If you want to know why math and excel are important, read this article. A major study which had influenced countries to slash debt in order to grow has been found to have serious flaws. A grad student found the math error and finally convinced his professors after a month of back and forth that he was right. Economics profs everywhere are discussing this one. As I share with my students the importance of math and spreadsheets, this is one of those I’ll be discussing. And yes, high schools CAN understand this. I think this also begs to ask why all research studies should include their data sets and spreadsheets to be transparent and verifiable.

The New York Times has some options to allow students to participate and learn from the US Presidential debates. If you’re teaching and you are wanting to use this as a topic, this is a great lesson plan.

Another reason to make YouTube available. Richard Bryne from Free Tech for Teachers shares about the new YouTube channel that will cover the US presidential election. Bookmark and share, especially if you have a current events class.

Spending over a quarter of a million dollars on kitchen and pool renovations (as done at San Diego University for President Elliot Hirshman’s home) is just in poor taste. Think twice and behave wisely if you’re in higher ed. You’ve got competition online and in the state house for your precious dollars so spend them well.

We are interdependent on this planet.This is no surprise that they are finding that the pollution in China and India are affecting the climate elsewhere - like here in the US. When I went to Beijing last year, I came home and my hair started falling out. I wasn’t sure if it was related but I did find the correlation suspicious.

We’ve seen this for years - we would outlaw chemicals that my Dad could use on his US based farm only for grocery stores to start buying produce and crops grown in other countries with that very same chemical used on the crops. This inconsistency not only hurts the US economy but in the long run hurts the world. We need to be responsible stewards of our planet.

New York State has stuck 29 more test questions because of “translation errors” which Pearson says is due to proofreading. All eyes are on Pearson as many question the tests meant to measure perfection but don’t measure up themselves.