Interest development is a topic that has fascinated and puzzled educators since the 20th century. Despite decades of research and important advances in the field, questions remain about interest and its relationship to learning. In particular, given the pervasiveness of technology in our daily lives, it is essential to understand how interest…

As the demand for opportunities to learn English grows throughout the world, parents and educators are looking for innovative ways to engage students in English-learning opportunities. Perhaps your school or municipality will seek to initiate an English Camp to be on trend with this growing need. Or perhaps, like many go-getter teachers, you wish…

This research aims to develop the environmental recreation camp activity for youth in Roi-Et province of Thailand, to compare environmental knowledge, environmental attitudes before and after participating in the camp, as will as their participating in Environment Recreation camp activities during and after participating in the camp of youths with…

A two-week summer camp for high school students focused on sustainable polymers was developed and implemented. Students took part in experiments and interactive lessons that demonstrate polymer chemistry fundamentals alongside associated sustainability challenges and opportunities. For example, polymer concepts related to chemical properties…

This dissertation investigated an affective curriculum intervention's effectiveness in resolving underachievement. The intervention was first implemented at a summer program with 20 students and four camp counselors. Inductive analysis of qualitative data indicated that most participants had positive perceptions of the model. Descriptive analyses…

The authors deal with the conditions and factors of the development of creative civic engagement of students. The article contains the results of the experimental work on forming the creative civic engagement of students during studying the discipline, which is called: "The Basics of Camp Counseling". The work on forming the creative…

While civic participation is a crucial component of healthy and sustainable democracies, young adolescents may perceive or experience barriers that limit their civic action. This study draws from focus groups and surveys during a week-long summer civics camp to explore ways in which 47 young adolescents entering Grades 6-9 described barriers they…

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields have been traditionally entered by men, often establishing women as underrepresented in many of these fields. This research study focuses on participants at a STEM camp for middle- and high-school girls designed to introduce them to technology. The camp was held 4 times over 3 years, with…

This study illuminates how medical specialty camps can be an important developmental setting offering opportunities for diverse children and youth to develop traits and qualities perceived as important even later in life. Perhaps most importantly, camp was identified as one of the most influential settings for developing personal and social traits…

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the online delivery of an affective curriculum for gifted and talented youth to gain further understanding of its effectiveness and perceived advantages and disadvantages of delivering affective curriculum online. Using convergent parallel mixed methods design, we evaluated data from 38 secondary…

Throughout the Internet, many chatbots have been deployed by various organizations to answer questions asked by customers. In recent years, we have been running cybersecurity summer camps for youth. Due to COVID-19, our in-person camp has been changed to virtual camps. As a result, we decided to develop a chatbot to reduce the number of emails,…

Most people meet insects with fear and disgust, even though few insects pose health risks; in fact, many are beneficial and their absence would adversely affect human life. Such misunderstandings lead to insect conservation being important but unpopular. We addressed these concerns as part of a broader effort to establish an ongoing outreach…

The COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting health and safety concerns caused the cancellation of many engineering education opportunities for high school students. To expose high school students to the field of neural engineering and encourage them to pursue academic pathways in biomedical engineering, the Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) at the…

Building on existing relationships with international youth development colleagues, we created the 4-H International Camp United Program (4-HICUP) as a leadership opportunity for international and U.S. teens. In 2019, teenagers from Azerbaijan, Italy, Russia, and the United States came together to build personal cross-cultural relationships,…

The University of California (UC) 4-H Mindfulness Retreat was developed on the basis of current research of positive youth outcomes associated with mindfulness. Curricula, resources, and programming were developed to introduce participants to mindfulness to improve overall health. The UC 4-H Mindfulness Retreat provides training and opportunities…