The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and Vernier Software and Technology have opened their 2011 technology award program. Each year, the Vernier & NSTA Technology Award program awards cash, technology, and travel funds for science teachers who demonstrate innovation in inquiry-based learning activities involving data collection.
At an "Educate to Innovate" campaign event Thursday at the White House, President Barack Obama launched the National STEM Video Game Challenge, a nationwide competition that seeks to encourage student interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) through their affinity for playing and creating video games.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 09/16/10
NASA has opened two national science competitions, one for students in grades 6 through 9 and one for students in high school. Both challenge students to take on microgravity.
Disney has opened up its second-annual science event, Planet Challenge, a competition that's designed to engage students in solving environmental challenges.
Online educational games provider PBS Kids Play has introduced a classroom license for its subscription-based service.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 09/10/10
Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) in Florida is adopting Carnegie Learning Math in an effort to help improve math achievement in high schools throughout the district. The district will implement the math intervention and supplemental learning software in all 42 of its high schools during the 2010-2011 school year.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 09/09/10
The results are in, and girls in the United States aren't any more interested in STEM than they were 10 or 20 years ago. More alarming is the fact that those girls who do take an interest in such subjects at the middle school and high school level tend to drift to other interests in college. And the trend is raising red flags all across academia.
- By Bridget McCrea
- 09/08/10
Education publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has launched a new algebra curriculum delivery system for Apple's iPad. Dubbed "Fuse," the system is being piloted for a one-year period in middle schools in four California school districts.
AutoCAD is coming back to the Mac, and this time it will be free. The archetypal computer aided drafting program from Autodesk, which for more than a decade has been available only on Windows operating systems, will ship this fall for Mac OS X, along with mobile editions for Apple's iOS devices--iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. The new Mac edition will be free for students and teachers through Autodesk's Education Community.
The federal government lately has been passing out lots of money through competitive programs by way of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Together, the grants represent a huge investment in education, while providing one more example of the golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. What will those rules be going forward?
- By Geoffrey H. Fletcher
- 09/01/10