Education, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 31, 2005

School Board Member: Don't Know Much about Intelligent Design ...

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A school board member testified Wednesday she voted to include intelligent design'' in a high school biology curriculum despite not knowing much about the concept because she thought students should be aware of alternatives to evolutionary theory. I thought, this is another way to make them...

Aug 31, 2005

Math Made Easy: Study Reveals 5-year-olds' Innate Ability

Young children can perform certain kinds of math operations before ever receiving any kind formal math training, a new study reports. The finding suggests children have an inborn intuition about math that could be used to make learning the real thing in school less painful. Ask a 5-year old child...

Apr 30, 2005

Pre-K Kids Kicked Out of Schools Across the Country

Johnny is causing headaches in classrooms across the country even before the spit wads of grammar school start flying. A new study finds pre-K students are expelled three times more often than K-12 children in general. The problem appears to have more to do with a lack of teacher resources...

Jan 31, 2005

Yes, Evolution is a Theory. It's Religion and Politics that are the Problems

Students in Cobb County, Georgia, are being told by the school board that scientific material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered. And this has irritated some so much that a lawsuit was filed, demanding that this outrage be stopped. U.S. District Court Judge Clarence...

Dec 31, 2004

District Loosens 'Intelligent Design' Rule

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A school district that required science teachers to read a statement about alternatives to the theory of evolution decided Friday that teachers can choose not to read it, but their classes will still hear it. Under the Dover Area School District's temporary exemption, administrators will read...

Aug 31, 2006

Men Smarter than Women, Scientist Claims

Men are smarter than women, according to a controversial new study that adds another cinder to the fiery debate over whether gender impacts general intelligence. For 100 years there's been a consensus among psychologists that there is no sex difference in intelligence, said J. Philippe Rushton, a psychologist at the...

Apr 30, 2006

One-Third of Young Americans Can't Find Louisiana

WASHINGTON (AP)—Despite the wall-to-wall coverage of the damage from Hurricane Katrina, nearly one-third of young Americans recently polled couldn't locate Louisiana on a map and nearly half were unable to identify Mississippi. Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 fared even worse with foreign locations: six in 10 couldn't...

Apr 30, 2006

Multimedia Babies: What's a Parent to Do?

WASHINGTON (AP)—They're bombarded with electronics starting in infancy, from the new Sesame Street'' for 6-month-olds to game-playing laptops for toddlers. But when does being a multimedia youngster help—and when does it hurt—children's malleable brains? The claims vary widely, from proponents who say TV and baby software can help kids learn...

Mar 31, 2007

College Students Know More About Politics Than American Idol

The stereotype of the self-involved, culture-obsessed U.S. college student is wrong, according to a new study. American college students today are actually very engaged in politics to the point that they are much more likely to know the names of their U.S. senators or congressional representatives than the names of...

Aug 31, 2010

More Parents 'Redshirting' Kindergartners

As schools start back into session around the country, some parents of young children face a difficult question: Send their little ones to kindergarten as soon as they become age-eligible, or hold them back in hopes that an additional year of maturity will give them an academic boost? This voluntary...

Apr 30, 2010

Does Exercise Help Kids Do Better in School?

Ask kids what their favorite time of the school day is, and many may say either gym class or recess. They get to run around, play with their friends and take a break from the books. It may be a great way to release stress, but could fitness also contribute...

Nov 30, 2011

Do the Math! Sex Divide Is Cultural, Not Biological

Many explanations for the gender gap in math skills don't hold up, suggests new research on math skills and gender in 86 countries. Math has traditionally been seen as a man's game, and the statistics often indicate that there are differences between males and females in their math skills, participation...

Oct 31, 2011

In-Group Blindness: Why Penn State Students Rioted for Paterno

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Last night I witnessed the aftermath of the brief, angry riot at Penn State: an overturned news van being righted by a bulldozer, debris from battered cars and upended trash cans littering the street, college kids in “Joe Knows Football” t-shirts stumbling away from College Avenue...

Dec 31, 2010

College Students Learn Little

College is a time of learning, expanding the mind and gaining new skills, right? Not so much, according to a new study. By the end of sophomore year, 45 percent of students show no significant improvement in critical thinking, writing and complex reasoning, the Associated Press reports. The findings come...

Sep 10, 2012

Berlin Twinkles in Highest-Res Image of City at Night

Researchers have stitched together a nighttime image of Berlin from above, which they say is the highest-resolution picture of a city at night. Ecologists have used the image to measure light pollution in the German capital. The 878-megapixel picture, with one pixel per square meter, combines 2,647 aerial photographs taken...