Even though school administrators and their leadership practices are rarely explored within science education research, our recent efforts to understand organizational influences on achievement disparities induced an elevated regard for elementary school principals. In this paper, we report on policy buffering by principals at schools whose…

Through two stories of youth voice, learning, and identity development in an afterschool science program for girls only, we show the ways in which such programs can be understood as important identity-building practices. We describe key dimensions of a socio-cultural approach to youth voice, learning, and identity, situated also in the context of…

The case study investigation reported here assessed California 4-H professionals' understanding of the essential components of effective 4-H Science programming as established by the National 4-H Science Mission Mandate. Using the 4-H Science Checklist as the basis for defining 4-H Science Readiness, academic and program staff were surveyed and…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an increase in Natural Resource Management (NRM) jobs within the next 10 years due to baby-boomer retirements and a 12% increase in demand for these occupations. Despite this trend, college enrollment in NRM disciplines has declined. Even more critical is the fact that the soon-to-be-majority Hispanic…

ASE has a long history of sending students to the International Science School (ISS), having been doing so since 1968. The ISS is a free science education programme run biennially by the Science Foundation for Physics at the University of Sydney. ASE's role is to select the students and organise funding to enable the students and escorts to…

Teachers of biology and related subjects are increasingly meeting objections from students and their parents to the teaching of evolution and the exclusion of what is called the theory of Intelligent Design. This paper attempts to draw together arguments and evidence which may be used by such teachers. Four lessons are drawn from the 1982…

Underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has been a growing concern. Efforts to ameliorate this have often been directed at college-level enrichment. However, mentoring in the sciences at a high-school age level may have a greater impact on career choices. The Center Scholars…

Given limited funding for school-based science education, non-school-based programs have been developed at colleges and universities to increase the number of students entering science- and health-related careers and address critical workforce needs. However, few evaluations of such programs have been conducted. We report the design and methods of…

Hawai'i is a unique and special place to conduct environmental science inquiry through place based learning and scientific investigation. Here, we describe and evaluate a unique professional development program for science teachers in Hawai'i that integrates the traditional approach of providing training to improve content knowledge, with the…

In South Africa, foundation programmes are a well-established alternative access route to tertiary science study for educationally disadvantaged students. Student access to, and performance in, one such foundation programme has been researched by the authors seeking opportunities to improve student retention. The biology module in particular has…

"Co-design"--including youth development staff along with curriculum designers--is the key to developing an effective program that is both scalable and sustainable. This article describes Build IT, a two-year afterschool and summer curriculum designed to help middle school girls develop fluency in information technology (IT), interest in…

This paper examines the implications of the continued growth of e-government information, communication, and services for Library and Information Science programs in the United States in light of the development of e-government educational programs and library/government partnerships. The implementation of e-government raises several important…

The University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez (UPRM) has found that there are disadvantages to a semester long remedial mathematics course that is administered during the freshmen year to students with mathematics deficiencies in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs. Correspondingly, the UPRM designed and implemented an…

Previous research has linked inquiry-based science instruction (i.e., science instruction that engages students in doing science rather than just learning about science) with greater gains in student learning than text-book based methods (Vanosdall, Klentschy, Hedges & Weisbaum, 2007; Banilower, 2007; Ferguson 2009; Bredderman, 1983;…

Encouraging nonprofessionals to participate in ecological research through citizen science programs is a recent innovation and an effective strategy for gathering ecological information across broad geographical areas. In this paper, we demonstrate how reporting field-based observations through eBird, a citizen-based birding and data-recording…