Science Education & Policy

High school biology teachers may be even more important than the curriculm, according to a University of Minnesota study published in the May issue of BioScience. Co-authors Randy Moore and Sehoya…

This topic isn't new, but it's worth revisiting (h/t to Bioephemera) - over at Physicsworld read about science's need for "black swan" scientists: If the path to discovery is full of surprises,…

Richard Dawkins doesn’t usually strike me as being naïve, but one has to wonder when Dawkins abandons himself to the following sort of writing about his favorite topic these days, the incompatibility…

Is tenure good for America? Mark Taylor, a professor of religion, has observed (in the New York Times) that: "graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no…

Graduate education in the humanities may have its problems, but don't try to tar science with the same brush. In a NY Times Op-Ed, by Dr. Mark Taylor, the chairman of Columbia's religion department,…

I have recently been contacted by a friend who is worried at the decline in numeracy in the West.  He asked me what I thought of the following: In 2005, Newt Gingrich (who had been on the Hart-…

WHAT: New research from Baylor College of Medicine indicates a positive effect of chewing gum on academic performance in teenagers. The study examined whether chewing Wrigley sugar-free gum can lead…

Continued from A Scientific Approach to Science Education - Beliefs, Guided Thinking And Technology. I assign students to groups the first day of class (typically three to four students in adjacent…

Bora has posted an interesting draft policy on social media from an unidentified "Big Research Institution" (BRI). It's already stimulating some good discussion (follow the link for more links…

Universities, with a young  constituency and an employee base of academics interested in new discoveries and ways of communication, should have embraced social media early - but they have not…