When you imagine the future, what does it look like? Do drones hover over football games to telecast the action direct to your wireless devices, deliver Dominoes to your door at half-time, and monitor the post-game traffic from the sky above the stadium? If your vision of the future features drones, then the future is […]
“Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.” Isaac Asimov When the Mesopotamians carved the first cuneiform maps on clay from about 700 to 500 BCE, little did they know that their Babylonian inscriptions would be the beginning […]
The Hubble Space Telescope has literally transformed the way scientists view the universe. For over 20 years, this incredible technology has been orbiting the Earth in its quest to prove or disprove astronomical theories, uncover heretofore unknown worlds, solve space mysteries, search for answers to a plethora of scientific questions, and, in general, expand our […]
Last month we familiarized ourselves with the organizations that support and drive the STEM efforts in the K-12 realm. The amount of resources available to educate, advise, and train teachers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields are impressive and meaningful. The future of this nation will rely heavily on the innovation and problem-solving […]
Across the K-12 spectrum, schools have been turning their focus towards the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math realms. U.S. students continue to lag in these fields when compared to other leading nations (read the recent New York Times article that discusses this national concern). Commonly referred to as the STEM fields, students at all levels […]
According to the World Bank, 50.6% of the United States population is female (for data up to 2012). For most nations around the world, the statistic ranges between 49% and 50%. Therefore it is safe to say that one half of the world’s population is indeed comprised of women and girls. Every March, we review […]
Traveling at an estimated 33,000 mph, faster than the speed of sound, a 10-ton meteor broke into pieces above Earth on February 15, 2013. One meteorite hurtled onward toward Earth, streaking brilliantly across the sky above Chelyabinsk, Russia. Its shockwaves shattered more than 4,000 windows and engaged car alarms. Approximately 1,000 people sustained injuries. Scientists […]
The transformation of energy, from potential kinetic, is how the world works and plays, literally. Show students some great examples and ways to analyze them. By now, students have become familiar with Newton’s laws related to force, mass, and motion. A critical extension of that, is thus, to investigate how energy is transformed from potential […]
No matter what discipline you teach, turn students on to one or more ways they can contribute collaboratively with others on meaningful, real-world missions. It is not uncommon for young people, even those of today’s generations, to think that they just do not fit the stereotype of being a scientist. The truth is that all […]
On Tuesday, December 13, 2011, physicists using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced that they think they are closing in on the Higgs boson. This hypothetical particle, if it exists, would explain how particles have mass. On Tuesday, December 13, 2011, physicists using the Large Hadron Collider […]