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Escape to Solvang for a Fairytale European Christmas

Nestled in California’s idyllic Santa Ynez Valley, the village of Solvang provides a passport-free holiday getaway reminiscent of a quaint European town. With its Danish-inspired architecture, abundant wineries and postcard-worthy scenery, Solvang charms visitors year-round. But it particularly shines during the festive season, when dazzling decorations, family-friendly events and lively markets capture the spirit of a Scandinavian Christmas. The temperate climate makes strolling the pedestrian-friendly downtown a pleasure, allowing you to admire the historic half-timbered buildings draped in lights. Visitors can snap photos of Solvang’s iconic windmills and nosh on open-faced smørrebrød sandwiches at the outdoor cafes. And there’s certainly

October 26, 2023

Escape to Solvang for a Fairytale European Christmas

Local|WrittenByLAPost

LA's Unlikely Wildlife Ambassador - The legacy of P-22

Los Angeles’ celebrity mountain lion P-22 inspired the creation of the world’s largest wildlife overpass LOS ANGELES – The story sounds like a Disney movie plot: A mountain lion trapped by LA freeways and unable to find a mate becomes locally famous and inspires the construction of the world’s largest wildlife overpass. But for P-22, the legendary LA cougar, it was reality. The $100 million Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, currently under construction, will span eight lanes of Highway 101 in Agoura Hills when completed in 2025. The goal is to provide a safe passage for mountain lions and other animals

October 12, 2023

LA's Unlikely Wildlife Ambassador - The legacy of P-22

Entertainment|WrittenByLAPost

NFL Makes History: Toy Story Universe Hosts First Fully Animated Game

Taking place exclusively in Pixar’s Toy Story world, the National Football League (NFL) will introduce a revolutionary breakthrough that will reshape the world of live sports entertainment.The Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons will face each other in Andy’s Room in a match unlike any other in football history. This innovative project is planned to debut at the same time on the Disney+ and ESPN+ platforms, representing a significant milestone in the history of live sports broadcasts. Scheduled for kickoff on October 1 at 9:30 AM ET, “Toy Story Funday Football” will be part of the NFL’s international games series, with

September 15, 2023

NFL Makes History: Toy Story Universe Hosts First Fully Animated Game

Education

The untold story of how Howard University came to be known as 'The Mecca'

Howard University students assemble for a graduation ceremony in 2016. Jose Luis Magana for the Associated Press If you ask just about anyone at Howard University what’s the other name for their school, they will readily tell you: “The Mecca.” The name has been extolled by former students, such as acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates, who wrote in his 2015 book “Between the World and Me” that his “only Mecca was, is, and shall always be Howard University.” But ask anyone in the Howard community how and when the school came to be known as The Mecca – a question I’ve

September 06, 2023

The untold story of how Howard University came to be known as 'The Mecca'

Education

3 Reasons Why Graphic Novels Are the Ultimate Tool for Teaching Math and Physics

Graphic novels can help make math and physics more accessible for students, parents or teachers in training. Metamorworks/iStock via Getty Images Post-pandemic, some educators are trying to reengage students with technology – like videos, computer gaming or artificial intelligence, just to name a few. But integrating these approaches in the classroom can be an uphill battle. Teachers using these tools often struggle to retain students’ attention, competing with the latest social media phenomenon, and can feel limited by using short video clips to get concepts across. Graphic novels – offering visual information married with text – provide a means to

August 17, 2023

3 Reasons Why Graphic Novels Are the Ultimate Tool for Teaching Math and Physics

Education

Should AI be permitted in college classrooms? 4 scholars weigh in

Does AI enhance or cripple a person’s analytical skills? Yevhen Lahunov/iStock via Getty Images Plus One of the most intense discussions taking place among university faculty is whether to permit students to use artificial intelligence in the classroom. To gain perspective on the matter, The Conversation reached out to four scholars for their take on AI as a learning tool and the reasons why they will or won’t be making it a part of their classes. Nicholas Tampio, professor of political science: Learn to think for yourself As a professor, I believe the purpose of a college class is to

September 04, 2023

Should AI be permitted in college classrooms? 4 scholars weigh in

Education

Trans students benefit from gender-inclusive classrooms, research shows – and so do the other students and science itself

Teaching sex and gender more accurately can counter gender stereotypes and encourage all students to study STEM. Iurii Krasilnikov/iStock via Getty Images Plus Across the U.S., legislators are debating how and when sex and gender should be discussed in the classroom and beyond. Specifically, these bills are considering whether anything beyond male or female can be included in library books and lesson plans. These bills are part of a larger debate on how to define and regulate sex and gender, and there are no immediate answers that satisfy everyone. Many of the bills draw on science to make claims about

August 31, 2023

Trans students benefit from gender-inclusive classrooms, research shows – and so do the other students and science itself

Education

Year-round school: Difference-maker or waste of time?

