Invited Guest Post by Helene Brazier-Mitouart I have a Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Health and I am currently doing research in cancer biology as a postdoctoral associate at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. Besides having a passion for making scientific discoveries, I also have a great interest in teaching science [...]

Invited Guest Post by Marissa Fessenden (@marisfessenden) U.S. business and policy leaders have made it a priority to increase the number of students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and math, collectively known as STEM. But one source of STEM talent is often overlooked: young people with autism spectrum disorders. A study published late last [...]

In 2008, the 9-year-old son of paleoanthropologist Lee Berger discovered a fossil that landed Berger’s team on the covers of the journal Science, of Scientific American, and on the front pages of  newspapers including The New York Times. Berger and his son, Matthew, discovered a clavicle bone in Johannesburg, South Africa that belonged to an entirely [...]

Earlier today, a group of scientists, educators and policymakers released the newest draft of the Next Generation Science Standards, which lay out ambitious expectations for what elementary, middle and high school students should learn at each grade level. These guidelines affect virtually every child enrolled in public school, and advocates say they will revolutionize STEM [...]

Like many families in the path of superstorm Sandy, we’ve spent much of the last week indoors trying to stay sane. Fortunately, we live in a part of Brooklyn that was spared the worst storm damage, so I had the luxury of finally reading the children’s science books that have been piling up on my [...]

An education advisor to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign said last night that a Romney administration would not use federal funds to encourage states to adopt higher standards in math and science. President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top Program has offered grants to states that adopt certain reforms, including the Common Core State Standards in [...]

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney staked out a softer position than usual last night on the role of the federal government in American life. Regulation? It’s “essential.” The role of government in education? It can be “very important.” As a result, Romney and President Obama agreed more than they disagreed on how to improve students’ [...]

Guest post by Michael R. Duffey There is a wide variety of creative projects which can help introduce children to the world of microcontrollers.  A microcontroller is simply a small computer that can interact with the outside world.  It can connect different types of “inputs” (such as sensing a motion, force, or temperature change) to [...]

Two weeks ago, I set out in search of milkweed hoping to find an egg laid by a Monarch butterfly. With no previous egg-hunting experience, I was armed only with what I had read in the terrific book “My Monarch Journal” by Connie Muther and Anita Bibeau.  The book gives step-by-step instructions, accompanied by detailed, [...]

Last week, my parents’ yard in Western Massachusetts was overrun with fuzzy black and white creatures known as Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillars (Lophocampa caryae).  Just after a rainstorm, I noticed that the caterpillars were hanging from trees like spiders, lowering themselves from branches on lines of silk (see video below; apologies for the commentary in [...]