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University of Washington advocates for suicide prevention were busy pushing for legislation in Olympia, working on programs with more than a dozen local high schools and organizing the fourth annual Husky Help & Hope walk when an online TV show about suicide suddenly captivated a teenage audience. To the staff of UW-based Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention and the student volunteers with Huskies for Suicide Prevention and Awareness (HSPA), the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” portrays suicide in exactly the…

Girls start believing they aren’t good at math, science and even computers at a young age — but providing fun STEM activities at school and home may spark interest and inspire confidence. A study from the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) finds that, when exposed to a computer-programming activity, 6-year-old girls expressed greater interest in technology and more positive attitudes about their own skills and abilities than girls who didn’t try the activity. The results…

A favorite childhood pastime — swinging on the playground swing set — also may be teaching kids how to get along. The measured, synchronous movement of children on the swings can encourage preschoolers to cooperate on subsequent activities, University of Washington researchers have found. A study by the UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) shows the potential of synchronized movement in helping young children develop collaborative skills. The study is published online in the Journal of Experimental Child…

For the 23rd time in the past 24 years, the University of Washington ranked as the No. 1 primary care medical school in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 Best Graduate School rankings released Tuesday. The UW’s Information School jumped from No. 3 to No. 2 in the nation for library and information studies programs.

Donald Trump’s promises on the campaign trail have generated confusion and consternation around the country, as many wonder not only what the president-elect actually intends to do, but what is within his power to accomplish. Will Trump follow through on his threat to deport millions of undocumented immigrants? Could he pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement? And what of Trump’s promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act? Such questions will be the focus of new…

The University of Washington joins 30 of the nation’s most respected colleges and universities Tuesday in a new initiative to substantially expand the number of talented low- and moderate-income students at America’s top-performing undergraduate institutions with the highest graduation rates.

Kim Boudreau enrolled at the University of Washington planning to major in business administration and human resources management, but it didn’t feel like quite the right fit. Boudreau realized she was interested in workforce training, so she added a minor in education. But she still wasn’t convinced her studies would take her where she wanted to go. So when the 20-year-old learned about the UW’s new undergraduate degree in Education, Communities and Organizations — or ECO — she didn’t hesitate…

The National Science Foundation will fund a three-year, $1.5 million research project to study teaching and learning of mathematical modeling in elementary education. Julia Aguirre, an associate professor of mathematics education at the University of Washington Tacoma, is one of four principal investigators leading the endeavor. “Mathematical modeling is a process of using mathematics to analyze a ‘real-world’ problem, represent it using mathematical concepts, make predictions and take action,” said Aguirre. “It’s used widely in business, science, technology and engineering…

Women’s relative lack of participation in science, technology, engineering and math is well documented, but why women are more represented in some STEM areas than others is less clear. A new University of Washington study is among the first to address that question by comparing gender disparities across STEM fields. Published Oct. 12 in the journal Psychological Bulletin, the paper identifies three main factors driving the disparity — and the most powerful one, the researchers conclude, is a “masculine culture”…

World Suicide Prevention Day, Sept. 10, is a reminder that we all have a role to play in preventing suicide. Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention, based in the UW School of Social Work and led by Professor Jennifer Stuber, is offering a film and two suicide prevention workshops on Sept. 10.

At meetings with Native American community leaders, educators in the University of Washington’s College of Education repeatedly heard the same question — what can be done to improve educational outcomes among Native learners? Those discussions led to the creation of the UW’s new two-year Native Education Certificate program, which launches in August. The 10-unit curriculum mixes online learning with hands-on projects in participants’ communities, with the goal of providing more meaningful and culturally relevant education for Native students. “There is…

What are the policies of global rising powers regarding the use of orbital and outer space, and what are the implications of those policies for international cooperation? A capstone event for junior fellows of the Jackson School’s Space Security Initiative explored such questions in a recently with space industry, media and government representatives also on hand.

More than 500 people gathered May 18 on the University of Washington campus to celebrate the start of construction on the New Burke Museum. The Burke is Washington’s oldest museum and since 1899 has been the State Museum of Natural History and Culture; soon it will be Washington’s newest museum. Opening in 2019, the New Burke will address significant issues in the current structure that threaten the long-term viability of our state’s natural and cultural heritage collections — a total…

Some adults learn a second language better than others, and their secret may involve the rhythms of activity in their brains. New findings by scientists at the University of Washington demonstrate that a five-minute measurement of resting-state brain activity predicted how quickly adults learned a second language. The study, published in the June-July issue of the journal Brain and Language, is the first to use patterns of resting-state brain rhythms to predict subsequent language learning rate. “We’ve found that a…