UW Notebook visits with the producer of “Crossing North,” a podcast by the Scandinavian Studies Department, and notes other podcasts on campus and an appearance by David Montgomery on the podcast “Undark.”


UW Notebook visits with the producer of “Crossing North,” a podcast by the Scandinavian Studies Department, and notes other podcasts on campus and an appearance by David Montgomery on the podcast “Undark.”

With the university’s spring quarter beginning Monday, UW staff and student workers in the Student Technology Loan Program spent the week-long spring break gathering, checking and cleaning some 300 laptops and tablets for distribution – and, for the first time, shipping many of those devices to the homes of UW students across the country.

Students from different backgrounds in the United States enter college with equal interest in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics. But that equal interest does not result in equal outcomes. Six years after starting an undergraduate STEM degree, roughly twice as many white students finished it compared to African American students. A new study by researchers at the Ƶ shows that teaching techniques in undergraduate STEM courses can significantly narrow gaps in course performance between students…

Notable new books by UW faculty members include studies of military cultural education programs and equitable collaboration between schools and families. Also, National Endowment for the Humanities support for a coming book on an 18th century India poet, an honor for a work about postwar Japan — and a National Jewish Book Award.

A study by the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the Ƶ finds the value of using “parentese,” an exaggerated speaking style that conveys total engagement with a child.

The Ƶ has long boasted one of the country’s top programs in atmospheric sciences. Now, the UW is also teaching undergraduates how to share that knowledge online and on TV as a broadcast meteorologist.

A conversation with UW psychology professor Sheri Mizumori about the UW-based program Broadening the Representations of Academic Investigators in NeuroScience — or BRAINS for short — designed to accelerate career advancement for postdoctoral researchers and assistant professors from underrepresented populations.

After years of preparation, a tiny satellite built by UW students is scheduled to launch early Saturday, Nov. 2, from a NASA flight facility in Virginia. The launch will be broadcast live on NASA TV.

A report released Sept. 10 — the product of research led by the Ƶ — gives Seattle and King County a “D” in getting youth active through sport, play and outdoor recreation.

A new study from the Ƶ finds that, based on brain activity, people who live in communities where multiple languages are spoken can identify words in yet another language better than those who live in a monolingual environment.

In a pilot study led by the UW, researchers explored art-based mindfulness activities that schools could use to reduce headaches, a common side effect of stress in adolescent girls. After three weeks of twice-weekly mindfulness and art therapy sessions, eight teenage girls reported experiencing significantly fewer headaches.

This Friday, teams of 5th- through 12th-grade students from across Washington state will complete a challenge in Kane Hall to mimic the 1969 Apollo moon landing, using drones and Lego robots.

Recent notable books by UW faculty members explore how the U.S. government has historically used credit to create opportunity, how “reproductive slavery” has left lasting ramifications and how technology design benefits from human values.

UW astronomy professor Rory Barnes shows off the astronomy department’s Mobile Planetarium to colleagues at AbSciCon2019, the national conference on astrobiology in Bellevue. He takes it to schools with a presentation on astrobiology for K12 students.

The annual thesis exhibition by graduating art and design students with the UW School of Art + Art History + Design reliably brings together the dreamy and the practical to cohabit at the Henry Art Gallery. This year’s exhibit features the work of 10 artists and 11 designers, and will be at the Henry through June 23.

Recent notable books by Ƶ faculty explore mindful international travel, men seeking work as day laborers, and activist teachers.

Engineering Discovery Days is a yearly event that invites Washington state fourth- through eighth-graders to have fun leaning about STEM with the College of Engineering.

A new space race is underway, characterized by the intersecting trends of democratization, commercialization and militarization. Saadia Pekkanen, UW professor of international relations, is lead guest editor for a group of essays addressing such issues and more published online this month in the American Journal of International Law.

Emily Levesque, UW assistant professor of astronomy, is gathering material for a new book to be called “The Last Stargazers: True Tales of the Colorful and Vanishing World of Observational Astronomy.”

The UW Information School is taking a leading role in helping people better navigate this era of increasing online fakery and falsehood. On March 19, the school will welcome 200-some Seattle-area high school students for “MisInfo Day,” a daylong workshop on how to navigate the misinformation landscape, from Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom, the faculty duo behind “Calling BS in the Age of Big Data.”

