Internet startup Academia.edu is moving forward with plans to change the way scientists publish papers, thanks to a second round of funding the company has recieved.
Flush with just over $11 million in capital, Academia is inching closer to its goal of publishing all scientific papers while simultaneously changing the way the peer-review porcess works. Currently, researchers must submit their papers to any of a number of academic journals. The journals then hand the papers over to a different researcher to review before deciding if they have merit and are worthy of publication. Under the Academia.edu model, those same papers would be reviewed by peers on the site, similar to Facebook.
"The goal is to have every single science PDF ever written available for free on the Internet and to build a network of scientists interacting with those papers that will change the face of peer review," the San Francisco-based company told CNet of its mission.
A high school student in Florida has been expelled and is facing felony charges after completing an unsupervised science experiment.
Sixteen-year-old Kiera Wilmot of Bartow High School wanted to see what would happen when she combined several household products in a plastic bottle...
Ideally~ learning should be a natural process.
Unfortunately~ with testing pressures and varied instructional approaches~ the process of discovering and mastering new skills and information is often contrived and~ frankly~ learned in an unnatural manner.
During his three decades of research into gifted education~ Dr. Joseph Renzulli developed what is known as the Schoolwide Enrichment Model or SEM. Within that model~ he explains that there are three types of activities~...
Using a series of very technical tests, scientists from the French research facility CEA have determined that the Earth's core is roughly 6,000 degrees Celsius. That is approximately 1,000 degrees hotter than the temperature obtained by tests in the 1990s.
These new figures show that the center of the Earth is just as hot as the surface of the sun.
The...
During my last blog~ I shared a story about how problem-based learning was used to challenge one of my students.
In this post~ I want to outline the steps that have personally helped me implement this method.
First~ you have to find the right problem.
Problem-based learning~ or PBL~ is personalized for each child. It requires differentiation at a very deep level.
According to Dr. De Gallow at the University of California~ Irvine~ One of the primary features of Problem-...
I've posted many different career surveys(they are all free)...check them out at my website for teachers/young people at this link:http://gailhennessey.com/index.shtml?careers.html Here is the latest posting...
Peter Kirk~ Chairman of the British Tarantula Society
Tarantula Expert!
Yikes...a tarantula the...
Improved technology played a big role in the identification of the two primary suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing.
Law enforcement officials were deluged with digital images and video after asking anyone who was in the area during the event to submit them. Traditionally it would take hundreds of officers countless hours to examine...
The invasion of the Giant Snails sounds like a science fiction movie title but in Florida~ it's very real. The giant African land snail has invaded the state and since they have no natural enemies~ the snails are causing quite a problem. As their name suggests~ the snail is very large...think the size of a rat. And~ the giant African land snail multiplies quickly. Just one female can produce 12~000 eggs in one year! The giant African...
Ali Razeghi, a scientist from Tehran, claims to have successfully created a time machine. According to The Telegraph, Razeghi's machine is not a time traveling device in the classic sense. That it, it does NOT...
Id like to dedicate my next few posts to the topic of problem-based learning.
It is certainly a method that motivates students~ helps them develop valuable how-to learn skills~ and makes learning relevant. Before I get into the particulars~ Id like to use this blog to share a true story illustrating the power of teaching through problems.
(Please feel free to share your stories of problem-based learning or post comments by visiting the Gifted/Enrichment group at...