The High School Puente Project, one of several outreach efforts of the University of California, is an innovative program that is designed to assist traditionally underserved students. Puente builds on community and the idea of "familia" and features a strong component of professional developments for teachers as well as structural…

There has been a policy shift away from hospital to community in the services of all those with psychiatric disorders, including those with intellectual disability (ID), in the last 50 years. This has been accompanied recently by the growth of assertive outreach services, but these have not been evaluated in ID services. In a randomized controlled…

All homes and schools produce waste. Children may have been astonished at how much people throw away, and this could be the "wake-up call" that arouses their interest. At Carymoor Environmental Centre (an Eco-Centre in South Somerset) getting children involved in active waste reduction and recycling is a priority. Carymoor tries to model…

With a satisfying "Whoompf!" the air cannon sends a tennis ball the length of the school gym. The successful launch is met with cheers from the science club members and their partners--college engineering students from a local university. This air cannon activity was one of many learning opportunities that grew out of a partnership…

Plenty of educators lament the small amount of time and inclination students have for participating in a variety of opportunities for learning and growth in and outside the college classroom. With the majority of students working concurrently with their enrollment and with an ever-increasing focus on efficient time to degree, there seems to be…

This article highlights several programs at the National Academies that should be useful to educators in biology. These include works under the aegis of the National Academy of Sciences' Office on Public Understanding of Science, the National Academy of Engineering's (NAE's) ongoing work on improving technological literacy, and joint work by the…

Program theory plays a prominent role in many evaluations, not only in theory-driven evaluations. This paper presents a case study of the process of developing and refining a program's theory within a user-oriented evaluation. In user-oriented (or utilization-focused) evaluations, primary users can play a role in defining their own program theory.…

Across Illinois, in places where unions thrive, construction industry professionals and career and technical education (CTE) teachers are working together in promoting work-based learning program to students. Likewise, the outreach program provides union-supported contractors with qualified candidates for future employment. Programs such as the…

After spending three years as a kindergarten teacher and one as a reading specialist, Michelle Waters recently became the education outreach coordinator for the Georgia-based Clean Air Campaign. In that role, she has helped roll out a comprehensive Better Air Schools initiative to 20 Atlanta-area elementary schools. The program includes a…

This article deals with the Virtual Learning System (VLS) (http://eservices.nysed.gov/vls/) which has been developed by New York State's State Education Department. This article describes VLS and discusses advantages to teachers, students, parents and the general public. VLS is designed to encourage use of the Internet as a teaching tool and to…

A soap film and bubble festival is held in order to celebrate the National Chemistry Week. The solution to make best soap solution, bubbles and wand are explained.

Over a decade has gone by since the report of the Widening Participation Committee--"Learning works"--was presented to the Further Education Funding Council. Ten years on, this report asks how far have we come in the decade since "Learning works"? What progress have we made? And what barriers have we yet to overcome? Bringing…

The Middle College National Consortium (MCNC) consists of a network of high schools across the nation, located on community college campuses, which provide historically underrepresented youth with access to college. The Consortium supports these small schools in implementing six design principles that lay the foundation for an excellent high…

This occasional paper is a summary of what the staff of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) Dissemination Initiative learned about how to connect research, policy and practice in ways that promote evidence-based practice in the field of adult learning and literacy. NCSALL Tools for connecting practice, policy,…

In this article, the author describes the Science Diversity Center (SDC), a Web-based portal that has consolidated information on all the federal research funding targeted to faculty members at minority-serving institutions, or MSIs. Developed with backing from the National Science Foundation, the SDC has been unofficially up and running since…