education

Mar 22, 2013

Outdoor Education Helps Minority Students Close Gap in Environmental Literacy

Environmental education programs that took middle school students outdoors to learn helped minority students close a gap in environmental literacy, according to research from North Carolina State University. The study, published March 22 in PLOS ONE, showed that time outdoors seemed to impact African-American and Hispanic students more than Caucasian students, improving minority students’ ecological… 

Oct 5, 2012

Bringing Bugs Into the Classroom

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Dr. David Buchwalter, a researcher in NC State’s Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology. Every so often, The Abstract likes to highlight outreach efforts by NC State researchers. This one sounded like fun. Last month, I teamed up with other biological researchers to conduct a workshop for high school… 

Aug 21, 2012

NC State Experts Can Discuss Back to School Topics

As students and teachers across the state head back to class this fall, experts with North Carolina State University’s College of Education can offer helpful information on a range of topics, from digital literacy and graduation rates to reading tips and college preparation advice. Digital Literacy Dr. Hiller Spires, education professor and fellow at NC State’s… 

Dec 14, 2011

Helping Museums Pursue Interactive Technology

In an attempt to better engage and educate the public about everything from space exploration to art history, museums are becoming increasingly interactive. But many museums lack the resources or expertise to take full advantage of emerging technologies. What to do? Researchers from NC State and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences are working to… 

Oct 25, 2011

NC State Project Focuses On Education For Foster Children

When children are placed in foster care, it often means a disruption in their education, as well as a change in living situation – which can hurt their educational performance. Now NC State researchers are using a federal grant to launch a project designed to improve educational stability for foster children nationally and boost their overall… 

Sep 20, 2011

How People Feel About Diversity And ‘Neighborhood Schools’: It’s Complicated

Editor’s Note: The Wake County Board of Education has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent years as it debates issues related to diversity and “neighborhood schools,” and voters are preparing for board elections October 11. But researchers from NC State have found that the issues are more complex than media outlets have made them… 

Sep 15, 2011

NC State Gets Grant To Transform Elementary STEM Teaching

A five-year study at North Carolina State University could help reverse the nation’s decline in production of scientists, engineers and mathematicians. NC State will gauge whether its elementary teacher preparation model – which provides more rigorous undergraduate coursework in science and math disciplines than other elementary teacher preparation programs – can be combined with more careful tracking… 

Sep 8, 2011

NC State Lands Grant To Evaluate Special Ed Assessment and Accountability

Assessing educational progress in schools has become increasingly important since the passage of No Child Left Behind, but significant questions remain about the best way to measure schools’ effectiveness when it comes to working with children in special education programs. North Carolina State University will  help address those questions as part of a new federally… 

Aug 29, 2011

Making Research An Open Book

How one NC State professor saw an aspect of literacy education being neglected, and decided to do something about it. 

Aug 29, 2011

Putting Research-Driven Teaching Tools In Schools – For Free

When John Begeny saw that an aspect of literacy education was getting scant attention in schools, he decided to research it. Then he used that research to develop an effective new tool for teachers, with demonstrated results. Then he decided to give the new program to teachers and parents for free. Cheers to that. As… 

Aug 29, 2011

Study: Simple Teaching Tool Boosts Student Reading Performance

Research from North Carolina State University shows that utilizing a freely available literacy tool results in significant advances in fundamental reading skills for elementary school students, without requiring schools to drastically overhaul existing programs. The research focused on children who were characterized as “struggling readers” at risk for a learning disability in reading. 

May 25, 2011

Schoolhouse to White House

Nationally recognized teacher Zebetta King shares the secrets of teaching students to love science. 

Apr 1, 2011

Can Online Courses Help Struggling High School Students?

High schools students who fail a course after receiving classroom instruction certainly wouldn’t do any better taking an online class – or would they? Research from North Carolina State University shows students who retake courses online often do better due to the self-paced nature of the class, which also promotes the self-discipline necessary to succeed. 

Mar 3, 2011

Our Online Training Preferences, or Why Clippy Bombed

A new study finds that students in online training courses want to be taught by electronic versions of themselves. The study, by researchers from NC State and George Washington University, were interested in how student performance was affected by changes in the electronic tutorial “helpers” utilized in online training programs. It turns out that students do… 

Feb 24, 2011

Language Development Is Cyclical In Kids

Does it sometimes seem like your kids are suddenly speaking a totally different language? Well, you may be on to something. New research on language development in African-American children shows that kids go through cycles – going back and forth between standard English and vernacular English a couple of times before settling into an established…