Do you want your pupils to understand how science applies to real-world contexts, to provide more hands-on engineering experiences in your curriculum or to improve the way you integrate STEM industry partners within children's learning? These are some of the questions asked as part of the Greater Manchester Engineering Challenge (GMEC), an annual…

Founded in 2011, the Bay Area Science Festival (BASF), led by the Science and Health Education Partnership (SEP) at UC San Francisco, brings together academic, scientific, corporate and civic groups to develop and lead STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) events for all ages. From 2011-2019, the Festival hosted over 50 events…

Many science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) outreach programs focus on children, but relatively few efforts are dedicated to voting-age populations. These groups are important to reach because misinformation about science is widespread and difficult to detect, often interfering with informed voting on science-related issues. Science…

Although previous research exists on making adaptations for students with Visual Impairments (VI) in online settings, there is limited research on the teaching and learning dynamics of students with VI during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since responses to the pandemic made it difficult for students with VI to participate in educational opportunities…

Parental involvement increases K-12 student interest in STEM careers; however, when parents lack confidence in STEM content, or language and cultural barriers exist, parental engagement decreases. The Teacher Enrichment Initiatives (TEI) collects annual teacher feedback regarding the level of parental involvement with students during science…

This article describes an elementary science summer day camp at East Palatine High School in East Palestine, Ohio, for students in grades K-4, aided by high school (grades 9-12) student mentors. The school's Outdoor Area for Studies in Science (OASIS) is used for formal and informal studies in science for an elementary science camp week. The camp…

This guidebook was prepared by TASC (The After-School Corporation) and their Frontiers in Urban Science Education (FUSE) programs. FUSE is TASC's initiative to help more out-of-school-time programs and expanded learning time schools offer kids engaging, exciting and inspiring activities that promote science inquiry. The guidebook offers a a…

Living in the Adirondack Park and being an avid outdoorsman has often resulted in the author's love of the outdoors working its way into class projects. In 2010, the author gave a group of 25 students in grades 9-12 a challenge that required them to design and construct a prototype inexpensive, lightweight kayak for backpackers and fisherman. In…

When teachers, parents, and community members work together, children benefit (Henderson and Mapp 2002). This is especially true when the collaboration is coordinated and focused as it was for the Greenteam, a science ecology club and an event created by a network of educators, elementary students, and science professionals. The club and a…

Teaching is a complex activity that requires making ongoing multiple decisions and sporadic, responsive actions all while performing preplanned prescribed tasks. Evidence of certain aspects of teaching can be best assessed with a well-designed observation instrument. This instrument was designed to assess the enactment of the essential elements of…

Hosting an engineering competition can bring great success to a technology department. Development and planning of an event can prove frustrating at times, but it pays off in the end. The author describes the first-ever engineering competition held at Maple Avenue Middle School in Saratoga Springs, New York, which provided an evening of creative…

The Community Science Workshops (CSWs)--with funding from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation--created a network among the CSW sites in California. The goals of the CSW Network project have been to improve programs, build capacity throughout the Network, and establish new sites. Inverness Research has been…

This article presents the design and development of i*CATch, a construction kit for physical and wearable computing that was designed to be scalable, plug-and-play, and to provide support for iterative and exploratory learning. It consists of a standardized construction interface that can be adapted for a wide range of soft textiles or electronic…

This volume contains the following papers: (1) Beyond Computer Literacy: Supporting Youth's Positive Development through Technology (Marina Umaschi Bers); (2) Educational Technology, Reimagined (Michael Eisenberg); (3) Children as Codesigners of New Technologies: Valuing the Imagination to Transform What Is Possible (Allison Druin); (4) Content…

Activities for school age day care programs are presented in detail in this guide for children, parents, and day care staff. The guide consists of 14 illustrated booklets that provide activity instructions and some background information. Topics are: (1) functions of school age day care; (2) quiet and active games and materials; (3) toys and play…