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The paper aims to address the increasing issue of teacher shortages and the lack of diversity in America’s educators. Highly diverse communities need ways to support community members interested in careers as teachers. This article explores one promising approach to reach and inspire high school students considering the teaching profession. Camp ExCEL (Exploring Careers in Education and Leadership) provided a pathway allowing rising high school seniors an opportunity to explore the teaching profession. This pathway utilized the Grow Your Own framework, recruiting students from a diverse community and providing them resources and information that would further efforts to become an educator within their community.

The current study examined outcomes from an education summer camp, using qualitative thematic analysis to reflexively interpret participants’ (n = 29) feelings and beliefs about effective teaching, culturally responsive teaching (CRT), project-based learning (PBL) and their camp experience. Data were collected using Google documents and surveys. The four connected themes that emerged were obstacles and barriers to teaching, qualities of an effective teacher, the impact of culturally responsive teaching and project-based learning on classrooms, and the importance of mentorships within education.

The paper provides insight about how an education camp can support high school students as they explore a career in education. Results suggest that focus on high-quality pedagogy can support student understanding of the career. Students also suggested their perception of effective teaching that includes acknowledging the needs of the whole student, modeling high-quality teaching practices and displaying positive professional dispositions.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to conduct and examine education camps further.

The paper includes implications for the development of other education camps, especially in areas with highly diverse populations.

This paper fulfills an identified need to increase the number of persons pursuing a career in education. The focus on a highly diverse community is also an area of need in education. This article details the description of an education camp and the curriculum used, along with findings from data collected during the first year.

This paper investigated the impact a camp on informal science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) had on students' perceptions of STEM fields and careers.

A quasiexperimental design was used to assess students' perceptions toward STEM fields and careers. Secondary students (n = 57) who participated in the STEM summer camp completed STEM projects, went on lab tours and attended panels during the one- or two-week residential camps. Students completed a STEM Semantics survey to assess their perceptions prior to and after attending the camp. Descriptive statistics, Cohen's d effect sizes, paired sample t-tests and Pearson's correlation were conducted to analyze the data.

Results suggested that although there was no significant change in students' dispositions toward each individual STEM field, there was a statistically significant improvement of students' perceptions of STEM careers (p = 0.04; d = 0.25). Furthermore, the results of the Pearson's correlation indicated that there was a statistically significant positive association between perceptions of a STEM career and perceptions in science, mathematics and engineering.

This suggests that various components of the informal learning environment positively contributed to students' perceptions toward STEM careers. Implications from the study indicate that when students are engaged in hands-on science or STEM PBL activities and have opportunities to be exposed to various STEM careers, their perceptions of STEM pathways will improve.

These results may influence future curriculum and the organization of future STEM camps by encouraging teachers and camp directors to integrate practical hands-on STEM projects and expose students to potential STEM pathways through lab tours and panels of STEM professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to report the change in students' STEM perceptions in two different informal learning environments: an online STEM camp and a face-to-face (FTF) STEM camp.

For this quasi-experimental study, 26 students participated in an online STEM summer camp and another 26 students participated in the FTF STEM camp. Students from each group took the same pre- and post-STEM Semantics Survey documenting their perceptions of the individual STEM fields and of STEM careers. Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests, Mann–Whitney U tests and corresponding effect sizes were used to compare the pre- and post-scores within and between the camps.

Results indicate that both camps produce similar outcomes regarding STEM field and career perceptions. However, analysis of all statistical values indicates that the online STEM camp can produce a larger positive influence on STEM field perceptions and the FTF camp can produce a larger positive influence on STEM career perceptions.

This suggests that STEM camps, both online and in-person, can improve students' perceptions of the STEM fields and of STEM careers. Implications from this study indicate that modifications of informal learning environments should be based on the type of learning environment.

This manuscript discusses the development and impact of an online STEM camp to accommodate for the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the inability to hold an in-person STEM camp. These results may influence the curriculum and organization of future online and FTF STEM camps.

In transnational families worldwide, different family members have varying degrees of mobility, as well as different physical and emotional experiences with relatives and places throughout their lives. For this reason, in recent decades, increasing attention has been placed upon the experiences of migrants' descendants growing up across borders.

Based on data from a multi-sited ethnography and a survey, this chapter explores the experiences of children growing up in Chinese transnational families split between Zhejiang province and their parents' immigration countries, located mainly in Europe. First, it introduces the migration context and methods, presenting the profiles and basic information of the 77 Chinese migrants' descendants who participated in a ‘Roots-seeking Journey’ summer camp held in their family area of origin in China, in 2018. Second, it explores their heterogeneous early childhood paths and conditions, paying particular attention to mobility, care strategies, intergenerational relations and transnational ties. Finally, this chapter introduces the concept of fluid childhoods, and reflects on the key role of care-related mobility and communication technologies in shaping their early life paths and experiences as well as further transnational engagement.

