offers an overarching theme that can include a variety of STEM disciplines and technologies. In response to the pandemic, we developed and implemented an online science-based summer youth program in Climate Change Resiliency (CCR) for 11th and 12th graders in July 2020. Two sessions differing in content level…

Every physics teacher wants to give his or her students the opportunity to learn physics well. Despite these intentions, certain groups of students--including women and underrepresented minorities (URMs)--are not taking and not remaining in physics. In many cases, these disturbing trends are more significant in physics than in any other science.…

High schools today have a unique challenge: to equip students with the knowledge and tools they need to prepare for, apply to and enroll in college--all while proving them with digital resources and skills essential for the 21st century. This guide by the Pullias Center's Digital Equity in Education team provides a general overview of what a…

Although students leave high school stating their plans to continue their education, some lack the information and strategies to successfully navigate a successful transition to college. This paper presents results from a randomized study that is part of a larger, quasi-experimental intervention, the College Ambition Program (CAP). The embedded…

Nowadays, outreach labs are important informal learning environments in science education. After summarizing research to goals outreach labs focus on, we describe our evidence-based gene technology lab as a model of a research-driven outreach program. Evaluation-based optimizations of hands-on teaching based on cognitive load theory (additional…

Learning modern genetics is challenging and students have difficulty acquiring a coherent cognitive mental model of abstract concepts such as DNA, bacteria and enzymes. Here we investigated students' mental models of genetics through analysis and interpretation of the discourse that took place while high-school students practised hands-on…

This study addressed one aspect of a national strategic recommendation in South Africa by examining the effectiveness of computer-based outreach programmes in terms of how the programmes were implemented and learners' perceptions of the classes. The role that the computer centres played at two schools was examined and the research endeavoured to…