Objective: The hippocampus has been implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, and hippocampal volume deficits have been a consistently reported abnormality, but the subregional specificity of the deficits remains unknown. The authors explored the nature and developmental trajectory of subregional shape abnormalities of the hippocampus in…

Both public and private institutions of higher education face revenue shortfalls. In order to close budget gaps, colleges and universities must identify new revenue sources. Historically alumni are large providers of voluntary support to higher education institutions, but the numbers of alumni contributing financially is decreasing. The purpose of…

In order to promote energy literacy for graders K-12, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan initiated a K-12 Energy Technology Education Project in September 2010. This 40-month project has one project office affiliated to a university, and 18 promotion centers affiliated to 18 schools--including 5 regional centers for upper-secondary schools…

Robotics has gained a great deal of popularity across the United States as a means to engage youth in science, technology, engineering, and math. Understanding what motivates youth and adults to participate in a robotics project is critical to understanding how to engage others. By developing a robotics program built on a proper understanding of…

The success of Wikipedia demonstrates that open collaboration can be an effective model for organizing geographically-distributed volunteers to perform complex, sustained work at a massive scale. However, Wikipedia's history also demonstrates some of the challenges that large, long-term open collaborations face: the core community of Wikipedia…

The study is aimed at examining the relationship between psychological empowerment of women volunteers and their clients in community volunteer projects in Israel. Based on an ecological approach, the study also aimed at examining whether the variables that explain empowerment of women who volunteer also explain empowerment of their clients. The…

Developing leadership within any type of volunteer organization can be a difficult task; however fostering commitment long term has been a proven key component to the sustainability of such organizations (Collins, 2001). Extension professionals rely heavily on their professional organizations to offer stability and professional development on a…

The perceived distance between touches on a single skin surface is larger on regions of high tactile sensitivity than those with lower acuity, an effect known as "Weber's illusion". This illusion suggests that tactile size perception involves a representation of the perceived size of body parts preserving characteristics of the somatosensory…

4-H volunteers and staff are often faced with providing educational programs and opportunities for youth with wide ranges of age and ability. To address this challenge, researchers from the University of California Cooperative Extension developed and tested a Best Practices Matrix that outlines domain-specific, age-appropriate characteristics of…

This prospective, mixed-method study investigates the development of school-based mentoring relationships using direct observations, in-depth interviews, and questionnaires from the perspective of mentors and students. A pattern-oriented analysis of qualitative data explores the diversity observed in the life-course of mentor-student…

As a component of university international education programming, international volunteerism and global community engagement by university students and faculty are on the rise. While the benefits to student learning related to this kind of programming have been well researched, community impact is rarely assessed. This article considers the…

Educators in informal settings can be a key part of the learning experience, yet they are often poorly supported as professionals. This study followed the professional development of museum educators who participated in iterative implementation of a new school trip program focused on climate change. The learner-centered pedagogy, inquiry format,…

School voucher programs challenge the traditional role of the public school as the builder of citizens, raising the question of whether private schools can provide a civic education of equal quality. In this study, we use survey data from the Milwaukee voucher program to investigate the relative benefits in civic outcomes of attending a voucher…

The authors describe how Southern Utah University has integrated the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Voluntary Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program as an experiential servicelearning activity for over a decade and a half. First, we describe the value of experiential servicelearning. Second, we detail the program, its oversight, its student…

Families are the primary clients of public schools, but they are one of many constituencies who have a say in how schools actually operate. In all the technocratic fervor around "education reform"--the broad effort to implement standards and accountability, reform teacher tenure and evaluation, and increase parental choice--it is easy to…