Education
Great minds lead to great solutions. Our education section features solutions and innovations directed at strengthening educational systems around the world.
Wild solutions: Bruce the parrot makes his own prosthetic beak
Bruce, a nine-year-old disabled parrot from New Zealand, has designed and uses his own prosthetic beak to the delight and surprise of wildlife researchers. When wildlife researchers found Bruce, he was only a baby and was already missing his upper beak, which was likely caught in a trap made for Read More...
New fabulous fly species named after "Drag Race" host RuPaul
Australian scientist Bryan Lessard, otherwise known as “Bry the Fly Guy,” has discovered a new flashy rainbow fly species and named it after RuPaul, the famous “Drag Race” host, with the hope that it would serve as a positive signal for young LGBTQ individuals who are drawn to Read More...
Emory University School of Medicine now includes climate risk in curriculum
Climate change exacerbates the risk of many health conditions including heatstroke, asthma, lung disease, and more, but despite this, most medical school curriculums do not discuss climate change when studying potential disease risk factors. In an effort to address this issue and support Read More...
Thailand’s idle taxis find an unusual new purpose during the pandemic
We’ve written a lot about the power of rooftop gardens to boost access to fresh produce in urban areas. Today we’re sharing a story about rooftop gardens, but not the type you might expect. Taxi fleets in Thailand have repurposed the tops of vehicles idled by the pandemic into mini urban garden Read More...
New York is removing policing from city schools
In the wake of racial justice protests last summer, many schools are rethinking the relationship between educational spaces and policing. Following the removal of armed police officers from 33 school districts around the country, New York City’s school system will follow suit and begin to remove Read More...
Hispanic Heritage Month: A brief history and why it begins mid-month
National Hispanic Heritage Month started last week and will run through October 15. Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates members of our communities and their ancestors from Mexico, parts of the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Spain, and it begins in the middle of September, rather than the Read More...
Evangelical Lutheran church installs first openly transgender bishop
The Evangelical Lutheran church accepted seven LGBTQ pastors in 2010 after the ordination of pastors in same-sex relationships was allowed. Now, Rev. Megan Rohrer, one of these seven, has been installed as the first openly transgender bishop during a service at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco last Read More...
Study sheds new light on the effect of screens on kids’ health and wellbeing
These days it can feel like everything we do involves screens. Work, school, and even booking a doctor’s appointment is done online, but many of us, especially those with young children, worry about the effects of extensive screen time on developing brains. A new study from the University of Read More...
India adopts new holistic approach to address homelessness
Governments often address the problem of homelessness with band-aid solutions like placing the unsheltered in shelters, only to have them back on the streets after a short while. However, a newly developed project in Rajasthan, India, is striving to change these temporary fixes with a more holistic Read More...
San Francisco schools successfully reopen for all students
The continued latest Covid-19 surge has made for a rocky and uncertain back-to-school season, but the San Francisco Department of Public Health is celebrating the first weeks of school with no Covid-19 outbreaks since students returned to classrooms on August 16. An outbreak is defined by the Read More...