Not much evidence shows that modified school calendars lead to better academic performance. Johner Images via Getty Images Contrary to how it sounds, “year-round” school usually doesn’t mean students going to school throughout the year – or for more days than other students. Often it just means switching up the calendar so that there’s not such a long summer break. Below, two education experts – Nicole Miller and Daniel H. Robinson – answer five questions about the modified school calendars known as year-round school. What kinds of year-round schools exist? The first is the “single-track” modified calendar, also known as

August 30, 2023

Year-round school: Difference-maker or waste of time?

Education

This course examines the dark realities behind your favorite children's stories

Some fairy tales aren’t so innocent. danez/iStock / via Getty Images Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: “Children’s Literature” What prompted the idea for the course? The idea came from a book I bought at a used book sale. It was Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” but it wasn’t the version I expected. While reading the book to my children in 2017, I discovered that in the copy of the book I had bought, Willy Wonka describes the Oompa-Loompa characters – the subservient chocolate makers in

August 29, 2023

This course examines the dark realities behind your favorite children's stories

Education

How educational research could play a greater role in K-12 school improvement

Billions of dollars are being spent on education research. Is it working? Fly View Productions/E+ via Getty Images For the past 20 years, I have taught research methods in education to students here in the U.S. and in other countries. While the purpose of the course is to show students how to do effective research, the ultimate goal of the research is to get better academic results for the nation’s K-12 students and schools. Vast resources are already being spent on this goal. Between 2019 and 2022, the Institute of Educational Sciences, the research and evaluation arm of the U.S.

August 25, 2023

Education

Canines go to college in this class that seeks to give shelter dogs a fresh start

Shelter animals often display problematic behaviors. Can they be retrained? Shlomit Flaisher-Grinberg Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: “Canine Learning and Behavior” What prompted the idea for the course? When I was growing up, my love for animals led me to volunteer at animal shelters. But it wasn’t until I started teaching psychology that I found another way to support the well-being of shelter animals. During my first year of teaching a psychology course about learning, I realized that the course’s content could be used to train shelter

August 24, 2023

Canines go to college in this class that seeks to give shelter dogs a fresh start

Education

Campus sexual assault prevention programs could do more to prevent violence, even after a decade-long federal mandate

Meghan Downey of Chatham protests as U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announces federal policy changes in rules for investigating sexual assault reports on college campuses. . Lawler Duggan/For The Washington Post via Getty Images Ten years after a federal law required colleges and universities to offer sexual assault prevention programming to students, only about half of them are doing it. Without a national database containing standardized measures of campus sexual assault over time, it is difficult to determine whether campus sexual assault has decreased since this prevention programming requirement went into effect. One review of campus climate surveys, designed to

August 24, 2023

Campus sexual assault prevention programs could do more to prevent violence, even after a decade-long federal mandate

Education

How a hip-hop mindset can help teachers in a time of turmoil

Confidence is a critical component of hip-hop culture. Manu Vega via Getty Images While hip-hop has created a lot of good memories, good music and good times, the culture has gifted society much more than just entertainment. As a researcher who specializes in hip-hop culture, I know that one of hip-hop’s greatest gifts is a certain mindset that focuses on freedom of thought, flexibility and truth-telling. It also includes creativity, authenticity, confidence, braggadocio, uninhibited voice and integrity as those things relate to one’s community and culture. In order for educators to overcome the challenges of what politicians are turning into

August 23, 2023

How a hip-hop mindset can help teachers in a time of turmoil

Education

Potentially faulty data spotted in surveys of drug use and other behaviors among LGBQ youth

A new study found that youth were providing extreme or untruthful responses to CDC surveys on LGBQ student health. FG Trade/E+ via Getty Images Federal data on LGBQ student health contain a significant amount of potentially exaggerated or untruthful responses, raising questions about how they might skew people’s understanding of risky behavior among teens. These inaccuracies affect some responses more than others. That’s according to an analysis my colleagues and I did of high school surveys administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, better known as the CDC. Without accounting for this invalid data, the CDC results suggest

