The Canoemobile program serves as a floating classroom that provides fun and engaging, water-based activities to connect urban youth to the natural world through hands-on, outdoor learning on local waterways in cities across America. The results of the program evaluation suggest that Canoemobile is meeting its primary objectives of engaging…

Using a stratified random sample and real-time virtual focus group sessions, we evaluated the regional administrative model, addressing personnel supervision, program direction, financial management, and administrative leadership. We concluded that the regional administrative model remains a highly charged topic, there is no common understanding…

The Power of Produce (PoP) Club is a farmers' market incentive program for children aged 5-12. The purpose of the summative evaluation described in this article was to determine the impact of the PoP Club on improving family and child behavior at a Minnesota farmers' market as well as child fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption. Results from a…

Recognizing intergenerational differences sets the stage for sharing and learning across the generations. An intergenerational land transfer education class was designed to engage families around the issue of parcelization and development of forested lands. A post-class survey of the Intergenerational Land Transfer class was used to evaluate…

Dwindling public funding as well as greater competition for grant dollars create a challenge for Extension. For Extension to remain a financially viable organization, educators have to be able to produce substantive, measurable program outcomes and impacts. Evaluative data can inform program development and delivery, and helps administrators…

A recent study of the Minnesota Agriculture and Rural Leadership (MARL) program set out to determine the relationship between andragogical program design and increased levels of emotional intelligence (EI). Members of two cohorts in the MARL leadership development program received different levels of focused effort, peer coaching, individual…

This article describes the experiences of one Minnesota middle school that implemented a year-long integrated STEM program with the cooperation of graduate student fellows from a local university. The authors, two of whom were among the graduate students involved in the project, describe their impressions of the program, share some lessons they…

Vocational rehabilitation (VR) clients who leave the system prematurely experience worse employment outcomes than clients who stay in services. The authors conducted this study to learn about factors leading to premature exit by rural VR clients. Results will inform survey development for a large longitudinal study on this topic. The authors…

Surveys that focused on academic and life skill development were collected from alumni who attended Avalon Charter School in St Paul, Minnesota. Avalon is a small public charter school that uses project-based learning as their primary teaching method. Forty-two alumni responded to the online survey. Students ranked life skills such as creativity,…

A field trip is a common strategy used by educators to bring out-of-school learning experience into schools. Many research studies suggest a field trip will not only bring an individual close to the real-world, but may also increase an individual's environmental knowledge and responsible behaviors. Program evaluations usually focus on the…

A new Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) approach was designed for youth who participated in the Minnesota State Fair Livestock interview process. The project and evaluation were designed to determine if the new SET approach increased content knowledge and science process skills in participants. Results revealed that youth participants not…

Schools have long recognized the importance of creating climates that are peaceful, laying the groundwork for good student academic learning. This article explores the work of a large urban school district as it applies a community violence prevention model developed by the local county public health department to create peaceful communities.…

The American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year initiative launched in June 2008 and funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It was created to support a pilot group of two-year institutions to develop or expand campus programs that engage plus 50 learners. The initiative focuses on three types of…

This paper seeks to confirm whether students using the Global Market Potential System Online (GMPSO) web based software, (http://globalmarketpotential.com), for their class project enhanced their knowledge and understanding of international business. The challenge most business instructors and practitioners face is to determine how to bring the…

Minnesota used telelecture for 59 meetings, reaching 296 groups in 35 counties. Each call was a conference call and each receiving station had a Dukane unit enabling an audience of up to 200 to hear well. (EB)