A Video Game That Teaches Economics
Students taking Economics 201 at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro don't come to class -- they just log in to the Internet. The entire microeconomics course is a video game that students play online to earn three college credits. Such sophisticated tools for learning could transform the face of education as we know it. "This is a game in which the students are literally immersed in a ... posted on Oct 23, 2207 reads

Two Sides of the Same Border
Last year, three friends came up with a unique idea to portray realities along the US-Mexico border. They gave hundreds of disposable cameras to two groups of people on different 'sides': the undocumented migrants attempting to cross over, and the American minutemen assigned to stop them. The Border Film Project was started by a Rhodes scholar, a filmmaker, and a Wall Street analyst, to bring a hu... posted on Oct 27, 1937 reads

Stumbling On Happiness
Dan Gilbert is a psychology professor at Harvard, and author of Stumbling on Happiness. In his book, Gilbert skillfully and humorously explores the challenges we humans have in understanding what will make us happy. Gilbert maintains that in trying to imagine the future we make some basic and consistent mistakes. Just as memory plays tricks on us when we try to look backward in time, so does imagi... posted on Nov 13, 3386 reads

Creativity in the Daily Commute
Where do people do their most creative thinking? The most popular response: in the car! Last year’s Lemelson-MIT Invention Index survey focused on the locations and conditions that best promote fresh thinking. Program Director Merton Flemings notes, "Many Americans feel they spend half their lives in cars, but we were surprised by just how many people felt their daily commute was conducive to cr... posted on Nov 16, 2664 reads

Kansas City's Secret Santa
For 26 years, a man known only as Secret Santa has roamed the streets every December quietly giving people money. He started with $5 and $10 bills. As his fortune grew, so did the gifts. In recent years, Secret Santa has been handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots. So far, he's anonymously given out about $1.3 million. It's bee... posted on Nov 19, 3652 reads

New York's Free School
One recent day at the Brooklyn Free School, the "schedule" included the following: filming horror movies, chess, debate and making caves for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Not that the students had to go to any of these sessions. At this school, students don't get grades, don't have homework, don't take tests, and don't even have to go to class -- unless they want to. "Free schools," which had th... posted on Nov 25, 1335 reads

Teen Amputee Dances Her Dream
It was just a tiny misstep during a dance class routine. But it was enough to cause Nathalie Calderon’s right foot to spin backward 180 degrees. "My teacher nearly fainted," said Nathalie. But the determined Central Florida girl just asked for a screwdriver — and with a few twists, her foot was again righted. Nathalie, who was born without the lower part of a tibia in her right leg, wears a pr... posted on Nov 28, 1967 reads

Volunteerism Encouraged: a New Business Trend
A new and perhaps counter-intuitive trend in the business world? An increasing number of US companies are actually encouraging employees to volunteer their time. Some have even set up special departments to coordinate volunteer work and are hiring "volunteer coordinators" or "directors of community relations." Employees who choose to take part in such programs are given time off in exchange. Tim R... posted on Dec 6, 2575 reads

A Rocket Scientist's Odyssey of Good
47-year old Jim Fruchterman, a 2006 MacArthur "Genius" is a rocket scientist turned social entrepreneur. His idea: Take existing technology and transform it into products for those with disabilities or other disadvantages. Fructerman’s early work involved the production of a reading machine for the blind using optical character recognition. His non-profit, Benentech, created Bookshare.org -- th... posted on Dec 12, 2037 reads

Time's Person Of The Year: You!
Time Magazine's person of the year 2006 is : You! In acknowledgment of the unprecedented scale of community and collaboration created by web users across the world, Time has made the public recipient of its annual award. Today, countless online initiatives ranging from Wikipedia, and YouTube to MySpace are powerfully bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them m... posted on Dec 17, 3159 reads

Gourmet Chef Serves the Needy
Chef Michael Ennes cooks about 500 meals a week for people who come to Broadway Community Inc., a soup kitchen in New York that serves the homeless. Ennes made good on his intentions to do more volunteer work when his high-end restaurant consultancy job vanished on 9/11. On joining the soup kitchen, he transformed it into a gourmet haven for the needy, using some of the finest ingredients availabl... posted on Dec 26, 2229 reads

Making Healthy New Year's Resolutions
January 1 is not only the start of the New Year, but is when many begin their New Year’s Resolutions. Manage stress. Eat healthier. Exercise more. Spend more time with family. Sticking to your resolutions and making changes can be difficult but not impossible. "A new year is a great time to think about the changes we want to make in our lives. Being and staying well is a resolution many people m... posted on Dec 31, 2790 reads