August 17, 2023

Potentially faulty data spotted in surveys of drug use and other behaviors among LGBQ youth

Education

New Study Shows Children with ADHD May Experience Fewer Interruptions If They Receive Daily Report Cards

Students with ADHD who get a daily report card had 4.5 fewer rule violations per 30-minute class than those without one, one study found. Hispanolistic/E+ Collection/Getty Images As another school year approaches, some caregivers, students and teachers may be feeling something new needs to happen to promote success in the classroom. Daily report cards can be a great starting point. As a clinical psychologist who studies how schools can help students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, I know traditional report cards distributed three or four times per year don’t do enough to make a difference for children who are prone to outbursts

August 15, 2023

New Study Shows Children with ADHD May Experience Fewer Interruptions If They Receive Daily Report Cards

Education

Discrimination took a heavy toll on Asian American students during the pandemic

One study has found that only 20% of Asian college students diagnosed with a mental health disorder receive treatment. Ishii Koji/DigitalVision via Getty Images The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Experiencing discrimination significantly harmed the well-being of Asian and Asian American college students in the U.S. during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s the key finding of our study, which compared over 6,000 survey responses from Asian and Asian American students who took the National College Health Assessment – an annual survey of student health behaviors – in the fall

August 14, 2023

Discrimination took a heavy toll on Asian American students during the pandemic

Education

Florida's academic standards distort the contributions that enslaved Africans made to American society

Enslaved Africans built landmarks like the White House, the U.S. Capitol and New York’s Wall Street. Bettmann via Getty Images The state of Florida ignited a controversy when it released a set of 2023 academic standards that require fifth graders to be taught that enslaved Black people in the U.S. “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their benefit.” As a researcher specializing in the history of race and racism in the U.S., I – like a growing chorus of critics – see that education standard as flawed and misleading. Whereas Florida would have students believe that

August 14, 2023

Florida's academic standards distort the contributions that enslaved Africans made to American society

Education

Building relationships is key for first-year college students – here are 5 easy ways to meet new friends and mentors

Research shows that campus employment and relationships with peers help college students succeed. Ariel Skelley/DigitalVision via Getty Images What’s the best advice you can give to a new college student? Connections are everything. Research for decades has shown that the relationships students cultivate in college – with professors, staff and fellow students – are key to success. Simply put, human connections matter for learning and well-being in college – they also set students up for professional and personal fulfillment after they graduate. College students confirmed the importance of connections when we interviewed more than 250 students at three dozen colleges

August 11, 2023

Building relationships is key for first-year college students – here are 5 easy ways to meet new friends and mentors

Education

Heritage algorithms combine the rigors of science with the infinite possibilities of art and design

Artist AbdulAlim U-K (Aikin Karr) combines the fractal structure of traditional African architecture with emerging technologies in computer graphics. AbdulAlim U-K, CC BY-ND The model of democracy in the 1920s is sometimes called “the melting pot” – the dissolution of different cultures into an American soup. An update for the 2020s might be “open source,” where cultural mixing, sharing and collaborating can build bridges between people rather than create divides. Our research on heritage algorithms aims to build such a bridge. We develop digital tools to teach students about the complex mathematical sequences and patterns present in different cultures’ artistic,

August 10, 2023

Heritage algorithms combine the rigors of science with the infinite possibilities of art and design

Education

Despite giving students chances to cheat, unsupervised online exams gauge student learning comparably to in-person exams

Research shows that unsupervised online exams can accurately assess student learning. Geber86/iStock via Getty Images The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Students don’t have to be supervised during online exams. That’s because unsupervised online exams can accurately assess student learning, according to our study published in July 2023 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Our data set comprised nearly 2,000 students from a public university in the Midwest. We analyzed exam scores from the first half of the spring semester of 2020, when tests were administered in person, and

August 09, 2023

Despite giving students chances to cheat, unsupervised online exams gauge student learning comparably to in-person exams

Education

Rhyme and reason – why a university professor uses poetry to teach math

Math problems take on new meaning in this class that combines rhymes and verse with math instruction. ra2studio via Getty Images Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: The Ways Math and Poetry Can Open Your Eyes to the World What prompted the idea for the course? I have always enjoyed writing poetry. As a high school mathematics teacher, I recall telling my students that everything is and can be connected to math, even creative writing. Then, as a graduate student, I read about people using “I am” poem

