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No More Homework?

- Agasel 1 Comment

If research is to be believed, your kids may start coming home with less homework.  For younger students, a few schools are reducing the number of repetitive exercises given, and replacing them with assignments designed to engage the mind. 

Years of research supports the idea that there is no link between grades and the amount of homework assigned.  In a study covering 50 countries, students with the highest grades (such as Japan and Denmark) did very little homework, compared to children with the lowest grades (such as Greece and Iran), who did lots of homework.  Due to various research reports, some teachers and parents now see no need to assign a lot of afterschool work in the early and middle grades. 

Harris Cooper, one of the leading researchers on homework in the United States, firmly believes in extra schoolwork.  “Kids at all grade levels are going to benefit from practice,” he states.  “…If it’s practice that gets you to Carnegie Hall, homework’s going to help.”

However, he acknowledges that too much does not mean better grades.  His rule of thumb: children shouldn’t do more than 10 minutes of homework for each grade.  For example, a Grade 2 student should have only 20 minutes of homework; a Grade 7 student, 1 hour and 10 minutes.

At Vernon Barford Junior High in Edmonton, teacher Judy Hoeksema now assigns half the work she did last year.  “We’ve all been under this illusion that lots of homework creates good study habits for the future,” the math teacher of 26 years says.  “Now, we’ve realized it isn’t making much difference.”

As a bonus for scaling back homework, many families are seeing  increased quality time for children and parents , less household stress, and less physical stress on their kids due to less books being carried.

Study At Yale – For Free!

- Nikki Slabbert 1 Comment

Studying at Yale is beyond the means of most, with high admissions standards and a hefty price tag of about $46 000 a year for tuition and board.  Now, thanks to a new initiative to make the Ivy League school more accessible and a $755 000 grant, courses will be available for free on the internet.

This facility is already offered by other institutions including the likes of MIT and Princeton, Yale will be the first to offer videos to accompany course notes and transcripts of lectures. The initiative will include 7 first year courses.

The courses will not be counted as credits towards a Yale University Degree, nor will they substitute normal lectures.

Two Dads are Rad!

- Adam Clare

Nursery school teachers in the UK are being urged to promote acceptance of homosexual families. There is concern from the National Union of Teachers that children of gay couples aren’t being treated kindly and that children are being forced into stereotyped gender rolls. Encouraging openness and acceptance of all genders and people will help curb intolerance.

“The NUT said: “It is particularly important to begin to make three to five-year-olds aware of the range of families that exist in the UK today”. That would includes families with single parents or those with “two mums” or “two dads”, the union said.

The union added: “There will be parents who are gay or lesbian who will want to be reassured that that their children will be safe in the setting.””

Students Cleanup Their ‘Hood

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

Students at Spain Middle School, which is nowhere near Spain, in fact the school is in Detroit Michigan. Detroit is renowned for it’s urban areas that are falling apart, well these kids had enough. For a school project they utilized technologies used by NASA and marketing corporations, GIS – also known as Geographic Information Systems.

They went around their neighborhoods documenting all things wrong. They plotted the location of say an abandoned car and took a picture of it and went on to the next sign of urban blight. After collecting all their data they took the next logical step.

“They students have compiled their material into Power Point presentations for Detroit city council members, highlighting areas that have been neglected and need improvement. They were able to show, for example, that the number of abandoned homes in one neighborhood had increased by more than 50 percent. The Wayne County prosecutors’ office began targeting the area.”

With GIS technology becoming more accessible hopefully we can see it used for more projects like this and maybe for tracking environmental damage too.

Organic Farming Degree Offered

- Adam Clare

Washington State University has started accepting students for their organic farming degree program. This is a first in the USA, sure two other universities offer courses in organic farming, Colorado State and Michigan State, but offering a degree is new.

“WSU has high hopes for its new organic-agriculture major, both to attract new students and meet a growing demand for experts in organic farming. In the new Organic Agriculture Systems major, students will study subjects like weed science and entomology, work on the organic farm and can specialize further in areas such as organic farm economics.

The major, announced last month, drew a handful of students immediately; a university study predicts the program eventually will have about 40 people enrolled at any one time.”

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