Many children (and quite a few adults) don’t think of air as matter. It’s invisible, seemingly immune to gravity, has no taste, makes no sound. When you light a match, it burns up and disappears into “thin air.” This is a problem.*** The stuff of matter, the stuff of stuff, seems simple--we mostly rush through it in science class, assuming ...

So, yes, improving education in math and science is about producing engineers and researchers and scientists and innovators who are going to help transform our economy and our lives for the better. But it's also about something more. It's about expanding opportunity for all Americans in a world where an education is the key to success. It's about ...

Newton's cradle is a toy. Isaac Newton did not invent it, nor did he invent the Laws of Motion. They just are. He uncovered what always, as far as we know, existed. If you use this in class, do not show the kids the various permutations--they will find them if you let them be. Do not tell them it models the Law of Conservation of ...

To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. A robin redbreast in a cage Puts all heaven in a rage. William Blake, from ''Auguries of Innocence'' We fear wilderness, and understandably so. We prefer edged lawns to thistle, Lord Byron to William Blake, ...