August 08, 2023

Rhyme and reason – why a university professor uses poetry to teach math

Education

College students with loans more likely to report bad health and skip medicine and care, study finds

A new study found that those with student loans are more likely to delay medical, dental and mental health care. PeopleImages/iStock via Getty Images The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Students who took out loans to pay for college rated their overall health and mental health as being worse than those who didn’t take out student loans. They also reported more major medical problems and were more likely to report delaying medical, dental and mental health care and using less medication than the amount prescribed to save money. We reported these findings

August 04, 2023

College students with loans more likely to report bad health and skip medicine and care, study finds

Education

'Knowledge of self': How a key phrase from Islam became a pillar of hip-hop

The popular phrase ‘knowledge of self’ — invoked by numerous rappers who adhere to Islam — is nearly a millennium old. Paul Hawthorne for Getty Images I was 9 years old when Eric B. and Rakim’s “Paid in Full” dropped. I have vivid memories of the bass-laden track booming out of car stereos and hearing it on Black radio, like Kiss FM’s top eight at 8 p.m. countdown. On the track “Move the Crowd,” Rakim – also known as “the God MC” – rhymes “All praise is due to Allah and that’s a blessing.” Growing up as a Black Muslim

August 04, 2023

'Knowledge of self': How a key phrase from Islam became a pillar of hip-hop

Education

Ending affirmative action does nothing to end discrimination against Asian Americans

Participants at Harvard marching at a rally protesting the Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action on July 1, 2023. Ziyu Julian Zhu/Xinhua via Getty Images In two cases challenging the use of race in college admissions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the educational benefit of racial diversity is no longer what it once called a “compelling interest.” These decisions effectively end race-conscious college admissions. In my view, as a legal scholar of implicit bias and critical race studies, they do not end discrimination against Asian Americans, which was the advertised goal of the lawsuits. The cases against Harvard and

August 03, 2023

Ending affirmative action does nothing to end discrimination against Asian Americans

Education

I've taught in prisons for 15 years – here's what schools need to know as government funding expands

In the U.S., almost 2 million people are in prison. Rizky Panuntun/Moment via Getty Images In spring of 2023, I taught a class on memoir at the California Institution for Women, a medium-security facility, in Chino. The course focused on autobiographical writing. Each week, students were asked to draft narratives focused on their life story and its larger social context. In addition to writers-in-custody at the prison, the class enrolled University of Southern California students. Every week, my colleague and I drove 12 USC undergraduates out to the prison to join their incarcerated peers in class. Both populations received college

July 27, 2023

Latest From The Los Angeles Post

Escape to Solvang for a Fairytale European Christmas

LA's Unlikely Wildlife Ambassador - The legacy of P-22

NFL Makes History: Toy Story Universe Hosts First Fully Animated Game

The untold story of how Howard University came to be known as 'The Mecca'

3 Reasons Why Graphic Novels Are the Ultimate Tool for Teaching Math and Physics

Should AI be permitted in college classrooms? 4 scholars weigh in

Trans students benefit from gender-inclusive classrooms, research shows – and so do the other students and science itself

Year-round school: Difference-maker or waste of time?

This course examines the dark realities behind your favorite children's stories

How educational research could play a greater role in K-12 school improvement

Canines go to college in this class that seeks to give shelter dogs a fresh start

Campus sexual assault prevention programs could do more to prevent violence, even after a decade-long federal mandate

How a hip-hop mindset can help teachers in a time of turmoil

Potentially faulty data spotted in surveys of drug use and other behaviors among LGBQ youth

New Study Shows Children with ADHD May Experience Fewer Interruptions If They Receive Daily Report Cards

Discrimination took a heavy toll on Asian American students during the pandemic

Florida's academic standards distort the contributions that enslaved Africans made to American society

Building relationships is key for first-year college students – here are 5 easy ways to meet new friends and mentors

Heritage algorithms combine the rigors of science with the infinite possibilities of art and design

Despite giving students chances to cheat, unsupervised online exams gauge student learning comparably to in-person exams

Rhyme and reason – why a university professor uses poetry to teach math

College students with loans more likely to report bad health and skip medicine and care, study finds

'Knowledge of self': How a key phrase from Islam became a pillar of hip-hop

Ending affirmative action does nothing to end discrimination against Asian Americans

I've taught in prisons for 15 years – here's what schools need to know as government funding expands

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