Science Education & Policy

Video Game Can Teach 'Business Experience', Say Developers

Business veterans claim you cannot teach ‘experience’ but a group of European researchers say you can. They developed software that helps players acquire real-life skills and realistic experiences through game playing. But this game is no executive toy. Th ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 23 2008 - 6:23pm

Troubled Kids Drag Down The Kids Around Them Also, Says Study

Troubled kids will always be a difficult area of social policy- in the 1980s the solution was thought to be introducing troubled kids to rural schools, but that tended to bring down the quality of the rural schools rather than raising troubled children up. ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 25 2008 - 3:20pm

NY Times on the Challenge of Teaching Evolution in Florida

Teaching evolution to a bunch of graduate students is easy; conveying something about evolution to a diverse group of high school students, some of whom have been coached to be openly hostile towards the subject, is a major challenge. Sunday's NY Time ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Oct 22 2008 - 11:06pm

School Reform Hampered By National Performance Versus Local Outcome Standards, Says Professor

Despite investments, community goodwill and some good ideas, a vexing question remains in the age of school reform: Why has so much hope and effort led to disappointment? Beginning in the late 1980s, the Chicago Public Schools, like many urban schools syst ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 27 2008 - 11:59am

Women in Science (Physics) – a view from Education

I sent the Professor Meg Urry interview to a colleague who is quite high-up in graduate teacher training. Here is his reply. We do have a lot of evidence about student motivation and about their view about the Nature of Science (Physics). What is disappoin ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Oct 22 2008 - 11:04pm

High Impact Activities Like Jumping Good For Kid Bones (And They Will Lose Weight Too)

High impact activities such as jumping and skipping that can easily be incorporated into warm-ups before sports and physical education classes, have been shown to benefit bone health in adolescents. The 10 minute school-based intervention, provided twice a ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 28 2008 - 1:25pm

Video Games Move From The Family Room To The Locker Room

It sounds like a sales job from a 12 year old; "Actually, Dad, this is not just another video game. Its a virtual, scenario-based microcosm of real world experiences that will enhance my decision-making abilities and my cognitive perceptions of the c ...

Article - Dan Peterson - Aug 28 2008 - 5:00pm

Chemistry chief stamps on exam eggshells

Here is a somewhat provocative article by the Chief Exec of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Have a read, and please tell me what you think. (For non-UK readers, GCSEs are taken at the end of year 11, after which one is allowed to leave school. ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Oct 22 2008 - 11:03pm

Do Flu Shots For The Elderly Save Lives? Just Washing Hands Works Better, Says Study

The widely-held perception that the influenza vaccination reduces overall mortality risk in the elderly does not withstand careful scrutiny, according to researchers in Alberta. The vaccine does confer protection against specific strains of influenza, but ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 31 2008 - 11:06am

Cognitive Deficit Related To Insomnia Treatable With Six Weeks Of Therapy- Study

A neuroimaging study in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal Sleep is the first to find that cognitive processes related to verbal fluency are compromised in people with insomnia despite the absence of a behavioral deficit. These specific brain function altera ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 1 2008 - 1:50am