This study aims to assess service quality in sport child camps among both participants and parents and its effects on satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

Data were collected from participants (n = 258) and parents (n = 226) of a sport child camp. A confirmatory factor analysis analysed the psychometric properties of the constructs, and a subsequent structural equation model examined the effects of service quality on satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

The results indicate a multi-dimensional construct of service quality that influences satisfaction and behavioural intentions differently among parents and participants. For participants, Service Failures and Recovery, Safety and Food influenced satisfaction, while Service Failures and Recovery and Fun influenced Behavioural Intentions. For parents, Management Commitment to Service Quality, Staff, Food and Contact with Physical Environmental influenced satisfaction, while Management Commitment to Service Quality and Staff influenced Behavioural intentions.

Both parents and participants' perceptions of service quality in sport child camps were captured and its effects on satisfaction and behavioural intentions. The study provides sport child camp managers with critical information about service delivery and its outcomes among the two key consumers (participants and parents).

This study offers new ideas to advance knowledge on sport child camps by capturing the perceptions of two key stakeholders and providing useful insights into how different attributes of service quality influence the levels of satisfaction and behavioural intentions among parents and participants.

In distinguishing the education of adults from the education of children, a gray area lies on where to classify gifted and honors students. The purpose of this study was to determine if the attitudes of students at an honors STEM summer camp paralleled the educational needs of adults, namely self-directed learning.

Researchers analyzed survey responses through an exploratory factor analysis and five t tests.

The interpretation of the effect sizes showed that after engaging in a self-directed learning experience, students expressed more positive self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation, experienced reduced extrinsic motivation and anxiety, and were less task-completion oriented.

The results suggest that gifted and honors students may have a propensity to learn that is more similar to that of adults rather than their same-age peers.

Studies have shown that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers remain to be one of the areas where there is considerable job growth (Lacey & Wright, 2009; National Science Board, 2010; Singh et al., 2002). However, in many rural regions, science teachers still find it challenging to motivate adolescents to develop an interest in these fields or pursue opportunities in STEM at their schools or in their communities. In exploring a distinctive way to motivate students from rural regions to develop and maintain a STEM mindset, the authors provided students opportunities to participate in programs within their communities to increase their interests in STEM. The authentic STEM learning experiences, “at no cost” for the high school students, helped them focus on cognitive and social abilities as they engaged in experiences developing identities as pre-STEM professionals. This paper reports on how the authors were able to develop research through the support of the professional development system at the university.

The authors explored the experiences of the high school students and parents as they engaged in the Science Olympiad events, community volunteering and mentoring projects over three years in the southeastern United States. A total of 50 high school students participated from the Science Olympiad team from ethnic backgrounds: Hispanic/Latino Americans (55%), African Americans (10%) and White Americans/Caucasians (35%) participated. The high school students and parents were asked to participate by completing required permissions and also completing pre- and post-surveys to help understand their reasons for participating in the activities. At the end of the semester, an interview was conducted with participants to better understand their experiences with working on the team and their STEM perspectives. Parents and guardians of the high school students were also asked to share their thoughts about their children participating in these activities through indirect conversations. The school partnership teacher, also Science Olympiad co-coach, invited high school students to participate in additional STEM activities throughout the school year through the university partnership.

The pre- and post-survey responses provided insight to researchers about the “lived experiences” of the students as they developed a STEM mindset. Analysis of data indicates students’ interests in STEM and working with youth increased as a result of the STEM opportunities. To help in increasing their interests, additional opportunities are needed for these youth to engage in STEM tasks and mentoring. The professional development system (PDS) creates the space for these opportunities to take place, leading to new knowledge for learning and “boundary-spanning roles” for school-university faculty to discover and experiment new ideas that “transcend institutional settings” (National Association for Professional Development Schools, 2021).

Additional research is needed in helping high school students develop a STEM mindset as they participate in volunteer STEM experiences. The survey tools should be revised to address the specific STEM activities that the students participate in during the year. In addition to feedback from the youth and parents using focus group interviews or other defined survey instruments.

The school-university partners continue to explore the successes and challenges of the collaborative effort. Disruptions in the collaborative effort such as school closures due to severe weather and the pandemic have resulted in cancellations of STEM opportunities for high school students. Despite challenges, this collaborative effort continues with an additional focus on STEM learning.

Suggested research may involve investigating parental involvement strategies that increase the likelihood of actual high school student attendance during out-of-school time activities, such as community STEM fairs, competitions and summer STEM camps. Use of focus group interviews provided students setting to talk freely.

Through a new initiative established by the PDS at the university, “PDS Master Teachers,” the school-university faculty were invited to participate and engage in purposeful, intentional professional learning and leading to enhance the quality of the experiences for teacher candidates (Professional Development System, Watson College of Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2022). This innovative program inspired the school-university faculty to reflect on practice and create new approaches to expand STEM learning in the school and community. Through this collaborative effort, the following National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) Nine Essentials were addressed: Essential 2: Clinical Preparation; Essential 3: Professional Learning and Leading; Essential 4: Reflection and Innovation; Essential 5: Research and Results; and Essential 8: Boundary-Spanning Roles (National Association for Professional Development Schools, 2021). The University’s PDS comprehensive approach to professional learning and its dedication to providing a space for all to engage in reflective practices for professional growth provided the required support for this project.