A competition sponsored in 1913 by Scientific American asked for essays on the 10 greatest inventions, Scientific American reports. The rules: “our time” meant the previous quarter century, 1888 to 1913; the invention had to be patentable and was considered to date from its “commercial introduction.” Perception is at the heart of this question. Inventions are most salient when we can see the historical changes they cause. In 2013 we might not appreciate the work of Nikola Tesla or Thomas Edison on a daily basis, as we are accustomed to electricity in all its forms, but we are very impressed by the societal changes caused by the Internet and the World Wide Web (both of which run on alternating-current electricity, by the way). A century from now they might be curious as to what all the fuss was about. The answers from 1913 thus provide a snapshot of the perceptions of the time…
…Read Morescientific american
Save our science: How to inspire a new generation of scientists
The artist Pablo Picasso once said that all children are born artists and that the trick is to stay that way as an adult, Scientific American reports. I believe that all children have an inner scientist, and we need to get them in touch with their inner scientist. The way to do this is to improve science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. Sadly, the kind of expansive thinking, problem solving and curiosity that is inspired by good STEM teaching is taught out of kids because of the emphasis on testing and rote learning. Every year, millions of children enter kindergarten armed with a one-word question: “Why?”
…Read MoreTED Education wants your help bringing cool science to the classroom
At TED Education, we’re obsessed with learning, Scientific American reports. Whether it’s about the history of the cell theory, or how to write a slam poem. And since I happen to be obsessed with science, I have a particularly fond place in my heart for our science lessons. Which brings me to you, Scientific American reader, because I know you’re probably obsessed, or at least a little curious, about science too. TED-Ed needs your help. What are you curious about? What do you want to learn about? What do you want to teach the world? We’re looking for your lesson ideas, science or otherwise, to create a whole new set of TED-Ed lessons. But first, let’s back up. What is TED-Ed? We’re an initiative of TED Conferences, known for TED Talks. Our focus is on creating and sharing lessons to spread great ideas for all educators and learners–mainly high school and college students. So we team up with educators and animators to make short, beautiful and educational videos that anyone who’s curious about the world can enjoy…
…Read MoreTo attract more girls to STEM, bring more storytelling to science
Women and girls are historically underrepresented in STEM fields and much has been written lately about why girls in school seem disinterested in these areas. As STEM becomes more important in our increasingly interconnected global society, it becomes even more imperative that educators find ways to encourage girls to participate in these fields, Scientific American reports. A few weeks ago, researchers at the Universities of Pittsburgh and Michigan released the results of a study that reflected many girls’ antipathy toward all things STEM…
…Read MoreMore belt-tightening in store for NASA as STEM education programs face consolidation
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has just released President Obama’s budget request for 2014. It will take some time for the budget’s full impacts on science to be dissected and debated, but here is a quick look at how one closely watched agency—NASA—fared, Scientific American reports. The president’s budget, which is subject to Congressional negotiation and approval, would provide $17.7 billion for NASA, down a bit from the previous year. As widely reported, the budget request includes money to begin work on an ambitious plan to robotically capture an asteroid and haul it closer to Earth for exploration. It also keeps the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope in development for a 2018 launch…
…Read MoreTop universities will help train STEM teachers
A group of Tier 1 research universities — the Stanfords, Harvards and MITs of the world – will join the White House-led effort to train 100,000 new math and science teachers by the year 2022, Scientific American reports. A $22.5 million gift from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), announced by the White House Monday morning, will make it possible to expand a successful teacher-training program called UTeach to 10 top research schools over the next five years. “Historically, Tier 1 universities have not been focused on turning out teachers through their science and math departments,” said Tom Luce, the founding CEO and chairman of the National Math and Science Initiative, the group that is leading the expansion effort, in an interview following Monday morning’s announcement. They are focused on turning out PhD students, and they will continue to do so, he said, but the gift will help emphasize that educating new teachers is a mission that all universities “need to embrace if we’re going to reach our goal.”
…Read MoreHanging with smarties ups GPA
Schools are well-known reservoirs of contagion where students share all sorts of communicable conditions: coughs, colds, flu, you name it. But germs aren’t the only things kids can catch from their friends, Scientific American reports. If they’re lucky, they could come down with a 4.0. Because a new study shows that high-schoolers whose friends get higher marks tend to raise their own grade point averages over time. The findings are in the journal PLOS One. That our social circles influence us is not news. For example, studies have shown that the fatter your friends, the more likely you’re also overweight. In the grade point study, researchers took to the classroom to see whether academic achievement might be as contagious as obesity. They asked 158 eleventh-graders to go down a class roster and point out their pals. Then they checked everyone’s report cards at the time of the survey, and again a year later…
…Read MoreThe Lizard Project: Why scientists and teachers should work together for science outreach
My high school students recently did something that rarely happens in a science classroom they did science. Although, inquiry based instruction has long been a science education buzz phrase, all too often when kids engage in developing experiments, the answers are in fact already known to science and could be discovered through a quick Google search on the topic, says a contributor to Scientific American. This is not exactly real science. The very nature of science is to ask questions with unknown answers and produce high quality evidence to help us better understand our world. My students took a very specific question with an unknown answer and made a small, but real contribution to what is known about life on our planet. The results of our work, Maternally chosen nest sites positively affect multiple components of offspring fitness in a lizard appeared in the journal Behavioral Ecology yesterday. This type of science rarely happens at the high school level. It certainly isn t expected to happen in an urban high school like Thomas Kelly High School on Chicago s southwest side, where more than 90% of the students are designated as low income and gang violence is a harsh reality in the surrounding neighborhoods…
…Read MoreFrom STEM to STEAM: Science and art go hand-in-hand
In the wake of the recent recession, we have been consistently apprised of the pressing need to revitalize funding and education in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering, and math, Scientific American reports. Doing this, we are told, will spur innovation and put our country back on the road to prosperity. Renewing our focus on STEM is an unobjectionably worthwhile endeavor. Science and technology are the primary drivers of our world economy, and the United States is in the lead. But there is a growing group of advocates who believe that STEM is missing a key component one that is equally deserved of renewed attention, enthusiasm and funding. That component is the Arts. If these advocates have their way, STEM would become STEAM. Their proposition actually makes a lot of sense, and not just because the new acronym is easy on the ears. Though many see art and science as somewhat at odds, the fact is that they have long existed and developed collaboratively. This synergy was embodied in great thinkers like the legendary Leonardo Da Vinci and the renowned Chinese polymath Su Song. One of Carl Jung’s mythological archetypes was the artist-scientist, which represents builders, inventors, and dreamers…
…Read MoreHow to fix our ‘mediocre to awful’ science standards
Americans have grown accustomed to bad news about student performance in math and science. On a 2009 study administered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 15-year-olds in the U.S. placed 23rd in science and 31st in math out of 65 countries, Scientific American reports. On last year’s Nation’s Report Card assessments, only one third of eighth graders qualified as proficient in math or science. Those general statistics tell only a piece of the story, however. There are pockets of excellence across the U.S. where student achievement is world-beating. Massachusetts eighth graders outscored their peers from every global region included, except Singapore and Taiwan, on an international science assessment in 2007. Eighth graders from Minnesota, the only other U.S. state tested, did almost as well…
…Read More