Category Archives: Education

The Shakespeare Code: English Professor Confirms the Bard’s Hand in ‘The Spanish Tragedy’

AUSTIN, Texas — For centuries, scholars have been searching for answers to a literary mystery: Who wrote the five additional passages in Thomas Kyd’s “The Spanish Tragedy”?

Mounting arguments point to William Shakespeare, but English professor Douglas Bruster has recently found evidence confirming that the 325 additional lines are indeed the work of the Bard.

According to Bruster’s textual analysis, published in the July online issue of Notes and Queries, the proof lies in Shakespeare’s trademark misspellings and the bad handwriting behind them. (more…)

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‘Small World Initiative’: Engaging young students in critical research

Twenty-four faculty members from colleges and universities from around the country left the Yale campus on Aug. 1 with a new mission: to inspire their freshman and sophomore students to pursue scientific research, specifically by discovering new antibiotics from soil bacteria. 

In a week-long workshop called “The Small World Initiative” and held at Kline Biology Tower, the teachers developed the tools to engage their students in real-life research projects with such life-saving potential.  (more…)

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Microsoft introduces the 4Afrika Scholarship program

Part of the 4Afrika Initiative, the program will offer mentorship, training, university-level education and employment opportunities to aspiring African youth.

LAGOS, Nigeria — Aug. 12, 2013 — In recognition of International Youth Day, Microsoft Corp. Monday introduced the 4Afrika Scholarship program, as part of its 4Afrika Initiative, through which it will provide mentorship, leadership and technical training, certification, university-level education, and employment opportunities for promising African students. Mentorship will be provided by Microsoft employees from around the world, and employment opportunities will include internships and both part-time and full-time jobs within Microsoft, as well as with the company’s more than 10,000 partners across Africa.

Through the company’s 4Afrika Initiative and YouthSpark program, Microsoft has committed to helping millions of Africans get critical skills for entrepreneurship and employability. The 4Afrika Scholarship program is one way the company intends to meet that goal, by helping ensure that promising youth have access to the education, resources and skills they need to succeed, regardless of their financial situations. To help redress gender disparity in higher education in Africa, the company is actively encouraging young women to apply. (more…)

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Two decades of work at Yale prove emotions matter in the classroom

In August, leaders from more than 50 schools from around the country will gather at Yale to hear a simple but profound message — emotions matter in the classroom.

The training session will be the largest ever held by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, which has built a sophisticated, science-based program that is anchored in the seminal work of now Yale University President Peter Salovey and fellow psychologist John D. Mayer. Less than a quarter century after publication of their paper, “Emotional Intelligence,” 75,000 educators in more than 500 schools in 30-plus states and countries including England, Spain, Italy, and Australia have learned about the key role of emotions in learning and behavior through a program called RULER. (more…)

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Ten years in the making

UD alumna Windle sets off on professional journey with feed company

After a decade at the University of Delaware, Michelle Windle is beginning her professional career with Vita Plus, a premier agricultural feed company located in Madison, Wis. And to think that it all began with her knocking on the doors of professors in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences during her junior year as an undergraduate looking for a job. 

As fate would have it, Windle ended up knocking on the door of Limin Kung Jr., the S. Hallock du Pont Professor of Animal and Food Sciences, and he offered her some hours in his laboratory. “To tell you the truth, at the time I had bright red dreadlocks. I don’t know what he saw in me, but I’m glad that he did,” said Windle.  (more…)

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Mini golf as art

Students in U of M assistant professor Chris Larson’s sculpture course, “Site, Environment, Community,” probably weren’t expecting mathematics and power tools to play such an important role in their creation of art.

But then, it’s not every class that gets to design and build two holes of mini golf for a world-renowned museum like The Walker Art Center.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Walker’s outdoor sculpture garden, and the 6th year the museum has hosted its summer treat, the 15-hole Artist-Designed Mini Golf course. (more…)

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SMART scholar

Oceanography graduate student lands scholarship supporting wetland research

Growing up along Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Brandon Boyd spent a lot of time hunting for waterfowl and fishing for speckled trout in marshes and swamps. There, wetlands are a way of life.

“Ever since I was in high school, I knew I really wanted to do something to help protect wetlands,” said Boyd, a graduate student in oceanography in the School of Marine Science and Policy within the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment(more…)

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‘Life as Research Scientist’: Angel Byrd, Cell Biologist

For years, Brown University M.D./Ph.D. student Angel Byrd had dedicated herself to studying how immune system cells capture invading fungal pathogens. Like those cells, called neutrophils, she had seized on seemingly every opportunity that had come her way. (more…)

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