Science Education & Policy

In Language, 'Use It Or Lose It' More Like 'Riding A Bike'

If you learn a foreign language when you are young but the exposure to that language is brief and you don't get to hear or practice it subsequently, does the neglected language fade away from our memory? Yes, forgetting is forgetting, has been the bel ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 24 2009 - 9:59am

How To Be Einstein Without Being A Genius

Very sound advice from systems biologist Uri Alon: A common mistake made in choosing problems is taking the first problem that comes to mind. Since a typical project takes years even it if seems doable in months, rapid choice leads to much frustration and ...

Article - Michael White - Sep 25 2009 - 11:41pm

NIH Affirmative Action on R01s?

The NIH has made public how often they fund grants below the payline. 18% of R01s scored below the nominal cutoff get funded anyway. A good chunk of those are grants from new investigators. ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Sep 25 2009 - 11:54am

Encouraging Science With Our Children

So much science education happens in informal ways--outside of the classroom. These experiences can be so valuable and sometimes even more influential than the classic approaches taken for so long by the public school system of the American culture. ...

Article - Matthew T. Dearing - Sep 26 2009 - 1:46am

Learning Through Games... At Public School!

Ever play games in school?  Ever have the teacher suggest you play games?  Heck, ever had your entire middle and high school curricula be designed around games?   In a news piece titled "New York Launches Public School Curriculum on Playing Games" ...

Article - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Oct 2 2009 - 10:03am

Squid Cartoons For A Cause!

The guys over at Deep-Sea News have organized an " Ocean Bloggers Challenge " to fund ocean-related education for classrooms in need. It's through a really nifty website called Donors Choose, which lets you see exactly where your money is go ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Oct 21 2009 - 11:25pm

Go To Community College- You'll Make More Money (Especially Women)

Education quality is a moving target these days.   With college education a right since the early 1990s and student loans unlimited to pay for it, costs and claims have expanded, as hot air must, to fill the available money space. Because everyone with goo ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 22 2009 - 12:43pm

Musicians Make The Best Researchers?

The performative and improvisatory aspects of music compares favorably with the temporal, polyphonic aspects of scholarly research,  says University of Illinois professor of education Liora Bresler. Understanding that could improve both research and educat ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 28 2009 - 12:39pm

Escaping The Black Hole Of The PhD Program

Harvard Magazine excerpts Louis Menand on "Professionalization in the academy. If you're thinking of going to graduate school, you need to read this. This is the premise behind academic scholarship: ...

Article - Michael White - Oct 30 2009 - 2:14pm

Are scientists getting dumber?

From a news story in today's issue of Science: A new study finds little evidence for leaks in the U.S. pipeline for producing native-born scientists except for a steep drop in the percentage of the highest performing students taking science and engine ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Oct 30 2009 - 3:37pm