Ever stumble with students’ names? Or struggle to perk up class participation? Most schools view cellphones as disruptive nuisances, but a new iPhone app called Pikme could turn them into powerful tools for educators.

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Tags: Teacher Resources, Technical Communications, Technology, Technology for Learning

It’s been a banner spring for STEM this year. First, a Maryland science teacher draws White House honors as national Teacher of the Year. Now, the School of Science and Engineering Magnet high school in Dallas, Texas, has soared to the head of the latest Washington Post Challenge Index of more than 1,900 high schools nationwide.

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Tags: Education Policy, Research on Learning, STEM education

New Census figures reveal that the nation’s overall spending on education grew at a significantly slower pace in 2009 than at any other time in more than a decade. State and local revenues supplied all but 9.5 percent of the nation’s total $590.9 billion education tab. New York topped the class at $18,126 per student, with D.C. a close second at $16,408. Utah spent the least: $6,356.

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Tags: Education Policy, Public Policy

The Time to Invent Club, an invention-based mentoring program, helps students participate in fun, hands-on invention activities that spark their interest in STEM. They tackle challenges, gain confidence through inventing and creative problem-solving, meet STEM professions, and realize the impact invention has on daily life.

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Tags: After School, Class Activities, Elementary Education, Mentoring, Resources for Teachers, STEM Clubs, STEM education, Teacher Resources, Teaching Aids

Johns Hopkins University’s Engineering for Professionals (EP) program, part of the Whiting School of Engineering, will provide free tuition beginning with the summer term to Maryland public and private high school teachers who want to further their professional development in STEM disciplines.

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Tags: Courses, Higher Education, Professional Development, Programs for Teachers, STEM education, Teacher Resources, Teacher Training

The foundation launched by Microsoft founder Bill Gates is spending millions of dollars to enlist educators and experts in promoting sweeping changes to public education. Teachers hired by Gates-funded advocacy group Teach Plus helped persuade Indiana lawmakers this spring to eliminate seniority-based layoff policies.

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Tags: Corporations, Education Policy, Organizations, Public Policy

In this activity, teams of students 8 – 18 learn about engineering design by constructing rubber-band-powered cars from everyday materials that can travel in a straight line for a distance of at least 3 meters within a 1 meter wide track. They test their rubber-band racers, evaluate their results, and present to the class.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | 2 Comments »

Tags: Class Activities, force, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plan, Lesson Plans, motion, Physics, propulsion, rubber band racers

Ever since the Wright brothers ushered in the aerospace era a century ago, America has ruled the skies. Now, a unique Arizona industry and education partnership aims to lift the country’s future aviation expertise by building a seamless high-school-to-career STEM pipeline focused on off-board pilot technology and autonomous flight.

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Tags: Aerospace, Curriculum

A Purdue University engineering professor has found that building and racing go-karts is a great way not only to interest his own students in science and engineering, but at-risk middle-school kids as well.

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Filed under: Special Features | Comments Off on Feature: Kart Me Away

Tags: Automobiles, Automotive engineering, Cars, Electrical, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Green, Green Technology