Winifred Kehl

Looking for a science education resolution for the new year? Try nature journaling! You don't have to be an artist or a biologist to keep your own nature journal. All you need is paper, pen or pencil, and a willingness to find and observe nature.

What does magic have to do with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math? Everything! Magic tricks aren't fooling the laws of nature, they're only fooling our brains. Best of all, they can incorporate everything from surprising chemical reactions, mathematical patterns, and counter-intuitive physics to "gimmicked" magician's props and the psychology of misdirection.

Children are not blank slates. From the moment they're born, they observe and try to make sense of the world. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that children develop ideas about math and numbers even before they are formally taught. What might surprise some elementary school teachers is that their students may be ready for multidigit numbers sooner than previously thought.

A recent study found that even brief use of an educational app called SolarWalk (for Apple devices) improved students' understanding of the solar system.

How do you encourage kids to be curious, to build things and take things apart, and to become the designers and engineers of the future? Be supportive! MAKE has a great short video about children as makers by engineering professor and maker mom AnneMarie Thomas.

As an educator, have you ever felt overwhelmed by the plethora of educational resources and techniques available - on top of and including state and national standards? If so, this news will either make you cry or jump for joy. Perhaps both. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon and Temple University have found that there are "more than 205 trillion instructional options available" for educators to choose from.

When it comes to learning things, why should people choose museums over the internet? Most museums' answers have centered around the idea of authenticity: museums provide access to real things.