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See real-time data on a host of topics important to daily life around the world!! * world population (e.g., births this year, deaths today, net population growth for today) * government and economics (daily government spending by category; computers sold) * society and media (new book titles published, money spent on video games, Google searches) * environment (forest loss, carbon dioxide emissions, current average temperature) * food (tons of food produced; people who died of hunger) * water (water consumed, people with no access to safe drinking water) * energy (solar energy striking Earth; oil pumped; oil, gas, and coal left) * health (deaths caused by alcohol, suicides, road traffic accident fatalities) Worldometers' algorithm takes the latest statistical data available from the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and other institutions, and then processes them together with its estimated progression to compute figures current up to the millisecond. Available in dozens of languages, this site is part of the Real Time Statistics Project. Read more about that here: http://www.realtimestatistics.org/

"Mastery - an approach to teaching maths commonly used in East Asian countries - can significantly benefit children in UK schools, a University of Exeter academic has found. The independent research, conducted by the Oxford University Department of Education, is the first academic study to show this teaching method, now supported by the UK Government, can be effective."

Tim Gowers analyzes Elsevier Publishing's announcement to the mathematics community on reduced article charges and other concessions in light of recent university, funding body and government initiatives in support of more open scholarly publishing.

The deficit is a key consideration for all parties as the federal government brings down its budget. Use the chart to explore Canada's budgetary surplus and deficit history, including revenue and expenditure figures for every fiscal year from 1963-1964 to 2010-2011. Select a prime minister's name on the left-hand side to highlight figures from his time in office.

A collaboration among Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance & Education Next, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, and Harvard Kennedy School . "To see how well the U.S. as a whole, each state, and certain urban districts do at producing high-achieving math students, the percentage of U.S. public and private school students in the high-school graduating Class of 2009 who were highly accomplished in mathematics in each of the 50 states and in 10 urban districts is compared to the percentages of similarly high achievers in 56 other countries." High-achieving students in the U.S. were outperformed by high achievers from other countries.

"overview of the landscape of K-12 STEM education by considering different school models, highlighting research on effective STEM education practices, and identifying some conditions that promote and limit school- and student-level success in STEM. It can serve as a guide for those involved in K-12 education at all levels: policy makers; decision makers at the school and district levels; local, state, and federal government agencies; curriculum developers; educators; and parent and education advocacy groups." Findings, according to a Science magazine news story indicate that STEM teaching matters more than specialized STEM schools. Report does indicate steps to improve STEM education, involving investments in resources and teacher training, see :http://bit.ly/kRPyH3

Report from the National Academies. Summary: "The mathematical sciences are part of nearly all aspects of everyday life-the discipline has underpinned such beneficial modern capabilities as Internet search, medical imaging, computer animation, numerical weather predictions, and all types of digital communications. The Mathematical Sciences in 2025 examines the current state of the mathematical sciences and explores the changes needed for the discipline to be in a strong position and able to maximize its contribution to the nation in 2025. It finds the vitality of the discipline excellent and that it contributes in expanding ways to most areas of science and engineering, as well as to the nation as a whole, and recommends that training for future generations of mathematical scientists should be re-assessed in light of the increasingly cross-disciplinary nature of the mathematical sciences. In addition, because of the valuable interplay between ideas and people from all parts of the mathematical sciences, the report emphasizes that universities and the government need to continue to invest in the full spectrum of the mathematical sciences in order for the whole enterprise to continue to flourish long-term."

A description of mathematicians' and other scientists recent boycott of Elsevier publishing for its high prices and practices to hinder open distribution of scientific knowledge, as well as a comparison of scholarly mathematics journals pricing among major publishers, and introduction to an ongoing movement of mathematicians organized to fix a "broken" scholarly publishing system

Abstract "This article reports on a case study of the web-based educational maths application, Mathletics. The findings are drawn from an ethnographic study of children's technology use in Melbourne, Australia. We explore the experience, governance and commerce of children's Mathletics use, and offer insights into the developing possibilities and challenges emerging through the adoption of Web 2.0 applications for learning and education." (Full text requires subscription or purchase)

Survey of federal STEM education programs

Today, you're in charge of the nation's finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. Make your own plan, then share it online.

A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes-measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation-was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K-12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K-12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education). ix

A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. ***The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.*** The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes-measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation-was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K-12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K-12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education). ix

The goal of HippoCampus is to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge. Lots of free online courses

The goal of HippoCampus is to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge. Lots of free online courses some cross referenced to textbooks.