School biology teaching given a helping hand with molecular game and software
Two free interactive platforms that teachers could use to help students learn about molecular biology have been developed by researchers.
Last update Study investigates socioeconomic disparities in nitrate levels in US drinking water, 1 hour ago
Education news
Research helps students excel on science exams
A new study released today reveals that helping lower-income high school freshman to regulate their test-taking anxiety can cut their biology course failure rates in half. The study, published in Proceedings of the National ...
WhatsApp doesn't lead to language deterioration
Active users of social media like WhatsApp don't write more poorly at school, although there's a small relation between passively using WhatsApp and poorer writing. This was shown in a study done among young people by linguist ...
School counselors reflect on their experience following student deaths
When five school counselors who were part of a counseling team were interviewed to learn how they professionally and personally experienced the deaths of multiple students in one year in their school while attending to the ...
Early choice of math among U.S. immigrant kids lead to STEM careers
U.S. immigrant children study more math and science in high school and college, which leads to their greater presence in STEM careers, according to new findings from scholars at Duke University and Stanford University.
Study details how today's high school cliques compare to yesterday's
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin, have found that while many high school peer crowds and influences have remained constant over ...
Adolescence can be awkward. Here's how parents can help their child make and maintain good friendships
Secondary school can be a lonely place for adolescents who don't have a best friend or a group of trusted friends. Young people will be more skilled in the art of making genuine friends (and keeping them) if they know how ...
Holographic teachers were supposed to be part of our future. What happened?
Cast your mind back to the turn of last century. Experts predicted that by now classrooms would no longer feature human teachers, and holographic virtual entities would deliver lessons instead.
Why South Africa will find it hard to break free from its vicious teaching cycle
Half of all South African pupils who attended school for five years can't do basic calculations. This is according to a 2015 TIMMS report on mathematics achievements among Grade 5 learners in South Africa.
Environmental greenness may not improve student test scores, study finds
Researchers at the University of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service suggest in a new study that environmental greenness may not be associated with higher test scores in schoolchildren after all.
Strategies to keep students and teachers from dropping out of school
America's schools are in a state of crisis. By the end of the day, 7,000 students will have dropped out of high school, or just over 1 million every year. Meanwhile, 40 percent of teachers will leave the profession within ...
Schools fall short when it comes to helping students in grief – here's how they can improve
An adolescent experiences the death of his mother after a lengthy illness.
Distinguishing between students who guess and those who know
Measuring the knowledge of students in online courses poses a number of challenges. Researchers from the Higher School of Economics and the University of Leuven made improvements to the model for assessing academic achievements ...
Let go of toxic workplace 'emotional labour' in 2019
What will you leave behind in 2019? Here's one suggestion: toxic workplace emotional labour.
Doing away with essays won't necessarily stop students cheating
It's never been easier for university students to cheat. We just need look to the scandal in 2015 that revealed up to 1,000 students from 16 Australian universities had hired the Sydney-based MyMaster company to ghost-write ...
Study highlights the effects of social class microaggressions on individuals
Although overt expressions of hostility are considered to be ill-mannered and undesirable behaviors, covert discrimination and degradation continue to be directed at individuals, communicating that recipients are less than ...
'Job readiness' more important to UK employers than academic credentials
Formal academic credentials play a relatively minor role in the UK labour market, with the majority of employers placing greater emphasis on 'job readiness', according to a new study published in the Journal of Education ...
How RE teachers see religion – and why it can be bad for pupils
Wherever you stand on Cliff Richard, his 1988 number one, with its message that "Christmas is love, Christmas is peace" and "a time to rejoice in the good that we see", succinctly summarises the common festive view of Christianity. ...
Study highlights challenges facing black computing faculty
A recent study used text-mining analysis to highlight the impact that microaggressions have on black faculty in computing disciplines, finding that it contributes to a sense of alienation from the larger higher education ...
VR more engaging than video and textbooks when it comes to the classroom
Virtual reality (VR) is the most engaging and emotionally positive learning method in comparison to textbook learning and video. VR shows great potential to supplement or replace traditional learning methods and create new ...
#BlackGirlMagic: Black women in STEM are driving forward—educators need to catch up
The need for more scientists and engineers is a persistent issue plaguing industries throughout the United States. Several initiatives created to prioritize science, technology, engineering and mathematics in schools are ...
Rethinking school suspensions: School climate offers a clue
A 2012 study by the Everyone Graduates Center at John Hopkins University found that when a high school freshman receives a single suspension, their chances of dropping out of school can increase by a third. Furthermore, only ...
Teenage sexting: We're letting young people down by not talking about it
Sexting among young people has become a hotly debated topic over the past few years. Over the same period, our understanding of sexting has evolved. What was originally understood as sending naked or semi-naked images has ...
A parent's holiday shopping list to INSPIRE your wannabe astronaut or aerospace engineer
Are you shopping for a child who dreams of being an astronaut or visiting outer space?
AI's huge potential to transform education
A list of 26 ways that AI can contribute to education shows that distance learning is one of the most promising avenues for the application of AI in the field of education. This type of learning focuses on the mobility of ...
