Education, features and articles | Educational Science

May 30, 2013

School Vending Machines Detrimental to Kids' Diets

School lunch programs often get a bad rap for not providing kids with the proper nutrition, but vending machines on campuses are making matters worse, a new study suggests. The results show school children who consume foods purchased in vending machines take in more calories and fewer essential vitamins and...

May 30, 2013

More Teens Wearing Seatbelts, But Texting While Driving Common

High school students have improved some of their risky driving behaviors over the last decade, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 1991 and 2011, the percentage of high school students who said they never or rarely wore a seatbelt declined from 26...

May 31, 2013

Is College Worth the Money?

Right around this time every year, new graduates leave their ivory towers for the real world. Most graduates have dreams of making their mark, but also hear horror stories of unemployed millennials moving in with Mom or using their master's degree as a barista in a coffee shop. In today's...

Jun 18, 2013

Smart Glasses Help Shy Students Speak Up

New, intelligent glasses may soon allow professors to gauge the effectiveness of their teaching based on symbols floating above their students' heads. Computer scientists at Universidad Carlos III of Madrid have developed augmented reality glasses that students can interact with remotely using their cellphones. Students send messages to the glasses,...

Jun 20, 2013

Virtual Reality Could Hone Brain Surgery Skills

MONTREAL — With blood pooling in his head, the patient didn't stand a chance. Rookie after rookie stepped up, trying to attack the patient's brain tumor with surgical tools, but thankfully for the suffering patient, the surgery was a simulation at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University. The institute,...

Jun 20, 2013

Reverse the Doctor Shortage by Restoring Primary-Care Prestige (Op-Ed)

Dr. Bruce Koeppen is founding dean of the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The United States currently faces a growing physician shortage. While this shortage is across many of the specialties and subspecialties of...

Jun 28, 2013

Is Cursive Writing Dead?

A single sentence, uttered in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin, has catapulted an issue into the national spotlight. When asked if she could read a letter in court, witness Rachel Jeantel, her head bowed, murmured with embarrassment, I don't read cursive, ABC News...

Jul 11, 2013

Cedric Stallworth: Choose What Will Have the Biggest Impact

This ScienceLives article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Becoming a computer scientist isn' t part of most people' s retirement plans, but that' s exactly what Cedric Stallworth did after retiring from professional football. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree from the Georgia...

Jul 12, 2013

Does Twitter Deserve a Place in the Classroom? (Op-Ed)

Jin Kim Montclare is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. She contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Society is squarely in the midst of a technological revolution. The answers to almost every question are available on the...

Jul 30, 2013

Summer Camp Trades Campfires for Cybersecurity (Op-Ed)

Nasir Memon is department head and professor in the computer science and engineering department at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly). He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. In his 2013 State of the Union Address, President Barak Obama stressed the United States' tremendous...

Sep 5, 2013

Most Important School Subject? 'Science' Sees Big Jump in Poll

The quest for knowledge seems to be gaining value, as three times as many Americans now say science is the most valuable school subject than did so more than a decade ago, a new Gallup poll finds. Science bumped out history for the third spot behind No. 1 math and...

Oct 9, 2013

Next Generation: 5 Ways Science Classes Will Change

The millions of K-12 students who have returned to school this fall may find dramatic changes waiting in their science classrooms. In this and coming school years, new national standards are set to transform science education in the United States. Released this April, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) draw...

Oct 11, 2013

University Hosts Wiki 'Edit-a-Thon' to Add Women in Science Entries

In the name of gender equality, students and faculty at Brown University in Providence, R.I., will host a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon next week to add and improve entries about prominent female figures in science and technology. Volunteers will create new Wikipedia pages and edit existing ones in order to increase the...

Nov 8, 2013

Catholic Education No Better Than Public Schooling, Study Suggests

Catholic schools don't provide a better education than public schools, at least when it comes to basics like math and reading, new research suggests. Children at Catholic schools don't improve their math or reading scores on standardized tests across elementary school and don't show better behavioral outcomes than public school...

Nov 8, 2013

In Texas, Standing Up for Science (Op-Ed)

David Evans is the executive director of the National Science Teachers Association. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Texas is again drawing attention for its actions to distort the integrity of science education. Late last year, the Texas State Board of Education began the process...