DesignYOU! Code Camp is a grant-funded summer outreach camp designed to increase interest in coding and STEM careers among middle school students (6th - 8th graders) through an innovative, immersive summer camp experience. To make the concepts of coding more palpable, researchers incorporated fashion and retail allowing students to learn through…

Genome Sciences Education Outreach (GSEO) has developed innovative programs that bring leading-edge science to teachers and students in K-12 schools. Disseminating educational materials equitably and accessibly to teacher stakeholders to maximize reach and impact is challenging for many programs. Traditionally, programs connect materials with…

This study investigated how a STEM outreach program, focused on promoting adolescent girls' interests in STEM, augmented parents' and teachers' (adults) perceptions of doxa (socialization that enhances or stymies girls' STEM interests) after the event, at home and school, respectively. To this end, we provided participating adults with in-event…

Today, scientists increasingly bear the responsibility of sharing scientific results with the public. To help meet this challenge, there is a need to provide scientists with training in science outreach and education. This kind of professional development would benefit both scientists and the public if scientists could learn these skills while…

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is under pressure from climate change and other threats, and part of the solution is to raise awareness of the GBR and its threats beyond a local audience (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, 2019). Reef HQ Aquarium (the national education centre for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority) implemented a…

The Life Sciences Learning Center (LSLC) is a hands-on science outreach center located at the University of Rochester's School of Medicine and Dentistry (UR-SMD) in Rochester, New York. The LSLC provides hands-on, case-based learning to boost science literacy and increase enthusiasm toward science learning. The LSLC offers on-site and in-school…

Bringing Research into the Classroom (BRIC) engaged rural K-12 science teachers in sustained, mentored science research. BRIC's goal was to equip teachers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to provide high-quality biomedical research opportunities for K-12 students and teachers. Programmatic elements included authentic, place-based,…

"Cena y Ciencias" (Supper and Science), or CyC, is a STEM outreach program for kindergarten through fifth-grade youth and their families. Monthly, university scientists lead interactive experiments with assistance from university student mentors. CyC is conducted entirely in Spanish. While youth complete activities, a separate parent…

Social media platforms like Twitter offer benefits for promoting and sharing scientific research. Each user becomes an instant news source for their work, and are able to report lab updates, news, and discoveries in near real time, increasing the visibility and citations of one's research and allowing for direct and public engagement with the…

University-led K-12 outreach programs are designed to expose students to a variety of fields and career choices, but the benefits and outcomes of these have not been well documented. Existing programs often range from short presentations to more extensive residential summer programs. Nationally, there are only a few university-led high school…

Disease ecology classes were conducted at two residential middle school summer camps held at a university--a camp for local youth who paid tuition and a free camp for youth from statewide underserved communities including Native, low-income, and rural. Disease ecology is defined as the ecological study of host-pathogen interactions within the…

Kentucky ranks first in the nation in cancer incidence and mortality. The Appalachian region of the state experiences the highest cancer disparities due to inequities in many social determinants of health as well as poor health behaviors. As a strategy for addressing cancer and education disparities in the region, the Appalachian Career Training…

Despite ongoing efforts to increase diversity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEM) fields, disparities persist. MYHealth Summer Launch is a virtual, out-of-school STEM outreach program aiming to increase participation of historically marginalized students in health research to develop researcher identity and…

We present a programmatic study of physicists' and astronomers' attitudes toward education and public outreach (EPO) using 131 survey responses from members of the Dark Energy Survey. We find a disparity between the types of EPO activities researchers deem valuable and those in which they participate. Most respondents are motivated to engage in…

Two-year community college (CC) students face many barriers for recruitment and retention into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields and vertical transfer to 4-year universities (4YUs). Experiential learning, mentoring, and cohort building are effective mechanisms for increasing STEM recruitment and retention, and close…