For the Summer 2020 issue of this journal, we are very excited to highlight a special section on Teaching Through COVID. These reflections document experiences and lessons learned while teaching science and civic engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. We received a very enthusiastic response to our call for submissions, and we are publishing 35 contributions to this special section.
This issue also features two project reports and one research project that cover a range of interesting educational strategies to teach STEM through a civic framework.
Jo Hardin (Pomona College), together with Karl Haushalter and Darryl Young (Harvey Mudd College), describe their participation in the Inside-Outside Prison Exchange Program that creates a shared community of campus-based college students and incarcerated students who take a college course taught in a correctional facility. Because STEM is often lacking in the prison curriculum, the authors taught courses in statistics, number theory, and biochemistry. This article provides a reflection on the unique opportunities of teaching STEM within a prison education program.
Based at the NYC College of Technology, City University of New York, Melanie E. Villatoro and Janet Liou-Mark established a National Summer Transportation Institute to recruit a diverse population of high school students with an interest in careers in transportation. The program provides a creative model for broadening participation in STEM and encouraging students to pursue STEM careers.
Sara Haines and Chelsea McClure, both at Towson University, developed a partnership with the National Aquarium in Baltimore to implement a civic engagement model for the professional preparation of preservice and K-12 teachers. This program provides a valuable example of a place-based curriculum that engages environment awareness by examining issues of direct importance to the local community around the Chesapeake Bay
We wish to thank all the authors for sharing their articles with the readers of this journal.
Matt Fisher and Trace Jordan
Co-Editors-in-Chief