Companies Learn From Social Networks
A new study suggests that losing an employee, at least in a high-tech field, is not necessarily as bad as it seems. "Firms can wind up learning when employees leave their firm, which is contrary to the conventional wisdom -- that firms learn by hiring away employees," says Wharton management professor Lori Rosenkopf. Why? Because, according to Rosenkopf, there are social networks that transcend co... posted on Jan 2, 3155 reads

Children Learn What They Live
"Children Learn What They Live", an unassuming poem that is at once simple and profound, is today something of a child-rearing anthem, posted on refrigerators around the world. Perhaps no one was more surprised by its success than its own author, Dorothy Law Nolte. Nolte was on deadline in 1954 for a newspaper column in California; she wrote the poem in her kitchen, sent it off, and thought no mor... posted on Jan 17, 4438 reads

The World's Indigenous Cultures
In this fascinating video, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous cultures -- many of which are disappearing -- as ancestral land is lost and languages die. (In fact, 50 percent of the world's 6000 languages are no longer taught to children.) Against a backdrop of extraordinary photos and stories that ignite the imagina... posted on Jan 19, 3080 reads

A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality
Surgeon Pauline Chen maintains that doctors are as much at a loss as the rest of us when it comes to confronting death. Chen writes about "the final exam" -- the emotional challenges posed by terminal illnesses in the medical world. Death, she says, asks unanswerable questions. Perhaps most vexingly, it threatens to crack the hard professional shell of detachment that medical training puts in plac... posted on Jan 21, 2932 reads

49 Up: Ongoing Portraits of Life
"49 Up" is the latest installment in Michael Apted's long-running 'Up' Series. In 1964, Apted began this documentary project with an intriguing concept: he interviewed 14 British children, all age seven, representing diverse classes and backgrounds. Then, at seven year intervals, for the remainder of the century, he would seek out those same 14 people and spend a day catching up with them. Togethe... posted on Jan 31, 2996 reads

Doctor Who Treats Patients -- At Any Cost
By salary standards, Dr. Bob Paeglow may be the least-successful doctor in America. Paeglow takes absolutely no salary and survives mostly on donations. Every penny he makes goes back to his patients in one way or another. Fortunately, Paeglow didn't go into medicine for the money. He went into it -- pretty late in life -- because he kept having a vision of himself in old age that he didn't like: ... posted on Feb 7, 3056 reads

Being The Cause
In his former life as a senior management consultant at a top firm, Sukh Chugh didn't have to pay for his car, gas, apartment, or even food. In his own words, he "had it made". But 9/11 and subsequent events brought him to a dramatic turning point.. Says Chugh, "The question that hit me then was what is most important in life? I vowed that my next action would be to help the people that needed hel... posted on Feb 12, 3078 reads

South Africa's Free Science Texts
Five years ago, South African physicist Mark Horner had just finished giving a talk on wave phenomena at a South African science fair when a group of young students from a poor rural high school came up to him, asking him to proofread the notes they'd taken by hand in a notebook. The scientist was stunned by the comprehensive diligence reflected in the notes, and asked why the students were so att... posted on Feb 24, 3367 reads

Outside-the-Box Service
For eight weeks straight, every day of the week, Swiss-born designer and conceptual artist Markuz Wernli Saito carried out 'At-Your-Service', a relational art experiment on the streets of Kyoto: for an hour, he offered citizens a chance to participate in outside-the-box interventions in urban areas. Every Tuesday, for example, was "I Love Trash" day, when people left thank-you notes on trash bags,... posted on Feb 26, 2309 reads

Pedals for Progress
Pedals for Progress operates on the principle that "people need a hand up not a hand out." They work with partners in developing countries who repair used bikes shipped from the US and sell them at steeply subsidized rates to the working poor. The income from sales not only creates jobs for people repairing the bicycles but also provides money for the next shipment of bicycles. Each shipment gives... posted on Mar 3, 2547 reads

Teens Build Soybean-Fueled Car
A car that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds and get more than 50 miles to the gallon would be enough to pique any driver's interest. So who do we have to thank for it. Ford? GM? Toyota? No -- just Victor, David, Cheeseborough, Bruce, and Kosi, five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School. The kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as ... posted on Mar 2, 3022 reads

21-Day No Complaints Challenge
How long can you go without complaining? A few months ago, the pastor of a Kansas City church told people in his congregation he wanted them to test their limits. "The one thing we can agree on," said Rev. Will Bowen, "is there's too much complaining." And so he asked the group to give up complaining, criticizing, gossiping or using sarcasm for 21 days. People who joined in were issued purple brac... posted on Mar 8, 17654 reads

Pharmaceutical For The People
The pharmaceutical industry spends billions of dollars fighting Western ailments, but very little on diseases that kill millions in the developing world. Victoria Hale, recently awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for her efforts, is changing that. Hale's San Francisco-based nonprofit, Institute for OneWorld Health, is innovatively partnering around the world to bring these neglected drugs to market. S... posted on Mar 9, 1551 reads

