• N.C. university becomes first in state to offer homeland security degree

    There are 380 security-related academic programs in U.S. colleges, most of which are two-year programs. Campbell University, established in 1887, has become the first university in North Carolina to offer a bachelor’s degree program in homeland security, beginning this fall. The school says the new degree is a direct result of a rising interest in the field.

  • Sponsors: Immigration bill addresses visa flaws highlighted by the Boston bombing

    Lawmakers behind the bipartisan Senate immigration say bill directly addresses some of the security flaws that may have been exploited by the foreign student who helped Dzhokhar Tsarnaev dispose of evidence after the Boston Marathon bombings.

  • Schools do not offer students sufficient practical science experience

    New evidence shows that a worrying number of students are not experiencing a complete and authentic education in the sciences, due to a lack of resources for practical work. Secondary schools reported not having enough of some of the most commonly used equipment, such as microscopes, eye protection, and connecting leads for circuits. The research also shows that many secondary schools lack essential support from qualified technicians to carry out practical work.

  • NASA high school STEM challenge announces winning team

    NASA science challenge asked students in grades 7–12 either to re-design a shield to keep Webb telescope cold enough to “detect infrared light from faint sources such as distant galaxies and extrasolar planets,” or to re-design a mirror assembly “so that Webb telescope may produce images that are “sufficiently bright and sharp to look back in time to when galaxies were young.”

  • U.S. science teachers are not fully prepared for new science teaching standards

    New voluntary guidelines for science education were unveiled earlier this month by the advocacy group Achieve in collaboration with twenty-six states. The new standards call for more hands-on learning and analysis and cover fewer science topics, but in greater depth.A new report says, however, that America’s K-12 teachers are not fully prepared to meet a new set of science standards.

  • Fundamental changes needed in the education of tomorrow’s scientists

    Fundamental changes are needed in the education of the scientists whose work impacts medicine, drug discovery, development of sustainable new fuels, and other global challenges society is facing in the twenty-first century. Those changes in graduate education in chemistry were the topic of a special symposium the other day at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

  • DHS launches Campus Resilience pilot program

    DHS secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday that seven universities will participate in a national preparedness initiative designed to help campuses train for, respond to, and recover from an emergency situation.

  • Instructors’ hand gestures help students learn math

    U.S. students lag behind those in many other Western countries in math and have a particularly hard time mastering equivalence problems in early grades. Researchers find that students perform better when their instructors use hand gestures — a simple teaching tool that could yield benefits in higher-level math such as algebra.

  • DHS seeking student hackers

    DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano  on Tuesday said that due to “new and rapidly growing threats” of a cyberattack, hundreds of college-age hackers are needed to help deal with the massive number of daily incursions into the nation’s electrical grid and other critical infrastructure.

  • Budget cuts lead to uncertainty for military schools

    The sequestration has hit many federal agencies, but Defense Department schools and other military education programs  have more questions than  answers as to how the federal budget cuts will affect them.

  • New trends in cybersecurity and information security education

    The Federal Information Systems Security Educators’ Association (FISSEA)promotes cybersecurity awareness, training, and education. The annual meeting,to be held 19-21 March 2013 at NIST headquartersin Gaithersburg, Maryland, is geared toward both new and seasoned security officers, IT managers, information security educators and researchers, cybersecurity trainers and teachers, and those involved in instructional design and curriculum development.

  • New power engineering curriculum to help U.S. security, economy

    Nearly 40 percent of all energy consumed in the United States is first converted to electricity, with that figure expected to rise to as much as 70 percent in the future. Increasing the pipeline of graduates in electric power and energy has implications for both the country’s place in the global market and national defense. The more expertise there is at home, the less the United States will have to import talent and energy resources from overseas. An Office of Naval Research (ONR)-supported project is bringing sweeping changes to electric power and energy education at universities throughout the country, establishing first-time programs at some schools and bringing new courses and labs to others.

  • First grade math skills set foundation for later math competence

    Children who failed to acquire a basic math skill in first grade scored far behind their peers by seventh grade on a test of the mathematical abilities needed to function in adult life, according to a new study. NIH-funded study identifies fundamental skills needed for math functioning in adult life.

  • Girls perform as well as boys in math competitions

    The idea that boys are better at math and in competitions has persisted for a long time, and now we know why: Nobody bothered to schedule the rematch. New study finds that these supposed gender gap is just a product of first-round nerves.

  • High school students to compete in DOE National Science Bowl

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) created the National Science Bowl in 1991 to encourage students to excel in math and science and pursue careers in related fields. More than 200,000 students have participated in the National Science Bowl in the twenty-three years since its inception. Students from Los Alamos High School will represent New Mexico at the Department of Energy’s National Science Bowl in April.