BiotechMashup

(North Carolina State University) Universities around the country are struggling with shrinking budgets, even as they need to cater to the needs of an increasing number of students. New research from North Carolina State University shows that one way to cut down on costs, and simultaneously improve the learning experience, is to have students use the technology they already bring into the classroom.

When schools cut physical education programs so students can spend more time in the classroom, they may be missing a golden opportunity to promote learning.

(American Academy of Pediatrics) When schools cut physical education programs so students can spend more time in the classroom, they may be missing a golden opportunity to promote learning.

(Northwestern University) Seven Northwestern University graduate students will be "resident scientists" at Chicago-area middle and high schools this fall, integrating his or her research into the science curricula, thanks to an NSF $2.7 million Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education grant. The goal of the University's new program, called "Reach for the Stars, is to train graduate students in communicating their complex research to people of all ages and to bring computational thinking into the K-12 classroom.

New research shows that utilizing a freely available literacy tool results in significant advances in fundamental reading skills for elementary school students, without requiring schools to drastically overhaul existing programs. The research focused on children who were characterized as "struggling readers" at risk for a learning disability in reading.

One researcher's classroom assistants are very attentive, love to listen to children read and can keep their composure in a classroom full of energetic 2nd grade students. However, her assistants are more likely to lick the students' faces than give them a gold star. The researcher's work with her "literacy dogs," Tango and Sparky, in one city-area classroom yielded some highly positive successes for the children and her research.

A new computer interface called ThinkSpace is helping students use what they've learned in the horticulture classroom and apply it to problems they'll face when they are on the job site.

Online social networking sites, such as Facebook, can help students become academically and socially integrated as well as improving learning outcomes, according to a study by researchers in China and Hong Kong. The researchers explain that Facebook usage is around 90% across campuses and many educational institutions offer new students orientation on how to capitalize on social networking to improve their experience of their course and their final results.

(American Society for Horticultural Science) Researchers at Texas Tech analyzed communication methods between students and faculty in three distance learning modalities: Web-facilitated, online and interactive video conferencing courses. Research showed that the number of e-mails and phone calls from students in the online sections were significantly greater than those in the web-facilitated sections. "It would appear that when students have less access to faculty synchronously in class, they resort to alternative methods of communication," explained McKenney.