PlayStation To Help Fight Disease
Thanks to a creative usage of cutting-edge technology, anyone with a broadband-connected Sony PlayStation 3 can soon enlist in the fight against diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and a variety of cancers. By allowing users to download optional software designed to distribute computations across many idle gaming systems, Stanford University's Folding@home project harnesses the... posted on Mar 18, 2304 reads

The Principles of Great Groups
Personal leadership is a popular study topic; far less studied is group leadership. And yet, few great accomplishments are ever the work of a single individual. Our mythology, though, refuses to catch up with our reality, as we cling to the myth of the Lone Ranger, the romantic idea that great things are usually accomplished by a larger-than-life individual working alone. In actuality, as they say... posted on Mar 19, 3686 reads

How Green Is My Purchase?
When thinking about their contribution to global warming, concerned citizens might consider the cars they drive, the air miles they log and the energy they burn in their homes. But few would look at the shoes they wear or the food they eat.That is changing. Just as food products are labeled with calorie and nutritional information, consumer products are beginning to bear details about their enviro... posted on Mar 24, 2387 reads

The Blind Mechanic & His Apprentice
Larry Woody shares his automotive know-how twice a week with his apprentice, though he's never seen the young man nor spoken directly to him. Woody is blind. His apprentice is deaf. Woody lost his sight five years ago in a near-fatal accident. With more than 30 years of fixing, racing and restoring cars, Woody vowed to return to work. With help from his wife, Della, and the Oregon Commission for t... posted on Mar 23, 2391 reads

MIT Offers Entire Curriculum Online
MIT looks to reach an epic milestone soon: By the end of the year, its entire curriculum should be available online for free. Scholars and amateurs are coming in droves; this month, the site could receive 1.5 million visits. "It's exceeded our expectations," said Anne Margulies, head of MIT’s online curriculum program, OpenCourseWare. MIT began putting courses online in 2001; more than 1,500 are... posted on Mar 26, 3172 reads

Helping the Needy Get Nerdy
More than 200,000 computer systems become obsolete in the U.S. every day; meanwhile, the gap between people who can afford technology and those who cannot -- the digital divide -- keeps growing. Enter Free Geek, with an elegant solution. It takes unwanted computer systems from local residents and recycles the stuff that's beyond repair; everything is fixed up using volunteer labor and in exchange ... posted on Mar 29, 2096 reads

The Extraordinary Boy Scout
It's not easy making Eagle, the highest honor in Boy Scouts. You need at least 21 merit badges, and only 2 percent of Scouts get that far. A remarkable achievement. So what adjective should be used for James Calderwood, who has earned 121 merit badges? This teenager has every badge available, from American business to woodwork. He even has one they don't give out anymore -- "atomic energy" -- so m... posted on Apr 7, 2570 reads

Bangladeshi Housewives Overcome TB
Mohammed Salim Sheikh crosses the threshold of a village home. The housewife inside, Zahida Khatun Jharna, rises from her cooking fire, fetches his medication, fills his water glass, ticks off his chart for the day and sends him home. This routine plays out in countless villages across Bangladesh, representing a remarkably simple but effective national tuberculosis treatment program to overcome th... posted on Apr 12, 2369 reads

The Universal Concept Of Ubuntu
There is no English equivalent to the word Ubuntu. The Nguni word from South Africa refers to the capacity to express compassion, justice, reciprocity, dignity, harmony and humanity in the interests of building, maintaining and strengthening community. It is about the self being so rooted in the community, that your personal identity is defined by what you give to the community. 'I am because we a... posted on Apr 14, 3821 reads

The Generous Un-Millionaire
The one suit Hal Taussig owns was purchased from a thrift shop for $14. At age 81, he rides a bike to work and lives in a modest home. At first glance, no one would guess that this man has given away millions. Taussig works three jobs: He cares for Norma, his wife of 61 years, who was crippled by a stroke, he helps run Untours a unique travel service that enables vacationers to experience foreign ... posted on Apr 19, 3751 reads

Guardian of Earth's Trees
For 50 years, Britain's Peter Ashton has been studying –- and trying to preserve –- a wealth of diversity in Asia's tropical forests. An eminent professor of forestry, Ashton has just won $415,000 from a Japanese foundation for a lifetime of work seeking to understand how different trees in the rain forest perform, helping us promote their sustainability. Of all the life on earth, more than ha... posted on Apr 28, 1539 reads

How To Put Time On Our Side
Jon Kabat-Zinn is a professor, best known for his teachings on mindfulness and meditation as a way to help people overcome stress and disease. In this passage, excerpted from his book, "Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World through Mindfulness" he explores a thought-provoking question of modern life: Now that we can be in touch with anyone at any time, do we risk being out of touc... posted on May 12, 4193 reads

