Private Tutor for Math & Science Success

OSLO — An American professor at the University of Texas, Austin, has won the 6 million kroner ($1 million) Abel Prize for mathematics.

The prize jury praises John Tate as “a prime architect” of number theory, a branch of mathematics that has played a key role in the development of modern computers.

The award citation issued Wednesday says Tate “has truly left a conspicuous imprint on modern mathematics” by advancing “one of (its) most elaborate and sophisticated branches.”

The annual Abel Prize was created by the Norwegian government in 2003 and is awarded to candidates who have contributed to the mathematical sciences. The winner is selected by an international committee of five mathematicians.

The prize will be given to Tate at a May 25 ceremony in Oslo.

KANSAS CITY, MO (kcur) – Galaxies, black holes and supernova: for most of us, they are the mysteries of our universe. For UMKC physics professor Daniel McIntosh, it’s his life’s work. He is part of a team of over 100 scientists, led by University of California scientist Sandra Faber, who will be using the newest and most advanced version of the Hubble Space Telescope to survey the heavens during a three year period.

The survey will actually look back in time by observing light and galaxies from billions of years ago. McIntosh is especially interested in how galaxies grew during the period when the universe was young, about 2 billion years ago. The first data from the studies is expected to be available by the end of the year.

Daniel McIntosh stopped by the studios to talk to KCUR’s Susan B. Wilson about his interest in the largest galaxy survey ever conducted using the Hubble telescope.

Science isn’t static: It grows and breathes and changes like a living thing. In fact, the best way to describe the state of science at any given time is to compare it to a tree. At the core of the tree is the unchanging heartwood, while at its periphery are the areas of growth and change.

Science is like that: At its core are ideas that have been tested over and over again, ideas that really aren’t going to change much in the future. Out at the periphery, though, things are different. There we have a constant state of flux: ideas being tested, sometimes succeeding, sometimes being abandoned, sometimes being rethought in a bewildering, shifting kaleidoscope. Read the rest of this entry »

Barbara Harris Whitfield has heard 22 scientific explanations for near-death experiences like the one she had in 1975. So far, she isn’t satisfied by any of them.

“Yes it was brain chemistry that might have fine tuned my ability to pick up this,” said Whitfield, 67, an author and therapist in private practice in Atlanta, Ga. “I think the brain is like the radio, and what [science is] explaining is the hardware of the radio, but what we can’t explain is the broadcast.”

Whitfield doubts science can ever completely explain her experiences when a ventilator malfunctioned as she recovered from spine surgery.

Yet scientists continue to search, and some are intrigued by a small study of cardiac arrest survivors that shows there may be a physical link between carbon dioxide in the blood and the likelihood that someone will wake up remembering floating above their body and moving towards a peaceful light.

SAN ANTONIO, Apr 12, 2010 — Winners Announced for 24th Annual Statewide Science Competition

–ExxonMobil is Title Sponsor for 10th Year, Contributing $75,000

–Hosted by the University of Texas at San Antonio and Texas Science Careers Consortium

Two hundred twenty students were awarded today with highest honors at the ExxonMobil Texas Science and Engineering Fair, a four-day competition that brings together top science fair winners from across the state. Best of Fair awards, presented to the top contestants in the junior and senior divisions, were presented to Carlos Rivero-Lopez of Sugar Land, Texas and Amy Chyao of Plano, Texas.

Students competed in two divisions — junior (grades six through eight) and senior (grades nine through 12) — in one of 19 categories at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. Selected from more than 1,100 entries, awards were given to first through fourth place winners in each category, and Grand Prize and Best in Fair projects in each division. Senior division Grand Prize winners received all-expense paid trips to compete at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair May 9–14 in San Jose, Calif. The top 10 percent of competitors in the junior division qualified to participate in the Discovery Channel Young Scientists Challenge. Read the rest of this entry »

American 17-year-olds aren’t performing any better in reading and math than their bell-bottom-clad counterparts in the early 1970s. That’s one conclusion from the latest round of a national test tracking long-term educational trends.

On the positive side, the test shows that younger students – 9- and 13-year-olds – are making significant gains. In addition, racial differences in scores have narrowed for all three age groups over the past 30-plus years.

But overall, the mixed results parallel other indicators of how challenging it is to raise academic achievement.

The flat-line trend for 17-year-olds should sound an alarm, say advocates of high school reform. “If high schools were cellphones, they’d be considered in a dead zone,” says Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington advocacy group. “We’ve got to finally start addressing high schools in the same way that we addressed elementary schools…. This is the jumping-off place for college or the modern workplace, and our kids unfortunately are performing at [1970s] levels.”

More than 26,000 students took the tests for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) – a project overseen by the research wing of the US Department of Education. The results were released Tuesday. As part of the NAEP project, reading scores have been tracked since 1971 and math since 1973.

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It is very disturbing that the critical need to invest in education to prepare our students for the challenges of the 21st-century economy, which was top of mind six months ago, has now been overshadowed by the current financial crisis. There is no doubt that local and state government incomes are impacted by this deep recession. However, in many ways, the change in our economy warrants even more attention to the importance of investment in our future through support for education.

Since the start of this new century, report after report has stressed the importance of enhancing education in the United States. Each report issues the call: Students must be prepared for the knowledge-based economy. Students must be equipped with the capacity to think creatively and problem solve, communicate effectively, work collaboratively and know how and where to get information to answer questions. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re the first-time parent of an incoming high school senior, take a deep breath, pull out the calendar and prepare now to budget: You’re in for an action-packed, expensive year.

And so is your graduating teen. Meeting this year’s numerous deadlines –especially for college-bound students –is the key to success andbest handled as a family, experts say.

“I think it’s absolutely important that parents stay involved,” says Glendale High School journalism teacher Lisa Wingo.

“It’s not that kids aren’t responsible,” she says. “But they are in a transitional time. … Straddling the line of finishing up high school and starting college can be fairly overwhelming. Having someone help them stay on top of things can save heartache at the end.”

That’s particularly true for scholarship or college applications, and ACT/SAT test dates.

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UBC Reports | Vol. 54 | No. 3 | Mar. 6, 2008

By Brian Lin

Lauren Weatherdon had never taken physics until last fall. She didn’t expect to like it either.

“The people I had spoken with didn’t enjoy first-year physics courses, and didn’t find the knowledge helpful in real life,” says the English-biology double major. “I was pleasantly surprised. I’m even considering switching from biology to physics.”

Weatherdon’s reaction is what a group of instructors and teaching assistants had hoped to achieve when they got together last summer to redesign PHYS 100, an introductory course offered by the Dept. of Physics.