For some parents, at-home learning has proven to be more of a headache than a help. To alleviate some of the stress, D.C. aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe —and a diverse team of engineers led by Danielle Regis — developed a coding kit to engage curious kids . According to WTOP News , Bowe’s brainchild, Lingo , is an at-home, hands-on experience that allows kids ages 13 and up to learn the fundamentals of hardware and software design. “The idea of Lingo is to make technology accessible for all by introducing students to software, hardware and engineering concepts in a really easily approachable way,” said Bowe, who previously worked at NASA. “So, the focus is on the lesson and the excitement around building the backup sensor and less on some of the technology fundamentals, which will come later.” Lingo consists of detailed instructions and step-by-step videos that will keep STEM-loving kids occupied for hours. For example, the first lesson teaches kids how to build a backup sensor in...

As American social media users brace for the Jan. 19 TikTok ban , thousands have begun searching for alternative apps to satiate their doom scrolling fix. While many American-based tech CEO’s such as Mark Zuckerberg had hoped that the TikTok ban would encourage users to flock to other short-form video players such as Instagram or YouTube Shorts, it seems that the masses have stumbled onto an unknown gem called Xiaohongshu instead. The app, which translates to RedNote in English, is owned by a Shanghai-based company known as Xingyin Information Technology, and touts itself as a lifestyle, social networking and e-commerce service . Given that RedNote primarily serves a Chinese audience, it defaults to Mandarin upon download, and exposes new users to an audience of hundreds of millions of overseas subscribers. The sudden influx of so-called “TikTok refugees” has caused RedNote to skyrocket in popularity, taking it to the number one position among the free apps chart on both the Apple...

By age 6, children already begin to associate boys with greater aptitude in STEM fields, including computer science and engineering, compared to girls. Such beliefs among girls tend to become deeply ingrained over time. The 74 reported these reports stem from an analysis conducted by the American Institutes for Research, released Monday. This comprehensive review examined nearly 100 studies across 33 countries. David Miller, the lead author and a senior researcher who launched the project five years ago, emphasized that without efforts to address such perceptions, girls may turn away from “fast-growing tech fields like artificial intelligence .” In elementary school, girls comprise about half of the students enrolled in foundational computer science courses. However, the participation drops to 44% in middle school and decreases to 33% in high school, according to The 74. Miller noted that these findings have significant implications for girls’ decisions regarding high school course...

Middle schooler Eniola Shokunbi is making a significant impact in classrooms. Shokunbi, then a fifth-grade student at Commodore MacDonough STEM Academy in Middletown, CT, was tasked with developing a solution to address future pandemic challenges in collaboration with her classmates, Shoppe Black reports . This inspired the creation of an air filter system designed to combat COVID-19 and cold viruses within classrooms, as reported by NBC Connecticut. “The air goes through all the sides,” Shokunbi explained to NBC Connecticut. “And it comes out of the top, so it filters in and out.” Her device, which cost $60 to make, is composed of a box fan, four furnace filters, duct tape, and cardboard. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in North Carolina further validated the invention. “It showed that the air filter removed over 99% of viruses in the air,” Shokunbi told NBC Connecticut. “And that it was effective.” Shokunbi and her classmates installed the air filters, which have been in...

David “Slim” Penn Jr. has opened a cannabis shop in Pasco, WA. Penn’s journey into entrepreneurship began as a child, according to the Tri-City Herald. He would mow his neighbors’ yards and had a paper route. “I remember those 20-pound papers,” he told the outlet, embellishing the weight of newspapers in the past when they were larger and heavier. Today, that business mindset has carried over into the cannabis space. Penn is now a franchisee of Lucky Leaf Co., which is owned by his friend David Morgan, who has stores in Spokane, WA, and Pasco. Penn had previously backed Morgan when he was looking to challenge the city to allow for legal cannabis sales to adults back in 2022. The following year, a council approved removal of the ban and permitted the legal sale of cannabis, paving the way for three storefronts including Lucky Leaf Co. Now, Penn will operate his own store alongside his partner Jamie Badden, who serves as the manager of the store. To get the shop up and running, they...

Sheryl Lee Ralph is among the greats who have lived to smell their roses. Today, she is widely recognized as an actress, but her journey began at Rutgers College. She initially enrolled at just age 16, the school shared, with plans to study pre-med before discovering her true calling in the arts. “I’m an immigrants’ child,” Ralph said, according to Elle. “My mother had very big dreams for me. In her words, it was, ‘Be a doctor or a lawyer, and if you can’t be either, marry one.’” Despite her mother’s desires, Ralph would pivot towards acting. She discovered her passion for the arts while working on a school play. “I found my passion on the stage of the Little Theater on the Douglass College campus,” she said, according to an article shared by the school. Based on an article from Philadelphia magazine, when Ralph was 20 years old, she landed her big break, featuring in the 1977 film “A Piece of the Action” alongside Sidney Poitier. Two years later, she made her television debut on...

In a world that’s been evolving constantly in the digital realm for as long as most of us can remember, it’s hard to deny the negative impacts smartphones and social media have on our attention span. Users can hardly sit through a 60-second TikTok video , let alone a 20-minute training course for work. Rather than allowing weaponized incompetence and distractibility to seize the day, app developers have been working tirelessly on creating platforms that make retaining knowledge fun and easy again. They’ve dubbed this trend “microlearning,” and while it could simply be a fad, there are clear benefits to challenging your mind in a bite-sized way. What Is Microlearning? Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions/Unsplash The concept of microlearning is based on the forgetting curve , which comes from Hermann Ebbinghaus. His research demonstrates that “when people take in large amounts of information, retention of what was learned tends to degrade over time.” More specifically, they reportedly...

Aisha Bowe is an inspiration for Black women who aspire to work in the space industry. As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Bowe is a former rocket scientist for NASA and received the National Society of Black Engineers award for Outstanding Technical Contribution. However, before earning accolades, the aerospace engineer struggled to find her footing in her academic journey. In an interview with the “Earn Your Leisure” podcast, Bowe recalled not doing well during her time at community college. “I bombed the first semester,” Bowe told hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings. “I think I’m going to be a business student and study economics.” Ultimately, struggling in community college led her to pursue a dream that she thought was once unachievable — becoming a rocket scientist. So, she transitioned into aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan, although people around her didn’t understand why she was pursuing the career. “They literally thought that I had lost it,” she said....