schools

We've found the perfect coffee table for that home recording studio you're putting together. Or maybe the perfect display space for that collection of obsolete technology you're so proud of.

Yes indeed, it's the "Mixtape Table," from Jeff Skierka Designs, a 12:1 scaled replica of that cassette mix tape you gave your main squeeze back in high school to profess your love. … Read more

Why do many students struggle in math when they enter middle school?

SRI researcher Phil Vahey has been studying just that. He's found that by using visualization techniques and storytelling to translate complex math problems into the real world, kids can perform better.

SmartPlanet visits the research organization and gets a tutorial on a more visual approach to learning math.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "How SRI aims to improve middle school math skills."

Related SmartPlanet links

When it comes to heart attack rates, Scotland appears very high in the charts.

However, sometimes it takes awhile for a nation's diet to begin to counter its habits.

At one Scottish school, indeed, it took a 9-year-old girl to write a blog describing, among other things, how some dishes at her school occasionally included hair.

Martha Payne's blog, Never Seconds, is a litany of well, solicitude.

For each school meal, she offers a Food-o-meter rating (how much she likes it), a mouthful count, a healthy rating and a number for how many pieces of hair were in … Read more

It's just about time for Microsoft to launch its expected Windows 8 upgrade program.

For the past several years, in order to keep PC sales from falling off a cliff in the months shortly before Microsoft and partners are poised to roll out new models running a new version of Windows, Microsoft has offered an upgrade program. Via these programs, customers who buy PCs running the current version of Windows (in this case, Windows 7) get "coupons" allowing them to get a free version of the next OS release (Windows 8) once it is generally available.

School principals seem to be struggling with their Facebook principles.

Only last week, a British school principal threatened to report parents of underage Facebookers to child protective services.

And now a story emerges from Missouri of a high school head who is accused of creating a fake Facebook profile in order "friend" her students.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the profile in question -- of a girl called "Suzy Harriston" -- is now gone. However, so is Clayton High School Principal Louise Losos.

The Post-Dispatch says that a former school quarterback accused Losos publicly of … Read more

SEEFELD, Austria--At the Audi Winter Driving Experience, the first thing I need to do when I slide into the driver's seat is forget everything I've ever learned about driving in the snow.

I'm not at your typical winter-driving school where you learn how to stop slides. Not here. Opposite lock in an $80,000 luxury sedan while kicking up plumes of snow is taught and encouraged. Oversteer and understeer -- the moves that usually send you careening into a snowbank -- are met with an approving nod, a round of applause from my classmates, and the occasional … Read more

NYU's advanced audio production course is offered to both master's and undergraduate students. They work in 10 recording and computer music studios, listening rooms, and research labs where more than 40 music technology courses are taught.

The night I attended the class, the students were preparing to record a large jazz band, with horns, piano, keyboards, electric guitar, bass, and drums. One of the students, Charles DeChants, currently works in a studio in Brooklyn; he hopes to eventually make records for a living. "That's the dream, and that's why I came out here, so I … Read more

Schools are using technology in the classroom at an increasingly rapid rate. Now, the next frontier for tots might be social networking.

A kindergarten teacher at a New York City public school has begun experimenting with using Twitter as a teaching and learning platform, according to The New York Times.

"We added more days in school stickers. We didn't have any lame reflections. We had snack outside. Ask us about time," read a recent 116-character tweet from the kindergarteners, The New York Times reports.

This class's teacher, Jennifer Aaron, says that Twitter helps students think about … Read more

Have the world's schools caught up with this social-networking thing? Or even with this Web thing? Or even with this being a teenager thing?

These thoughts cross one's temple on hearing the news that a high school in the Philippines is withholding the diplomas of six boys -- ages 16 and 17 -- who allegedly posted pictures on Facebook that appeared to show them, well, snogging one another, as they say in some European parts.

According to the Inquirer, the boys may not have realized that everyone could see these photos. And, yes, scandal appears to have ensued … Read more