Statistics is not everyone’s favorite subject, so StatPlanet can help with a range of nice visuals to aid your understanding of demographic, educational, health and socio-economic data. Their website says it is constantly being updated, and at the moment it features 2006 data UNESCO, The World Health Organization (WHO), and a range of other organizations.

There […]

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A Harvard-based study has found that children who study a musical instrument for at least three years outperform children with no instrumental training—not only in tests of auditory discrimination and finger dexterity (skills honed by the study of a musical instrument), but also on tests measuring verbal ability and visual pattern completion (skills not normally […]

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As you are no doubt aware, this Tuesday is Election Day in the United States, and, given the state of things in the world, one of the most important presidential elections in a long time. We on GeekDad encourage all U.S. citizens who are registered to vote to make sure to go to the polls […]

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It’s the most famous chord in rock ’n’ roll, an instantly recognizable twang rolling through the open strings on George Harrison’s 12-string Rickenbacker. It evokes a Pavlovian response from music fans as they sing along to the refrain that follows:

It’s been a hard day’s night
And I’ve been working like a dog
The opening chord to A Hard […]

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How well students and schools – from kindergarten through high school – succeed in mastering a curriculum that includes English Language Arts (ELA), mathematics, and the social and natural sciences, strongly influences how well the students fare in higher education.

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) used state assessment data reported for the school […]

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Those wide-eyed babies are taking in and using more information than previously believed. In fact, new research by psychologists at the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences indicates 12- and 18-month-old babies not only are observing what is going on around them but also are using their own visual self-experience to judge […]

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Schools are set for a Star Trek make-over thanks to the development of the world’s first interactive classroom by experts at Durham University.

Researchers at the Technology-Enhanced Learning Research Group (TEL) are designing new learning environments using interactive multi-touch desks that look and act like a large version of an Apple iPhone.
The team observed how students […]

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New research uses sophisticated perceptual masking, computational modeling, and neuroimaging to show that instrumental learning can occur in the human brain without conscious processing of contextual cues.
(Credit: iStockphoto/Kiyoshi Takahase Segundo)

Although the idea that instrumental learning can occur subconsciously has been around for nearly a century, it had not been unequivocally demonstrated. Now, a new […]

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