Early literacy may compromise grammatical learning
Learning how to read may have some disadvantages for learning grammar. Children who cannot read yet often treat multiword phrases as wholes ("how-are-you"). After learning to read, children notice individual words more, as ...
The promise of the "learn to code" movement
This week, educators, students and the public around the world are participating in Computer Science Education Week by organizing and leading one-hour coding tutorials.
Can guaranteed admissions help reduce college undermatching?
Low-income, highly qualified students are more likely to choose selective universities that match their academic profiles when they know their admission is guaranteed through state automatic admissions policies, according ...
Solving 21st-century problems requires skills that few are trained in, scientists find
From companies trying to resolve data security risks to coastal communities preparing for rising sea levels, solving modern problems requires teamwork that draws on a broad range of expertise and life experiences. Yet individuals ...
Linguistic study finds 'the I's have it' when it comes to education rates
"I learn", "you learn", "she learns", "they learn", yet, according to a surprising new linguistic study, in countries where the dominant language allows personal pronouns such as 'I' to be omitted, learning suffers.
There's no simple answer to what counts as 'science' in teaching reading
What is the best way to teach children to read? This apparently simple question has, in fact, has been the subject of robust and often polarised debate.
Who will decide which students get into college—a committee or a computer?
It's crunch time for college applications, and hopeful high school seniors are working hard to impress admissions committees to land a spot at the school of their choice.
Students at every grade need to learn climate science, expert says
The National Climate Assessment, released the day after Thanksgiving, offers motivation and opportunity to bring climate topics into the classroom at every grade level.
Responding to sexual violence in schools: What can educators learn?
As news about alleged gang sexual assault at St. Michael's College in Toronto dominated headlines in Canada and even globally in the past two weeks, some parents and educators posed a familiar question: What can educators ...
Why it is (almost) impossible to teach creativity
Industry and educators are agreed: The world needs creativity. There is interest in the field, lots of urging but remarkably little action. Everyone is a bit scared of what to do next. On the question of creativity and ...
Test prep is a rite of passage for many Asian-Americans
When ACT released its latest test scores this past October, the results showed that average scores took a dip for every racial group in the United States except one – Asian-Americans.
Undergraduate biology textbooks fail to teach how science can improve industry practice
Undergraduate biology textbooks do little to teach students how science can contribute to successful careers in industry or improved business practices at a time when some fear that science is under attack by corporate interests. ...
How today's MBA graduates can help save the world
Recent news reports have suggested that the MBA (masters in business administration) may be "losing its lustre" at American business schools, including some of the most elite on the planet.
College-educated cops enforce the law more aggressively
In the wake of controversial and widely publicized incidents involving the use of deadly force by the police against racial and ethnic minorities, President Obama appointed the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing ...
Literature quality linked to foreign language ability in young people
Reading complex and engaging texts is key to inspiring young learners' interest in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) and potentially improving how the subject is taught in UK secondary schools, according to new Oxford University ...
Children with albinism find it hard to navigate school. Teachers can help.
Globally, 1 in 18,000 people have albinism. In sub-Saharan Africa it's more common, with data from Tanzania showing that 1 person in 2,652 has albinism. According to Standing Voice, an international non-governmental organisation ...
Student loan debt still crippling burden for millions of Americans
Michael Bloomberg's record $1.8 billion donation for financial aid to Johns Hopkins University highlights the problem of student debt in America, which can still be a burden even years after graduation.
How could multilingualism benefit India's poorest schoolchildren?
Multilingualism is the norm in India. But rather than enjoying the cognitive and learning advantages seen in multilingual children in the Global North, Indian children show low levels of learning basic school skills. Professor ...
Robot recreates the walk of a 290-million-year-old creature
How did the earliest land animals move? Scientists have used a nearly 300-million-year old fossil skeleton and preserved ancient footprints to create a moving robot model of prehistoric life.
Extracting functional mitochondria using microfluidics devices
Mitochondria are dynamic, bioenergetic intracellular organelles, responsible for energy production via ATP production during respiration. They are involved in key cellular metabolic tasks that regulate vital physiological ...
An ancient relative of humans shows a surprisingly modern trait
A relative of modern humans that lived at least 104,000 years ago in northern China showed evidence of dental growth and development very similar to that of people today, a new study found.
Novel materials convert infrared light into visible light (Update)
Columbia University scientists, in collaboration with researchers from Harvard, have succeeded in developing a chemical process to convert visible light into infrared energy, allowing innocuous radiation to penetrate living ...
Researchers discover black hole in our galaxy spinning rapidly around itself
A University of Southampton-led project has shown a black hole spinning near its maximum possible rate around its axis.
Water, not temperature, limits global forest growth as climate warms
The growth of forest trees all over the world is becoming more water-limited as the climate warms, according to new research from an international team that includes University of Arizona scientists.
New study finds evidence of changing seasons, rain on Titan's north pole
An image from the international Cassini spacecraft provides evidence of rainfall on the north pole of Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons. The rainfall would be the first indication of the start of a summer season in the ...
High-speed supernova reveals earliest moments of a dying star
An international team of scientists, including astronomers from the Universities of Leicester, Bath and Warwick, have found evidence for the existence of a 'hot cocoon' of material enveloping a relativistic jet escaping a ...
