Lab Safety Incidents in High Schools: A Decade of OSHA Data
OSHA data on lab safety incidents in high schools across 2014-2024 reveals patterns in chemical exposures, equipment injuries, and the schools that have reduced incident rates.
The Specific Skills Strong Faculty Mentors Develop in Their Students
Faculty mentorship varies in quality across universities and faculty members. The specific developmental work that strong mentors do is concrete and worth understanding.
What Universities Are Doing About the Math Preparation Decline
Incoming first-year students at US universities have shown declining math preparation over the past five years. The institutional responses vary substantially in effectiveness.
What Happens to Students Who Skip Their Major’s Required Statistics Course
Required statistics courses sit at gateways to many majors. A study tracking students who took the course on time versus those who deferred it reveals patterns that should inform student planning.
What Engineering Schools Lose When They Drop Required Drawing Courses
Hand drawing was a standard part of engineering training for a century. Most programs eliminated it by 2010. A new look at what was lost suggests the cuts had consequences few anticipated.
Why Some Universities Are Making Calculus Optional
Calculus has been the gateway to STEM majors for half a century. A growing number of universities are reconsidering whether it should be, with data showing that many students who fail calculus would succeed in their intended fields without it.
How One Department Cut Its STEM Failure Rates by Changing the Teaching Assistant Model
Most universities use graduate students as teaching assistants in large introductory courses. A redesigned model at the University of Maryland has reduced failure rates significantly. The changes are surprisingly simple.
The Quiet Crisis in Teaching Statistics to Undergraduates
Statistics is required in dozens of majors and increasingly important for everyone else. The way it is taught has barely changed in a generation, and the gap between curriculum and need is widening.
The Hidden Reading Curriculum Inside Successful Math PhDs
What separates math graduate students who finish from those who do not? A new study points to a reading habit that is rarely taught explicitly.