Kindness Meters
Thirty-six Denver parking meters have been refurbished and redesigned to allow people to easily give spare change to the homeless, thanks to a public-private effort. The change that goes into the randomly placed meters will help with Denver's Road Home project: a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Denver. "You might be asking yourself how much good can spare change really do," Manager of Public W... posted on May 7, 1900 reads

BBC & The Science of Happiness
Defining the factors that contribute to happiness has always been something of a puzzle. According to psychologist Professor Ed Diener there is no one key to happiness but a set of ingredients that are vital. In his view family and friends play the most crucial role - the wider and deeper the relationships with those around you the happier you are. Some studies indicate that friendship has a decid... posted on Jul 13, 3135 reads

A Concert Interrupted With Heart
It took global-positioning technology for police to track down a 10-year-old boy and get him to a hospital in time for a life-saving heart transplant. John Paul May and his mother were at a university concert when officials got word that the heart was available. Sue May had a cell phone, but the volume was off. When hospital officials couldn't reach the family, they called Pennsylvania State Polic... posted on May 16, 3792 reads

Recycling Wizard Helps Kids Learn
As a child, Carlos Macias made a hobby out of inventing his own toys. "I preferred [inventing] to playing or swimming," he says of a childhood full of the explosions, splatters, and sparks of invention. When other children asked to buy his inventions, the young creator offered instead to show them how to make it. While his ethic hasn't made him rich, it has made him a minor celebrity among kids wh... posted on May 17, 1832 reads

Commuting to Inner Peace
Across the world commuters are spending more time and crossing greater distances than a decade ago. In the UK today the average commuting time is 45 minutes. This daily commute is seen by many as the most stressful part of their day. “I've found that the quality of my experience at work is largely being set by my state of mind during the journey from home to my desk," says one woman. And recent ... posted on May 19, 3539 reads

The Threshold Choir
A band of women in the seaside city of Santa Cruz give in an unusual way – they sing for the dying. They call themselves the Threshold Choir, and they perform at the bedsides of the terminally ill, singing in intimate tones, like a mother soothing a newborn. "We think of these as lullabies for ... on the way out," said choir founder Kate Munger. Munger, a minister's daughter, started the singing... posted on May 20, 1887 reads

Endangered Species: 100 Success Stories
The U.S. Senate declared May 18, 2007, Endangered Species Day to encourage people “to become educated about, and aware of, threats to species, success stories in species recovery, and the opportunity to promote species conservation worldwide.” The resolution mentions a few of the Endangered Species Act’s most well known successes, for example -- the bald eagle’s increase from 416 to 9,789 ... posted on May 30, 1766 reads

Taking Social Innovation To Scale
According to Margaret Wheatley, the world changes when networks of relationships form among people who share a common vision of what’s possible. So rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We don’t need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we develop the new knowle... posted on May 22, 2128 reads

Your Personality Can Change
Personality can change. The once accepted idea that an individual's personality is set in stone is, well, changing. "You read about this twin research where these people who have been raised apart have remarkable similarities," said Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford University. "The implication there is that it's all programmed in," that personality is permanently stamped into our genes. Say... posted on Jun 13, 3470 reads

Homeless Children: Their Stories Told
As the children projected onto the screen describe what it's like to be homeless, Bambi Jackson wipes tears from her eyes. She works with families in Boston every day who face housing crises. But there's something about these -- a boy's complaint that a shelter is "just not cozy" or a girl's description of how scary it is to start over at a new school -- that strikes deep. The short documentary, "... posted on Jun 5, 2824 reads

10 Steps to Peace
"Since we seem to be living in an increasingly violent world, I would like to suggest a summer peace plan. Every day -- or least every week -- we are confronted with a new wave of senseless and reckless violence. (...) I'm tired of it, and I know you are, too. Here is my plan. Feel free to add to it as you enact your own plan." So begins student Dwayne Lee's "10 Steps Towards A Peaceful Summer", p... posted on Jun 16, 4368 reads

Finding Gold in the Garbarge
Patrick Fitzgerald found himself distracted as he studied for the bar exam at Fordham University five years ago. New York City was debating the merits of continuing its recycling program and Mr. Fitzgerald wondered why that was a question at all. "I wasn't an overt tree-hugger, but I thought it was odd," he said. He began poking around Web sites and news articles about the economics of recycling, ... posted on Jun 21, 2837 reads

High School Friends Help Darfur
High school students Nick Anderson and Ana Slavin of Gill, Mass., knew they could raise some money at their school to help the people of Darfur. But they knew they could raise a lot more by enlisting the help of high school students all over the country. They didn't have friends at every school, but they did have a powerful tool for reaching out to young people -- social networking sites. Six mont... posted on Jul 8, 948 reads