How stem cells self-organize in the developing embryo
Embryonic development is a process of profound physical transformation, one that has challenged researchers for centuries. How do genes and molecules control forces and tissue stiffness to orchestrate the emergence of form ...
Researchers discover molecules 'spin flip' from magnetic to non-magnetic forms dynamically
An unexpected discovery in Professor Arthur Suits' chemistry lab could have implications for manufacturing more efficient solar cells and improving photodynamic therapies for treating cancer, and it may contribute to research ...
Researchers create 'shortcut' to terpene biosynthesis in E. coli
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed an artificial enzymatic pathway for synthesizing isoprenoids, or terpenes, in E. coli. This shorter, more efficient, cost-effective and customizable pathway ...
60 percent of coffee varieties face 'extinction risk'
Three in five species of wild coffee are at risk of extinction as a deadly mix of climate change, disease and deforestation puts the future of the world's favourite beverage in jeopardy, new research warned Wednesday.
Romeo and Juliet: the last hopes to save Bolivian aquatic frog
Almost a year after conservationists sent out a plea to help save a species of Bolivian aquatic frog by finding a mate for the last remaining member, Romeo, his very own Juliet has been tracked down deep inside a cloud forest.
Fast, very high-energy gamma-ray flare detected from the blazar BL Lacertae
Using Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes, an international group of astronomers has detected a fast, very high-energy (VHE) flare from the blazar BL Lacertae. The finding is detailed in a paper ...
Fiery sighting: A new physics of eruptions that damage fusion experiments
Sudden bursts of heat that can damage the inner walls of tokamak fusion experiments are a hurdle that operators of the facilities must overcome. Such bursts, called "edge localized modes (ELMs)," occur in doughnut-shaped ...
Mechanism helps explain the ear's exquisite sensitivity
The human ear, like those of other mammals, is so extraordinarily sensitive that it can detect sound-wave-induced vibrations of the eardrum that move by less than the width of an atom. Now, researchers at MIT have discovered ...
Ozaena ground beetles likely parasitize ants throughout their life cycle
Ozaena ground beetles likely have anatomical adaptations enabling them to parasitize ant nests throughout their life cycle, according to a study published January 16, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Wendy Moore ...
Researchers set standards for models in biodiversity assessments
Over the past 20 years, more than 6000 studies have used one of the most common classes of biodiversity modeling, species distribution models (SDMs). Over half of the studies using SDMs sought to apply their results to at ...
Gut bacteria make key amino acids dispensable, expanding food options for invasive flies
Fruit flies fed antibiotics to supress their gut microbiome are forced to avoid the best food patches if they lack vital amino acids, according to a study by Boaz Yuval from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel and ...
Marine mammals and sea turtles recovering after Endangered Species Act protection
More than three-quarters of marine mammal and sea turtle populations have significantly increased after listing of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to a study published January 16 in the open-access journal ...
Full carbonate chemistry at the site of calcification in a tropical coral
Coral reefs are made up of massive calcium carbonate skeletons. A new study, published in Science Advances on January 16th 2019, reveals insights into the calcification process that leads to the formation of these skeletons. ...
Proteins use a lock and key system to bind to DNA
You can think of DNA as a string of letters—As, Cs, Ts, and Gs—that together spell out the information needed for the construction and function of cells. Each cell in your body shares the same DNA. So, for cells to take ...
Avoiding fossil fuel 'lock-in' could limit global temperature rise
Research suggests there would be a 64 percent chance of limiting the increase in global average temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, if fossil fuel infrastructure was phased out immediately.
New quantum structures in super-chilled helium may mirror early days of universe
For the first time, researchers have documented the long-predicted occurrence of 'walls bound by strings' in superfluid helium-3. The existence of such an object, originally foreseen by cosmology theorists, may help explaining ...
Simple rules predict and explain biological mutualism
Scientists have long employed relatively simple guidelines to help explain the physical world, from Newton's second law of motion to the laws of thermodynamics.
Ammonia synthesis through electroreduction of nitrogen on black phosphorus nanosheets
More than 100 years after the introduction of the Haber–Bosch process, scientists continue to search for alternative ammonia production routes that are less energy demanding. Chinese scientists have now discovered that ...
Understanding insulators with conducting edges
Insulators that are conducting at their edges hold promise for interesting technological applications. However, until now their characteristics have not been fully understood. Physicists at Goethe University have now modelled ...
Study shows no long-term removal of Neandertal DNA from Europeans
A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has found evidence that suggests there has been no long-term removal of Neandertal DNA from modern Europeans. In their paper published in Proceedings ...
Using satellites to measure rates of ice mass loss in glaciers
If you compare historical photos of glaciers with those taken more recently, you can see that where there was formerly ice, there is now very often nothing but rock. Geographers, however, are less interested in the area covered ...
The pace at which the world's permafrost soils are warming
Global warming is causing increasing damage in the world's permafrost regions. As the new global comparative study conducted by the international permafrost network GTN-P shows, in all regions with permafrost soils the temperature ...
Find more news articles via sort by date page
