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Innovation / Education

Students for a Democratic Society was the largest – and arguably most successful – student activist organization in U.S. history.

What Was the Protest Group Students for a Democratic Society? Five Questions Answered

Todd Gitlin, former president of Students for a Democratic Society, shares his perspective on protest in the 60s and now

A slave fortress in Cape Coast, Ghana

A Digital Archive of Slave Voyages Details the Largest Forced Migration in History

An online database explores the nearly 36,000 slave voyages that occurred between 1514 and 1866

Trending Today

Latest National Report Card Shows Little Student Improvement in Music and Art

This is the third time that the National Center for Educational Statistics has assessed eight-graders in music and visual arts

Does Creativity Breed Inequality in Cities?

Richard Florida thinks so. In his new book, the urban theorist says sometimes the most innovative cities also have the worst social and economic disparity

Smart Startup

There’s No Snoozing in Class With This Chemistry App

Chem101 allows professors to push out exercises for students to do on their devices, increasing classroom engagement

Neuroscience is giving new meaning to the phrase "get on my wavelength."

New Research

Students’ Brains Sync Up When They’re in an Engaging Class, Neuroscience Shows

What does it really mean to get our brains on the same wavelength?

This map of London shows it around the time of John Gaunt's work.

People Have Been Using Big Data Since the 1600s

A humble hatmaker was among the first to compile data on how Londoners lived—and died

Linguist and cultural preservationist Daryl Baldwin was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016.

How to Resurrect a Lost Language

Piecing together the language of the Miami tribe, linguists Daryl Baldwin and David Costa are creating a new generation of speakers

What’s the Environmental Footprint of a T-Shirt?

In-depth life cycle analyses are teaching us more about the environmental costs of the things we wear

Developed by Komal Dadlani, Lab4U apps take advantage of a smartphone's built-in sensors.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This App Puts a Science Lab in Your Pocket

Lab4U turns smartphones and tablets into scientific tools

Former U.S. president Barack Obama goes book-shopping with his daughters in Washington, DC in 2015.

New Research

Liberals and Conservatives Read Totally Different Books About Science

The good news: Everyone likes dinosaurs

As students find income-share agreements appealing, the option could become more mainstream in higher education.

Smart Startup

This One-Year Alternative to College Promises to Land Students a Well-Paying Job, Debt-Free

Adam Braun is launching MissionU, a program that cuts to the chase and disrupts the higher education industry

One Writer Used Statistics to Reveal the Secrets of What Makes Great Writing

In his new book, data journalist Ben Blatt takes a by-the-numbers look at literary classics and finds some fascinating patterns

"Numbers are a human invention, and they’re not something we get automatically from nature," says Caleb Everett.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

How Humans Invented Numbers—And How Numbers Reshaped Our World

Anthropologist Caleb Everett explores the subject in his new book, Numbers and the Making Of Us

Lithodomos VR creates immersive virtual recreations of iconic ruins.

Virtual Travel

See the Ancient World Through Virtual Reality

An archaeological VR company wants to show you what ruins looked like before they were, well, ruins

Too sick to attend school in person, but perfectly able to participate with a robot’s help.

How Robots Could Help Chronically Ill Kids Attend School

Students with chronic illness often get only a few hours of education a week. Telepresence robots could let them participate fully

One of 50 rooms in the Colonial Revival mansion in Rochester, New York, where George Eastman lived for 27 years.

Visit the Homes of America’s Greatest Inventors

Within these walls, our nation’s most brilliant tinkerers once ate, slept and imagined

Smart Startup

Forget Substitute Teachers. “Parachute Teachers” May Be the Future.

When the teacher is out, why not have a local chef or engineer lead a lesson?

A Farm From a Box is capable of feeding 150 people.

Smart Startup

A San Francisco Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

Brandi DeCarli, cofounder of Farm From a Box, wants to deploy farm kits to governments, NGOs, schools and individuals

Dyslexia affects up to 17 percent of American schoolchildren. Researchers now believe it may be caused by difficulty in the brain rewiring itself.

New Research

Dyslexia May Be the Brain Struggling to Adapt

The learning disorder may be less a problem with language processing, and more a problem with the brain rewiring itself

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