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Innovation / Education

The Shoe That Grows can be adjusted in three places: the front, sides and back.

Finally, A Shoe That Grows With a Kid

The Idaho-based nonprofit Because International makes shoes that can grow up to five sizes and last at least five years

Using dirt containing bacteria that generate electricity, kids can build their own mud batteries.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Kit to Build Your Own Mud Battery and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Also, a campaign to build a Little Free Museum

Azar Nafisi is the recipient of the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Creativity Laureate in the Humanities and Public Service.

Azar Nafisi on Why the Arts and Humanities Are Critical to the American Vision

The author of “Reading Lolita in Tehran” and recipient of a Smithsonian award, discusses why in education art matters as much as science

Christopher Gray, one of the Scholly founders, pitches on Shark Tank.

Smart Startup

An App Matches Students with College Scholarships They Can Use

More than $100 million in scholarships go unclaimed every year. Scholly is connecting students with these and other funds

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Moon Landing in Virtual Reality, Bookniture and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Could a new material that uses static charge to stick to any surface spell doom for Post-it notes?

A student uses the Skill Champ app, which emphasizes visual learning.

Smart Startup

These Apps Help Kids With Autism Learn Basic Skills

Infiniteach, a Chicago startup, is building learning tools for the one in 68 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders today

A Prado visitor touches a 3-D printed replica of a contemporaneous copy of the "Mona Lisa."

Please Touch the Art: 3-D Printing Helps Visually Impaired Appreciate Paintings

The new “Touching the Prado” exhibit in Madrid showcases 3-D replicas of paintings, so blind visitors can feel key works of art

This robot, made of drinking straws, teaches kids how to hack.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Kit to Make Robots Out of Drinking Straws and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Perhaps a three-dimensional paper mount of an animal is just what your living room needs

(Clockwise from top left) Katrin Macmillan, Ashutosh Saxena, Richard Lunt and Horace Luke are hard at work on exciting new projects.

Eight Innovators to Watch in 2015

From food science and robotics to solar tech and sustainable architecture, these folks are poised to do big things

Kids in a small Nigerian village line up to learn at the Hello Hub.

How Do Kids Learn Where There Are No Teachers? It May Take a Village…Computer

A non-profit called Projects for All has a plan for educating children without schools: Turn them loose on outdoor computer kiosks in their community

Almost two-thirds of new teachers report that their training left them underprepared.

Round Table

How Do You Make a Great Teacher?

Push student teachers harder, stick with them once they’re in the classroom, and integrate them into their schools’ communities

Google's newest Street View collection takes users to Gombe Stream National Park, where Jane Goodall pioneered her chimpanzee behavioral research. "Don't forget to look up," a Google project manager says.

Exclusive: The Chimpanzees of Gombe National Park Make Their Street View Debut

For its latest collection, Google traveled to the African rainforest where Jane Goodall pioneered her groundbreaking chimp research

2014 Ingenuity Awards

The 2014 Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award Winners

These 10 innovators in science, history, society and the arts are a testament to the imagination and hard work that define the nation’s spirit

2014 Ingenuity Awards

Could This Be the Answer to the Tech World’s Diversity Problem?

Kimberly Bryant hopes to crack the code with her organization that teaches young girls of color how to program

2014 Ingenuity Awards

The Amazing Results When You Give a Prison Inmate a Liberal Arts Education

Prison reform activist Max Kenner champions the transformative power of a college degree for inmates nationwide

In Melissa Hill¹s class at Knight Enloe Elementary School in Roanoke, Alabama, kindergarteners were issued MIT-programmed tablets without any instructions.

Are Tablets the Way Out of Child Illiteracy?

Give them technology that they may have never seen before, and students’ brains will work wonders

An attendee at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo, in Los Angeles, California, tries out an Oculus VR headset kit.

Can’t Picture a World Devastated by Climate Change? These Games Will Do it for You

Augmented and virtual reality games may help crack the code of getting humans to do something about the environment

Willowsford is the first neighborhood to take Development Supported Agriculture mainstream.

Bringing the Farm to Your Backyard

Development Supported Agriculture is a growing trend in the housing world, and one subdivision is taking it mainstream

A new exhibition explores how failure relates to success.

Why It’s Time to Show Failure Some Respect

An Irish exhibition titled “Fail Better” argues that flubs make success possible

Personalized search keeps people from escaping their worldview bubble.

Have Scientists Found a Way to Pop the Filter Bubble?

They say the key to exposing us to opposing views is to get them from people with whom we share other interests

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