Science Education & Policy

SINGAPORE, August 27 /PRNewswire/ -- - Singapore's Iswaran to Highlight Asia-Pacific's Rising Energy Role at October 20 Gathering of Energy Company Executives Singapore's top official for trade and industry, S. Iswaran, is slated to keynote the acclaimed Platts Top 250 Global Energy Companies rankings and Asia leadership recognition awards dinner and gala presentation on October 20 in Singapore. The Platts Top 250 Global Energy Companies Rankings, now in its seventh year, measures corporate leadership by examining each company's financial performance and tracking the movement within the…

I sent the Professor Meg Urry interview to a colleague who is quite high-up in graduate teacher training. Here is his reply . We do have a lot of evidence about student motivation and about their view about the Nature of Science (Physics). What is disappointing about Meg's comments is that they are solely anecdotal and only related to her view, yet if she read a little more widely, she would discover a broader perspective. The ROSE project, based in Oslo, is the probably the latest and largest project on student motivation towards sciences in secondary schools, covering many countries in…

BEIJING, August 27 /PRNewswire/ -- - For Each of the 51 Chinese Gold Medals, Haier Builds a Primary School in China Haier, the world's fourth largest white goods manufacturer and the official white goods sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, will build 51 Olympic Hope primary schools in 25 provinces around China as part of the "One Gold Medal, One Olympic Hope School" program. 15 schools are to be built in Beichuan, the Sichuan county that was devastated by the May 12, 2008 earthquake. Haier announced its "One Gold Medal, One Olympic Hope School" program in 2007. For each Chinese gold…

Despite investments, community goodwill and some good ideas, a vexing question remains in the age of school reform: Why has so much hope and effort led to disappointment? Beginning in the late 1980s, the Chicago Public Schools, like many urban schools systems, launched a series of initiatives to reorganize schools, improve teaching and encourage parental participation. The changes in Chicago not always have met the expectations of proponents, wrote Charles Payne in his new book, "So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools". The results of national school…

WASHINGTON, August 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Crude oil prices "could" fall below US$100 per barrel over the next 18 months on slowing worldwide demand and an increase in oil production, Energy Information Administration (EIA) chief Guy Caruso said Tuesday. Caruso made the comment to reporters at the Platts Energy Podium in Washington. "I think [prices] could fall below US$100 a barrel on slowing global demand and rising production in the US, Brazil and Canada, and from OPEC states such as Saudi Arabia and Angola," Caruso said. While Caruso said "most of the risk is on the upside," and that it was…

PEMBROKE, Bermuda, August 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied World Assurance Company Holdings, Ltd (NYSE: AWH) today announced the appointment of Patrick de Saint-Aignan to its Board of Directors. Mr. de Saint-Aignan has over 30 years experience in investment banking. Allied World President and Chief Executive Officer Scott Carmilani commented, "We welcome Patrick to our Board of Directors. He has tremendous experience in financial services and will bring a wealth of knowledge to both our Board and our company." Mr. de Saint-Aignan has held multiple positions at Morgan Stanley internationally from…

MUMBAI, India, August 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tata Interactive Learning Forum (TLF) to discuss the convergence of technology in education and how technology will be impacting the market in the coming years Industry leaders believe that technology is transforming the delivery of education right from K-12 to Universities at a rapid pace. Its introduction and integration will provide institutions an edge, despite the uncertainties posed by the global economy. The TLF (http://www.tatalearningforum.com), to be held in Chicago Gleacher Center on October 17, aims to provide a clear direction to the…

Teaching evolution to a bunch of graduate students is easy; conveying something about evolution to a diverse group of high school students, some of whom have been coached to be openly hostile towards the subject, is a major challenge. Sunday's NY Times covered the efforts of one skilled Florida high school teacher. If only we had more teachers like this one. The teacher explained that science deals with ideas about the natural world that are testable by observation - unlike say, miracles. One student objected: God can be proven, he insisted. We have fragments of Noah's ark from Mt. Ararat to…

Troubled kids will always be a difficult area of social policy - in the 1980s the solution was thought to be introducing troubled kids to rural schools, but that tended to bring down the quality of the rural schools rather than raising troubled children up. Yet it would be pessimistic and dooming some to permanent failure to make schools full of just troubled kids. Still, the issue has not gone away. Troubled children hurt their classmates' math and reading scores and worsen their behavior, according to new research by economists at the University of California, Davis, and University of…

Business veterans claim you cannot teach ‘experience’ but a group of European researchers say you can. They developed software that helps players acquire real-life skills and realistic experiences through game playing. But this game is no executive toy. The interactive software, ChangeMasters, has caught the imagination of business colleges in the USA and elsewhere and it has prompted interest in corporate Europe as well. The researchers believe it gives students real-world skills through ‘experience.’ “Experience is the best and simplest way to learn anything, that is why it is so valued…