Finding “vampires,” angling solar panels, tracking cafeteria waste – all become lessons
Chris Berdik
Chris Berdik is a science journalist who has written about a wide variety of topics, including the intersection of science with ethical issues and the peculiarities of the human brain. (“Why Our Brains Make Us Laugh,” for the Boston Globe, for example.) His book, Mind Over Mind: The Surprising Power of Expectations, was published by Current, an imprint of Penguin, in 2012. A Harvard graduate with a master’s degree in journalism from Stanford University, Mr. Berdik has been a staff editor at The Atlantic and Mother Jones. His freelance articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe and Boston Magazine, among others, and his radio and multimedia stories have appeared on Smithsonian.com, WBUR (Boston’s NPR station) and Sciencestage.com, among others.
Posted inEducation, K-12
Can Virtual Reality ‘Teach’ Empathy?
Immersive virtual reality in the classroom is spreading fast, as teachers take students into other worlds.
Posted inEducation, K-12
Pump Up the Volume! More Talking in Class, Please!
In the push for personalized learning, can technology rescue group discussions?
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
E-Counseling 2.0: Can a New Wave of Virtual Guidance Help?
The latest virtual guidance counseling services may help more low-income kids get to college
Posted inEducation, K-12
Mix a Little Math Into That Bedtime Story
An app helps parents combat kids’ summer math loss.
Posted inEducation, K-12
Five-Year Olds and Laser Cutters—Perfect Together?
How the Bay Area Discovery Museum went from no-tech to early-childhood fab lab pioneer
Posted inEducation, K-12
Can a Wall-Climbing Robot Teach Your Kid to Code?
Last month, a few hand-sized, hexagonal robots took over a third-grade classroom in Southborough, Massachusetts. They climbed a whiteboard and drew all over it while flashing multicolored LED’s and chirping musically. All the while, they were teaching kids to code. Meet Root — a robot being beta-tested by its creators at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
“Paying attention?” An App Asks – Helping Kids Monitor Their Own Classroom Behavior
Photo: AP Images Between kids chattering, bolting from their seats or simply staring out the window, keeping students focused is a constant battle for Alexandra Beckman, a special education teacher of fifth- and sixth-graders in Ozark, Missouri. “It’s probably how I spend the majority of my day,” Beckman admitted. She recently tried a new approach […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Can Social Media Nudge Teens Into Smarter Money Choices?
Brittany Bui (left) and AJ Wheatley, co-presidents of the Moneythink chapter at Chapman University in Orange, California, at last year’s freshman activity fair. Photo: Kara Zucker In the fall of 2008, Ted Gonder was studying economics at the University of Chicago as the world economy melted down around him. “We were learning about the collapse […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Hit Rewind: Coaching Teachers Virtually
Audrey Miller, a teacher mentor at Oceanside High School on Long Island, videotapes a lesson in her video production class. The Oceanside district uses an online video-sharing platform to mentor new teachers. Photo: Sattwa Conrad Nothing in Linda Liptrap’s teacher training prepared her for the pencil onslaught. In 2013, as a novice math teacher at […]
