In The News
Students Make Gains in Testing on Science
American eighth graders have made modest gains in national science testing, with Hispanic and black students narrowing the gap between them and their white and Asian peers, the federal government reported Thursday. Students tested last year scored an average of 152 out of a possible 300, up from 150 in 2009, a small but statistically significant improvement. The latest results are based on a representative sampling of 122,000 students in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, part of the Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Tatooine Finder (Q&A, Planet Hunter Laurance Doyle)
SPACE.com spoke to study leader Laurance Doyle, an astrophysicist at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain View, Calif., about the bizarre alien world and what it means for our search for life in the universe.
Budget Cuts Threaten Underenrolled Physics Departments
This year, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the agency that approves and disapproves degree programs, implemented a more stringent annual review system for eliminating those with low enrollment.
ARPA-E: Welcome to the Department of Big Dreams
Before we won military, economic or political battles, we won knowledge battles.