all education stories

New journal highlights undergraduate research

404132862 — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:10:29 -0400

Spanning topics as diverse as cancerous tumors and the overfishing of grouper in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a new journal aims to highlight the serious scientific research regularly undertaken by Harvard undergraduates.

Editors of the glossy magazine — launched last month and called “THURJ” for “The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal” — plan to print an issue every six months and create a self-sustaining publication that will last long after they’ve graduated.

Jeremy Knowles, eminent chemist, Harvard leader, 72

404132862 — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:32:05 -0400

Jeremy R. Knowles, an eminent chemist and longtime leader of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, died April 3 at his home in Cambridge, after a struggle with cancer.

Shore Fellows awarded valuable time

jake — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:33:21 -0400

N. Stuart Harris, an emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, is also an active researcher doing groundbreaking research on hypoxia — a shortage of oxygen in the body.

Taking distance education to the next level

jake — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:21:21 -0400

A major advance in distance education was initiated this fall in a specially equipped classroom at the Harvard Extension School. Classes held there give online students the ability to view on-campus lectures in real-time and actually take part in classroom discussions. The facility also serves as an experimental locus to test distance education teaching methods and technology. One of the extraordinary benefits of the $1 million in state-of-the-art equipment is that several courses can be taught at the same time.

The Extension School is among a small number of institutions across the country offering streaming video of college courses.

Advances in genetics can help kids learn

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:34:19 -0400

Education was becoming a no-brainer, some people at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education (HGSE) complained.

Kurt Fischer and his colleagues looked at the revolution in brain scanning, genetics, and other biological technologies and decided that most teachers and students weren’t getting much benefit from them. Brain scans are now available to watch what’s going on when someone is learning — or not learning. Finding genes that are involved in leaning disabilities is a hot area. Why, they asked, aren’t the powers of such technologies helping teachers in classrooms?

'Digital immigrants' teaching 'digital natives'

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:46:42 -0400

Students coming into universities today are 'digital natives' and fundamentally different in their use of technology than the 'digital immigrants' who teach them, according to John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Viviany Taqueti: Writer, doctor, public servant

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:29:40 -0400

As a young girl, Viviany Taqueti followed her doctor father as he made rounds in the two hospitals he built in the jungles of Brazil. Sitting on the banks of the muddy, mighty Amazon River, Taqueti decided that she wanted to be like him, a person who improves the lives of others and who believes that you can do anything you set your mind to.

Today, she sits near the banks of the Charles River, a petite 25-year-old who just earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School and who has learned not to think much about the obstacles to becoming a physician, scientist, teacher, and writer — all at once.

Children can perform approximate math without arithmetic instruction

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:10:21 -0400

Children are able to solve approximate addition or subtraction problems involving large numbers even before they have been taught arithmetic, according to a study conducted at Harvard University by researchers from the University of Nottingham and Harvard.

Howard Gardner's 'quintet of minds'

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:54:47 -0400

It’s been more than 20 years since Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner offered up a radical idea: that humans possess multiple forms of intelligence rather than just a single type that is easily tested by linguistic and logical-mathematical parameters.

His groundbreaking “Frames of Mind” (1983) changed traditional psychological views of intelligence, and helped educators question conventional teaching and testing.

In a new book this year, Gardner — the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) — goes beyond describing cognition. He ventures into prescription.

Noyce Scholarships provide incentive for public school internships

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:06:26 -0400

Among the topics in the national conversation on education during the past few years have been teacher retention (particularly for high-needs schools) and the lack of math and science educators in primary and secondary settings. The National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Scholarship — which was awarded this year to 10 master’s students from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) — aims to solve these difficult problems. This year’s winners are Muhammad Al-Ahmar, Michelle Cooper, Samuel Garson, Elizabeth (Liza) Hansel, Katie Heim, Sean Kussner, Anne Lutz, Mike Nduaguba, Shelley Olsen, and Stacy Williams.

Radhika Nagpal nets prestigious NSF award for up-and-coming researchers

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:28:44 -0400

Radhika Nagpal, assistant professor of computer science in Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has won a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The honor is considered one of the most prestigious for up-and-coming researchers in science and engineering.

Nagpal, whose work bridges computer science and biology, plans to use the $400,000 award (paid over five years) to further her research on self-organizing systems. In particular, she is interested in learning how to better engineer self-organizing, self-repairing distributing computing systems. She also wants to gain a fuller understanding of robust collective behavior in biological systems.

New department approved

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:08:11 -0400

The Harvard Corporation has approved, with the support of the deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Harvard Medical School (HMS), the establishment of a new Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, the first academic department in Harvard’s 371-year history to be based in more than one of the University’s Schools. The new department will bring together researchers from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Medical School.

Young scholars show findings at HGSE Student Research Conference

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:47:08 -0400

In a basement classroom in Larsen Hall on Friday (Feb. 23), there was everything young learners need: chalkboards, a screen, bright lights, sturdy chairs - and good teachers. In this case, four good teachers - all of them Ed.M. students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE).

The four were among 230 young scholars from universities across North America at HGSE's daylong Student Research Conference. The annual event - in its 12th year, and the only one of its kind in the country - provides a way for first-time education researchers to mingle with their peers, practice presentation skills, and get a sense of emerging scholarship.

Harvard creates new, University-wide committee to guide interdisciplinary efforts in science

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:28:35 -0400

The Harvard Corporation has authorized the establishment of a new, University-wide standing committee on science and engineering to guide the University into a new era of collaborative, cross-disciplinary science initiatives. The Corporation also created a $50 million fund to provide initial support for the committee's work, pending the submission of a budget by the committee.

At the same time, the Corporation asked Harvard Interim President Derek Bok and Provost Steven Hyman to work with interested Deans and Harvard-affiliated hospitals to develop plans for a new, interfaculty Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, for Corporation final approval this spring.

'Usable Knowledge' Web site delivers research to educators

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:28:29 -0400

The Harvard Graduate School of Education on Dec. 6, 2006, launched a new Web site aimed at connecting the research of its faculty with educators in the field. The Usable Knowledge Web site features a diverse set of media - text, video, and audio - to make the leading research of its faculty accessible to educators all over the world.

The Usable Knowledge Web site is organized around five topic areas that align with high priorities for educators: leadership and policy; learning and development; decisions through data; community and family; and teaching and curriculum.