When I was in high school, I had a forensics teacher who spent a majority of his time nagging the administration to implement a new system for learning. It involved giving each student a laptop. “Too costly,” they would say, “This plan isn’t good enough, detailed enough, etc.” I know this because he used to vent to our class about the situation, and [...]
Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian skydiver and BASE jumper made history on October 14, 2012, by becoming the first man to free jump from an altitude of 127,852 feet over Roswell, New Mexico. His trip from the stratosphere back to Earth lasted nine minutes and nine seconds, with four minutes and twenty–two seconds of free falling without a parachute. This supersonic free fall was [...]
With the push to expand focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in curricula, there have been worries that the arts will be left behind. The notion of adding the arts into STEM has been floated around, with many educators considering “STEAM” over STEM. In 2012, John Maeda, former president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), announced his initiative, which [...]
Rachael Barron is a science teacher at Wakefield Memorial High School in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Rachael teaches AP Biology, Honors Genetics and Microbiology, College Prep Anatomy & Physiology, and College Prep Introduction to the Physical and Life Sciences. Rachael holds a bachelor of science in biology with a minor in education from Brandeis University. She earned her master of arts in teaching biology from [...]
It has now been over a year since the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were finalized in April 2013. While 26 states actively participated in the development of the standards (the NGSS official site calls them “lead state partners”), the adoption process has been slow and controversial. As of March 2014, the District of Columbia and just eleven states have accepted the standards: [...]
“Come with me.” These are the words that Carl Sagan told us on his PBS miniseries Cosmos: A Personal Voyage as we set off on an adventure to discover what mysteries lie in the depths of space, the earth and humanity. Sadly, Sagan passed away in 1996, but he made his mark. Sagan took us on a journey to educate people on complex scientific matters [...]
When I was a kid, the best days in school were always the days we would build something in science class. I still remember the day we learned about solids and liquids by making Oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid. The concoction was a cornstarch-and-water mix that was a solid when you rolled the mess in between your hands but turned into a liquid as soon [...]
As a graduate student in publishing, I am frequently asked the same thing by professors, peers and random people once they discover what I study. It is often some version of the question, “Where do you get your news?” While I have my go-to publications that I read extensively to keep up with popular trends and changes within the publishing industry, my first [...]
The internet has undoubtedly changed the way we speak. BTW (alternatively, beeteedubs) has crawled its way into my daily vocabulary. Yesterday, my friend ended her sentence with IRL; my puzzled look led her to explain: “in real life.” Last week, I made a joke to my fifty-five-year-old father, to which he responded: “LOL.” But the internet has done more than create everyday acronyms; it has changed [...]
Recently, Georgia State University (GSU) has increased its graduation rate by 22 percent thanks to recent changes in the way it is handling its academic advising program. One of these changes includes using a new type of software created by the Education Advisory Board (EAB). The software aids students and academic advisers by sending alerts to both parties when academic issues start to arise. For [...]