Galaxies are a bit like pets: You’ve got to give them their food steadily, over a long time. Dumping a year’s worth of kibble into a giant bowl for your puppy might help your pet pack on the pounds, but this wouldn’t be good for the animal in the long term — especially once that food source ran out early. Give a galaxy all its fuel in the first eons of its life, and something similar happens. The object becomes…
Companies that want creative and innovative employees should be looking at a candidate’s middle school test scores, new research shows. A Vanderbilt University study discovered that that early spatial ability — the skill required to mentally manipulate 2D and 3D objects — predicts the development of new learning and innovation abilities, especially in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). One of the study’s authors, psychology researcher David Lubinski, said we currently live in the age of human capital…
It’s taken nearly 2,000 years, but regular folks will soon get to feel what it is like to walk on water. This is thanks to a project by the artist Christo. He may or may not have had his namesake in mind when envisioning his latest project. It’s titled, “The Floating Piers.” “Any interpretation is legitimate,” Christo, 80, allowed graciously. He spoke in an interview with The Associated Press. He was at the picturesque Lake Iseo. It is in northern…
The Confederate flag. The Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage. Policing minority communities. Nuclear weapons and Iran. Summer often brings a lull in the news, but not this year. And, come September, students are going to want to talk about these headlines. But how should teachers navigate our nation’s thorny politics? Do politics belong in the classroom at all, or should schools be safe havens from never-ending partisan battles? Can teachers use controversial issues as learning opportunities, and, if so,…
Activities outside the classroom — especially community engagement and sports — may help low-income, urban youth academically as they transition into middle school, according to a new study by New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. The findings, published online in the American Journal of Community Psychology, suggest that participating in extracurricular activities may be protective for low-income youth by providing a setting for development outside the classroom. Middle school is an important yet vulnerable time for…
Children who are physically fit absorb and retain new information more effectively than children who are out of shape, a new study finds, raising timely questions about the wisdom of slashing physical education programs at schools. Parents and exercise scientists (who, not infrequently, are the same people) have known for a long time that physical activity helps young people to settle and pay attention in school or at home, with salutary effects on academic performance. A representative study, presented in…
An educational robotics company is expanding its curriculum service to include new lesson plans for using drones and a robotic arm. RobotLAB produces Engage! K12, an online learning service for K-12, with digital courses and hands-on activities to help educators use robots in the classroom for teaching programming, math, English language arts and other STEM-related subjects. The service supports multiple types of robots and, according to the company, adheres to learning standards, including Common Core and the Next Generation Science Standards. The software…
One morning, Charlie Latuske woke up feverish and somewhat delirious in his home in Surrey in the UK, leaving him unable to function and in need of a doctor. He’d endured a sore throat and general malaise for a few days, believing it would get better, but that morning in August 2017, he knew that he had to do something about it. “I was quite out of it,” said 27-year old Latuske, who was also due to go on vacation…
New research published in Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry reveals that low doses of a commonly used pesticide potentially harm the Northern Leopard frog by inhibiting their brain development. The pesticide chlorpyifos, which has been used since 1965 in both agricultural and non-agricultural areas, had clear effects on Northern Leopard tadpoles’ neurodevelopment, even in situations where the pesticide did not cause a decline in the amphibians’ food source. “Organophosphorous pesticides contaminate surface waters throughout the U.S. exposing both animals and humans to these…
The Independent wants to forge links between children in the UK and their peers who are living in war zones and refugee camps across the world. Some schools in the UK have already been twinned with schools abroad where children have faced unimaginable horrors as part of our Learn to Live campaign with the Evening Standard. We hope the campaign will increase empathy and understanding between pupils from all walks of life and we want to highlight what the pupils have in common as well…