Tucson students help create solutions with invention education

The number of American teens who excel at advanced math has surged, as new programs cater directly to the uppermost echelon of math students, training them for international competitions.

Tottenville, on Staten Island, will get oyster-friendly breakwaters and a dune system as part of post-Sandy rebuilding efforts. The oysters will help revive the ecosystem and sustain the long-term fishing economy.

Across the country, an improving economy has pulled teachers and potential teachers away from the profession, creating a growing national shortage. Leaders at Elmhurst Community Prep managed not only to completely staff the school by early June, but to avoid taking on anyone who was not fully certified.

For-profit companies are making good private schools available even to Africa’s poor. They can do it – and can do it on an enormous scale – by hiring neighborhood residents to teach, and scripting out every word of every lesson on an e-reader.

Can we improve the methods we use to teach math in schools — so that everyone develops proficiency? A grade-school math program is changing how children learn based on the assumption that all children can achieve a high level of understanding.

Many charter and private schools in the U.S. have replaced book-based learning and memorization with a do-it-yourself learning style. This is part of the national maker education movement which aims aims to help children believe in their own capabilities and problem solving skills.

A school in Brooklyn uses a lottery-based acceptance system to ensure a diverse class. And instead of sorting the struggling kids from the gifted, they embedded an honors program which kids can opt into without changing classrooms.

The Bay Area has the seventh-highest-ranking income disparity between rich and poor in the United States, and food is one of the most poignant indicators of the division. But a new collaboration between the design firm Ideo and the San Francisco Unified School District is trying to close that Grand Canyon-size chasm with an innovative approach to student nutrition.

Around the world, a new way of teaching and learning is gaining traction – and seeing results. Rooted in educational theory from the likes of Socrates, Piaget, and Montessori, this method is led by students’ curiosity and ability to learn and grow independently; essentially, the students control their own learning. Such methods make success more attainable in places like Matamoros, Mexico, who has seen exceptional improvement from students who experience learning this way.

PowerMyLearning, a program that any student, parent, or teacher can use for free, helps students take ownership of their own learning. When most attention is being placed on teacher effectiveness, this program redirects those efforts toward students.