Author name: awsna

The pandemic has made a new case for winter outdoor activity. As British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator, Alfred Wainwright, said, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” It seems that many more are willing to embrace this motto now that indoor activities are curtailed.  News coverage ranges from The New York Times recommending […]

Another scientific study on the benefits of handwriting was published this summer in Frontiers in Psychology Magazine.  The study by Norwegian University of Science and Technology — The Importance of Cursive Handwriting Over Typewriting for Learning in the Classroom: A High-Density EEG Study of 12-Year-Old Children and Young Adults — looked at brain scans of young adults and 12-year-olds as

When students generate their own questions around a subject, they deepen their knowledge of the topic and their ability to remember it.  German Researchers from the University of Kassel wanted to learn if students generating their own test questions would be an effective learning strategy. Their study revealed that having students generate questions, and then gradually

Researchers on sources of innovation out of Universities in the Netherlands and Australia joined forces to study the nature of creativity; specifically to determine if differences exist between creativity that leads to innovation in the sciences and creativity leading to innovation in the arts. The researchers found that creativity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is

While many of our schools have made local and national news for their outdoor classrooms, Anchorage Waldorf School’s recent news coverage in The Anchorage Daily News brings forth a new and unique angle to this story — climate!   The story of switching to an all outdoor classroom, in Alaska, during the pandemic, is indeed newsworthy. Third and Fourth

A study from the University of South Australia, published in the journal PLOS One, assessed the impacts of unstructured nature play on the health and development of young children. They found that any activity that gets children thinking and acting spontaneously outdoors without needing adult control can help them develop complex thinking abilities, social skills, and creativity. In the

Why do Waldorf schools have students, at each grade level, perform a class play? Class plays, often performed in springtime, deepen student’s curriculum, social emotional and collaborative learning. The plays reflect each grade’s individual curriculum and the appropriate developmental level of the students. Class plays incorporate music, recitation, memorization, acting, and visual arts. The play

New research from social neuroscientists from Bar-Ilan University and the University of Chicago have studied the social functions and brain mechanisms influenced by making music in a group.    This study is unique because it focuses on what happens in the brain when people make music together, rather than when they listen to or practice music

New research out of John Hopkins University, published in the journal Psychological Science, shows that handwriting helps people learn certain skills, like reading, surprisingly faster and significantly better than learning the same material through typing or watching videos. According to the press release on the John Hospkin’s website — Hand-writing letters shown to be best technique for

Study results continue to show that taking notes by hand, versus typing, aids in learning and retaining information. In the Eduptopiaarticle — On the Advantage of Paper Notebooks — high school history teacher and librarian, Benjamin Barbour, shares the additional advantages he sees when his students use paper and pencil for note taking. Barbour claims his students are more