UMBC is a leading public research university known for innovative teaching, relevant research across disciplines, and a supportive community that empowers and inspires inquisitive minds. UMBC serves 14,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and combines the learning opportunities of a liberal arts college with the creative intensity of a leading research university. At the same time, UMBC is one of the country’s most inclusive education communities. UMBC also contributes to Maryland through strong government and industry partnerships that advance K–16 education, entrepreneurship, workforce training, and technology commercialization.
Through games and household tasks, parents can help their children learn basic math skills like counting, geometry and algebraic thinking.
Hindu texts from thousands of years ago demonstrate acceptance of a ‘third gender.’ Today, transgender Indians, or hijras, remain visible members of society.
AP Photo/Bikas Das
Amy Bhatt, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Before colonialism, India embraced homosexuality and gender fluidity. The Supreme Court’s repeal of a 157-year-old gay sex ban partially reclaims that history, but LGBTQ Indians still face hurdles.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh used baseball to explain his judicial philosophy during his Senate confirmation hearing.
Reuters/Alex Wroblewski
William Blake, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Kavanaugh thinks judges ‘must be an umpire – a neutral and impartial arbiter.’ So does Chief Justice Roberts. But more liberal jurists believe that the application of the law is inherently subjective.
Primary voter in New Hampshire, 2016.
AP/David Goldman
The more undemocratic tendencies of the US electoral system are growing stronger. As the midterm campaign season enters its final stage, it turns out that some votes count more than others.
Bloede Dam (ca. 2016) near Ilchester, Maryland.
Matthew Baker/UMBC
Basic research can be easy to mock as pointless and wasteful of resources. But it’s very often the foundation for future innovation – even in ways the original scientists couldn’t have imagined.
The summer jobs of the days of old are becoming fewer and fewer.
Paulette Kaytor/www.shutterstock.com
Elliot Lasson, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
The number of young people who work traditional summer jobs has declined significantly in recent decades. A scholar who focuses on generational differences in the workforce explains why.
Richard Forno, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Russian hackers are coupling old propaganda strategies with new technologies to attack and exploit not just computers and stored data, but how people think.
Watch out for these tiny tough guys.
Roy L. Caldwell, Department of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley (For use only with this article)
Even when federal contractors stir public outrage, the government probably should be under fire.
Historically, the high-water mark for American dissatisfaction with government was the 1970s — the era of Vietnam, Nixon and Watergate.
AP Photo/John Duricka
Ian Anson, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Russian meddling has shaken Americans’ faith in democracy. But public discontent after a scandal is hardly new. Trust in government began to erode under Nixon, and it’s mostly worsened since then.
Maasai women on a conservation project in Kenya.
Joan de la Malla
A new map shows that more than 25% of all land outside Antarctica is held and managed by Indigenous peoples. This makes these communities vital allies in the global conservation effort.
Detainees at Otay Mesa immigration detention center in San Diego.
REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
Jeffrey Davis, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Trump’s executive order to end family separations at the border is too little too late, a human rights expert writes. Indefinitely detaining immigrants is breaking the law.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stated recently that guns are not a focus of a federal school safety commission meant to tackle school shootings.
Africa Studio/www.shutterstock.com
After Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said a school safety commission won’t focus on guns, a school safety scholar says the commission may miss an important part of the discussion.
Computer-generated dinosaurs walk the Earth.
Universal Pictures Studios
Adam Bargteil, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
The first time computer-generated characters interacted with humans on a movie screen was 25 years ago, in ‘Jurassic Park.’ Since then, technology has improved, giving directors more choices.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a Cabinet meeting in Moscow’s Kremlin.
AP/Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik
Brian Grodsky, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Vladimir Putin’s recent re-election was bad news for democracy in Russia. And it’s a major loss in the struggle for liberalism, as anti-democratic leaders are assuming power across the globe.
A student retrieves her belongings from Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, where a gunman opened fire on May 18 and killed 10 people.
David J. Phillip/AP
It can be unpleasant to be mistaken for someone of a different gender. When an algorithm does it secretly, it’s even more concerning – especially for transgender and gender-nonconforming people.
An artist’s illustration of a black hole “eating” a star.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Eileen Meyer, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Astronomers are gathering an exponentially greater amount of data every day – so much that it will take years to uncover all the hidden signals buried in the archives.