Education

One state could require kids to read more science fiction in schools

Here’s a change that could actually make schools less awful, instead of more. A West Virginia legislator proposed a bill last month that would require schools to add science fiction to their reading lists. Delegate Ray Canterbury’s bill, which is a repeat of a bill from last year, reads: The Legislature finds that promoting interest…

The Jetsons Get Schooled: Robot Teachers in the 21st Century Classroom

This is the last in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. The final episode of the first season (and only season until a mid-1980s revival) of “The Jetsons” originally aired on March 17, 1963, and was titled “Elroy’s Mob.” In the opening sequence of…

Oregon school cancels zombie survival classes, ensures students will be eaten

Armand Larive Middle School had what is perhaps the greatest junior high social studies class ever: Zombie Survival Skills. But the killjoy parents and administrators put the kibosh on the post-apocalyptic class, feeling that undead studies were not appropriate for growing minds. The East Oregonian reported on Rich Harshberger’s zombie survival classes at Armand Larive…

A scifi movie with completely accurate representations of comets and exoplanets

Ellipse is a movie about a girl who is destined to be an astrophysicist. It’s also about an Enlightenment-era woman who helped discover longitude. And it’s about aliens. Plus, it’s made by seasoned SF filmmakers in collaboration with scientists at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Yes, you want to help fund this. Here’s the description: Leo…

Could Minecraft Actually Be the Ultimate Educational Tool?

Playing the video game Minecraft is a joke that writes itself. Ooh, look at nerds building the world they want to live in! But it’s actually engaging, like playing with a digital Lego. Could it also be the ultimate educational tool? PBS’ Idea Channel examines Minecraft’s case for wrinkling our brain. PBS says: Some experts…

This Is News Corp’s New $300 Tablet For Schools

Amplify, which is an educational wing of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, has just announced that it’s launching a $300 Android tablet for use in schools. The New York Times reports that the 10-inch device will be officially rolled out at SXSWedu later today. But we already know that a Wi-Fi-only model will cost $300, plus…

It’s Okay to be Smart is now on YouTube!

Joe Hanson, creator of the fantastic science tumblr It’s Okay to be Smart, has a new YouTube science show by the very same name. He’s teamed up with PBS to make it happen, and it sounds like they’ve got big things in store. Via his Hanson’s tumblr: I can’t tell you how excited I am…

Now you can learn about the fae at this slightly creepy “elf school” in Iceland

Iceland has everything: geothermal heat, a pirate-friendly government, and . . . 13 kinds of elves. Oh, you didn’t know that? That’s because you’ve never attended Álfaskólinn, Iceland’s elf school. According to Atlas Obscura: Located in the thoroughly modern city of Reykjavik, the school has a full curriculum of study about the 13 types of…

McGraw-Hill’s SmartBooks: Digital Textbooks With Built-In Drill Sergeants

When textbooks were actually books they were good for flattening posters and bringing monitors to eye-level. Now their ebook personas may really force you to learn. Grim, I know. Textbook publishing behemoth McGraw-Hill is producing a series of adaptive e-textbooks in 90 subject areas. Targeted at college-level classes, the SmartBooks quiz students as they read…

Creationist textbooks are garbage, creationist textbooks are garbage, creationist textbooks are garbage

A report issued earlier this year by Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance concluded that U.S. students are failing to bridge the educational chasm separating them from their foreign peers1. “Textbooks” like this one will help ensure that things stay that way: Are the cultural wars between creationism and evolution the only thing…

Thoughtful Charity Gifts for People Who Love Science and Science Fiction

Sometimes the best gift isn’t something you give to your loved ones — it’s what you give to a good cause, in your loved one’s name. Here are a few ideas for places you can donate money this year to help make the world a better place for science, science fiction, and rational thought. And…

Google is offering $99 Chromebooks to public schools in the U.S. and you can help buy them as a gift. [Slashgear]

R.I.P. Sir Patrick Moore, who brought the mysteries of space into the living room

For many astronomers, their love of space began with a man on their television set. Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore began hosting the BBC’s The Sky at Night in 1957, and for the next 55 years, he unraveled the mysteries of the cosmos for his viewers and helped them understand what they were seeing when they…

College application fees are a barrier to getting an education

This is the time of the year when senior high school students are furiously applying for college — a process that will decide where they will spend the next several years of their life, and shape their futures. And a lot of them will face a common problem: They have the grades to get into…

Education finally gets serious about the undead apocalypse with this Zombie Scholarship

At least one organization is worried about the real problems facing our nation’s future. ScholarshipExperts.com is offering a $1000 “Zombie Scholarship” for people who want to help the living stay living once the dead walk the earth. The details: Applicants must: • Be thirteen (13) years of age or older at the time of application…

Is this what students in Louisiana are learning about evolution?

Earlier this week, The New Star published an article questioning the way Louisiana goes about its funding of nonpublic schools. According to the state’s constitution, all nonpublic schools must certify that it has “curriculum or specialized course of study of quality at least equal to that prescribed for similar public schools.” This has prompted some…

No, children are not natural born scientists

We like to think that children are born scientists. Because Neil deGrasse Tyson says so. Because The National Science Foundation proclaims it on its website. Because when Mark Twain warned that school should not “interfere with [one’s] education,” he clearly meant it as a prophetic indictment of No Child Left Behind and the Rod Of…

An Open Letter to the President: US physics education is crap. Let’s fix it.

Henry Reich — creator, illustrator and narrator of Minute Physics — has a message for the President. America’s educational standards for physics, he argues, provide a surprisingly dated and incomplete introduction to the world of physics. A lot has happened in the field since 1865; shouldn’t some basic knowledge of that progress be made a…

The Effect of College Education On the Presidential Election

These are—according to Fox Business data—the best and worst educated states in the United States of America, ordered by percentage of residents 25 or older with at least a bachelor’s degree in 2011. The table also shows how those states voted. Can you see any pattern? Perhaps there’s no correlation. Perhaps it is just a…

Here’s Proof that Mixing Science and Religion Is Stupid

Check out this image and pay attention to the second question, the one that, according to the teacher, the kid got “wrong.” According to the father, this was from her daughter’s geography test. “She added her own answer,” he says. Disgusting. This is exactly what’s wrong with science education in democracies where God and state…