Since 1995, soil-ecological field courses across climatic zones in West Siberia have been organized by scientists from Russia and Germany to meet growing demands for better land use practices. They are focused on virgin landscapes and soils undisturbed by anthropogenic influences to facilitate the learning processes by excluding concealing changes…

The election of Mayor Bill de Blasio in November 2013 was a historic moment for proponents of student-centered, equity-driven public education. During the campaign, de Blasio ran on an agenda of ending New York City's "Tale of Two Cities" and elevated a comprehensive vision for improving the city's more than 1,800 public…

New York City's new mayor, Bill de Blasio, represents a dramatic shift from his predecessor Michael Bloomberg in the area of education. Bloomberg was a national trendsetter on market reforms focused on privatization, testing, and competition. De Blasio was elected on an agenda of classroom investments, student supports, parent and community…

A change in political leadership typically signals a growth in organizing campaigns to find and endorse the candidate with ideas most similar to their own. However, what if instead of focusing on finding the best candidate, organizing groups decided to focus on the conversation? How would you then use an election to engage the members of the…

During the 2013 New York City mayoral race, the coalition A+ NYC--made up of community organizers, social service and advocacy groups, and other citywide and statewide groups--set out to ground the education conversation in research and proven practices. In a campaign called PS 2013, A+ NYC brought together education experts and practitioners as…

For nearly a decade, New York City education groups organizing to improve education under Bloomberg could regularly be found protesting on the steps of City Hall. Before the 2013 mayoral race, a typical education protest would--at its best--earn media coverage from a couple of outlets. The fact that parents, students, and teachers rally for more…

In this first 2014 issue of "Voices in Urban Education," Oona Chatterjee, the Annenberg Institute's associate director for New York City organizing, interviews Pedro Noguera, the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University, a noted researcher and national commentator on topics such as urban school reform, conditions…

For over a decade, students and parents in New York City have organized in coalitions across boroughs to fight for an equitable, just school system for all public school students. In a time when the Department of Education (DOE) centralized all power in the hands of one mayor and one schools chancellor, the Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC) and the…

In May 2013, this author moderated the first mayoral debate in New York City. It was held at New York University with hundreds of parents, students, and teachers in attendance. There were more than sixty media outlets, including MSNBC. The debate had attracted national press, thanks to Anthony Weiner's entry the day before into the New York…

The education of doctoral chemists contributes to the chemical research enterprise and thus to innovation as an engine of the economy. This quantitative analysis describes trends in the production and diversity of chemistry Ph.D. degrees in the top-50 U.S. Ph.D.-granting departments in the past two decades. Time series data for individual…

Research shows that women are entering the field of physics at a faster rate than the field of chemistry through bachelor's and doctoral degrees. However, STEM studies primarily compare women to men or examine them as a single entity. Therefore, a paucity of research exists that examines what may differentiate women in certain critical and…

Microcomputer based laboratory activities have been suggested to have a number of benefits in science education. However, their implementation produces mixed results, and student perception data have in the past yielded responses that are negative regarding the technology. This work presents a case study of three first year undergraduate chemistry…

We examined the use of problem solving videos (PSVs) as a substitute for general chemistry exam review sessions. We investigated student perceptions of course aspects regarding usefulness for supporting their learning of chemistry content. We also examined "how" students used the PSVs to further their learning. Students ranked the PSVs…

Connect for organic chemistry is an online learning tool that gives students the opportunity to learn about all aspects of organic chemistry through the ease of the digital world. This research project consisted of two fundamental questions. The first was to discover whether there was a difference in undergraduate organic chemistry content…

The impact of touch-screen technology on spatial cognitive skills as related to molecular geometries was assessed through 102 one-on-one interviews with undergraduate students. Participants were provided with either printed 2D ball-and-stick images of molecules or manipulable projections of 3D molecular structures on an iPad. Following a brief…