News by Subject Education

In a new study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, researchers Albert Kao (Harvard University), Andrew Berdahl (Santa Fe Institute), and their colleagues examined just how accurate our collective intelligence is and how individual bias and information sharing skew aggregate estimates. Using their findings, they developed a mathematical correction that takes into account bias and social information to generate an improved crowd estimate.

Brigham Young University life sciences professors have found that giving students access to their personal biological data has a profound impact on their learning experience. In a summary of their experiment, published in high-ranking scientific journal PLOS ONE, the researchers report students with access to data about their own microbiome -- the trillions of tiny microorganisms that live in a person's gut, mouth and skin -- are significantly more engaged and more interested in course material.

An online study with 168,000 people shows large variation in typing speeds and styles. The dataset is the largest ever on everyday typing and exposed several factors that differentiate fast vs. slow typists. In addition to making less errors, the researchers found that fastest typists rely on so-called 'rollover' where a letter key is typed already before the previous one is released. The data is published and free to use for research purposes.

A first-of-its-kind study by researchers at Arizona State University shows that in the college biology classroom, men perceive themselves as smarter, even when compared to women whose grades prove they are just as smart. The study, published April 4 in the journal Advances in Physiology Education, shows that gender greatly impacts students' perceptions of their own intelligence, particularly when they compare themselves to others.

A major hurricane struck the islands of Hawai'i and Maui on Aug. 9, 1871, and wrought widespread destruction from Hilo to Lahaina. A recent study by two scientists, a Hawaiian language expert, and an educator from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (UH Mānoa) revealed how historical Hawaiian-language newspapers expand knowledge of this and other natural disasters of the past.