BBC News – Jane O’Brien

“Mastering a foreign language can be a frustrating experience and one that gets harder as we age. The younger you start, the easier it seems to be. Now researchers in the US and Sweden have found evidence that we start learning language before we’re even born.”(more)

BBC – Sean Coughlan

“Sleep deprivation is a significant hidden factor in lowering the achievement of school pupils, according to researchers carrying out international education tests.”(more)

Education Week – Michele McNeil

“In statehouses and cities across the country, battles are raging over the direction of education policy—from the standards that will shape what students learn to how test results will be used to judge a teacher’s performance.”(more)

The Washington Post – Jia Lynn Yang

“If there’s one thing that everyone can agree on in Washington, it’s that the country has a woeful shortage of workers trained in science, technology, engineering and math — what’s referred to as STEM…But not everyone agrees. A study released Wednesday by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute reinforces what a number of researchers have come to believe: that the STEM worker shortage is a myth.”(more)

Education Week Nirvi Shah

“Just like adding reading nooks to classrooms can encourage students to pick up a book, changes in the way schools are designed could help change students’ eating habits and increase how active they are.”(more)

The New York Times Ethan Hauser

“A high school senior who cultivated populations of algae under her loft bed won first place and $100,000 in the Intel Science Talent Search on Tuesday night. The contestant, Sara Volz, 17, of Colorado Springs, Colo., researched ways to create populations of algae cells with high oil content; this algae oil can be converted into an economically feasible biofuel.”(more)

Education Week Sarah D. Sparks

“This month, the National Science Foundation launched an effort to make the science of learning and education more cohesive—and hopefully more comprehensible to educators in the field.”(more)

Our Colorado News – Jane Reuter

“IB, a European-developed program with tiers aimed at specific age groups, helps “develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world,” according to its website. It places a strong emphasis on foreign language, cross-cultural understanding and research.”(more)

William & Mary.edu – Erin Zagursky

“It may not be unusual to hear about children playing in dirt, but the sixth graders who gathered around piles of gray sediment in a William & Mary classroom recently weren’t playing. They were conducting research while also learning about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).”(more)

Education News – Julia Lawrence

“Now, a number of recent studies have called the usefulness of preschool into question…In other words, a bad home situation becomes a much smaller problem when your kid goes to preschool; when you have a good home environment, preschool doesn’t really matter.”(more)