Education Science News

LAWRENCE — The Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation Center has become the Life Span Institute’s 14th affiliated center. SWIFT, a national K-8 technical assistance center, was funded with a $24 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 2012 to implement a KU research-based approach to inclusion that realigns educational resources to support all students, including those with disabilities. The grant was the second highest in KU’s history to date.

LAWRENCE — Online education is growing rapidly, reaching millions of students every day. However, a Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities at the University of Kansas study has found the majority of online educational products are not designed to meet the needs of students with disabilities and struggling learners.

If you want to sharpen your decision-making ability, argumentation skills and learn about science—all while playing a video game—then Reason Racer is for you. Reason Racer (reasonracer.com) is an online, multiplayer competitive game that engages middle school students in understanding scientific argumentation, the kind of higher- level thinking that is key to scientific literacy, according to Jan Bulgren, who developed the Evidence Games project with Marilyn Ault, James D.

Adults often bemoan the amount of time young people spend staring at a screen and browsing social media. But social media can not only be a way to teach students elements of the scientific process, those who took part in a program to learn scientific argumentation through social media learned the components of argumentation better than their peers who did not, a University of Kansas study has found.

The Research Collaboration Lab at the Center for Research on Learning is working with the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) to evaluate and recommend improvements for professional development aimed at public school teachers and administrators.