The Ƶ is launching a reading instruction study this summer, a two-week “camp” targeting children entering kindergarten in the fall that aims to teach early literacy skills and measure brain activity before and after instruction.

A new website from the UW’s Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom, the duo behind the popular “Calling BS” class, asks viewers to choose which of two realistic face photos is real and which is a complete fake.

Amarilys Ríos is a professional percussionist, singer and dancer from San Juan, Puerto Rico. In this video she gives an introduction to “bomba,” an Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance tradition in which dancers lead the drummer to sound out their improvised movements. “Bomba is a way of expression and communication” with key ingredients, explains Ríos. There are bomba drums with a lead drummer, singer, dancer and chorus. “Each one is as important as the other,” she said, and all…

Recess, for most children, is synonymous with freedom. A break from class that has nothing to do with learning and everything to do with play. For children with autism, the playground can be an isolating experience. The spontaneous soccer games, roving packs of friends and virtual buffet of activities can be chaotic, frustrating and confusing. Recess is not a time to join, but to retreat. Or is it? A Ƶ-led research team found that children with autism communicate…

This video takes a look at the UW’s revenue and operating budget from the 2018-2019 academic year. We explain where the money comes from and how it is spent.

UW News talks with Renée Cheng, new dean of the UW College of Built Environments, about her background and plans for the college. Cheng joined the UW on Jan. 1.

The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, in the UW Jackson School of International Studies, was well represented at the 50th annual conference of the Association for Jewish Studies Dec. 16-18 in Boston.

Recent notable books by Ƶ faculty members explore the importance of Hebrew to modern America, remember the 1919 Seattle General Strike and look at issues in education, among other topics. Practical advice for healthy travel, near or far A new book by Dr. Christopher Sanford offers simple, practical recommendations for those traveling near or far, short or long term, for work or recreation, to “destinations ranging from rural areas to large cities, in both developing and industrialized…

In 2016, Seattle Public Schools pushed back the start times for the district’s 18 high schools by 55 minutes, from 7:50 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. And as hoped, teenagers used the extra time to sleep in.

What is a “book” in the digital age — and what will it become? Amaranth Borsuk, assistant professor in the UW Bothell School of Interdisciplinary Studies, discusses the idea of “the book,” from clay tablets and papyrus scrolls to the hyperlinked, multimedia format of the digital age. She has her own new book out on the topic, titled “The Book.”

A new study from the Ƶ’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) shows that parents who learn how and why to speak “parentese” can have a direct impact on their children’s vocabulary.

A timely new Ƶ political science class asks: How do we separate fact from fiction these days? How do we know what is true?

Ralina Joseph, associate professor of communication, discusses here new book “Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity,” published this October by New York University Press.

In her new book, Kathryn Rogers Merlino, UW associate professor of architecture, argues for the environmental benefit of reusing buildings rather than tearing them down and building anew.

Today, Britain is not known as a land of camps, but through much of the 20th century — from after World War I to the 1980s — the country was home to dozens of refugee camps housing thousands of Belgians, Jews, Basques, Poles, Hungarians, Anglo-Egyptians, Ugandan Asians and Vietnamese. As Ƶ history professor Jordanna Bailkin writes in her latest book, these camps “were never only for refugees.” They shared such spaces with “Britons who had been displaced by…

In a new UW-authored book, a cartoon robot takes young readers on a School of Oceanography voyage to explore the deep ocean.

When Rainier Beach High School was proposed to close in 2008, community members rallied around a new vision for the school, which has since nearly doubled its enrollment and introduced a more rigorous curriculum.

A new book by Ƶ history professor George Behlmer seeks to improve understanding of the British colonial era by “reconsidering the conduct of islanders and the English-speaking strangers who encountered them.”

A UW study found that mindfulness lessons, offered to parents at two early childhood centers, helped adults learn how to manage their emotions and behaviors while supporting their child’s development.

Margaret O’Mara, UW professor of history, explores the impact of a December 1968 computer presentation that came to be called “the mother of all demos” in an essay and podcast from the news website The Conversation.