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The Davidson Next initiative, a collaboration between Davidson College, edX, the College Board and 2Revolutions, has partnered with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System (CMS) to launch a pilot program to test a suite of online instructional units designed to improve educational outcomes in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. The units focus on calculus, physics and macroeconomics—AP topics identified as among the most challenging for teachers and students. The project recently was awarded nearly $2 million in grant funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

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A team of Davidson physicists is examining encrusted relics from Blackbeard's wreck with a unique Digitome® non-destructive x-ray imaging system to help demonstrate its capabilities in liberal arts applications. In a first for the college, Davidson has acquired a license to sell the cutting-edge machine in the education and arts markets.

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Davidson College, edX and the College Board announced today a new collaboration to provide Advanced Placement (AP) teachers and their students with access to a suite of online instructional modules to improve educational outcomes.

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Following on the success of last year’s new Sustainability Fellows program, Davidson this summer is launching four other programs to help students “transition to impact” from campus life to careers of making a positive difference in the wider world.

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New technology will enhance student learning, expand opportunities for personal contact with talented faculty.

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Imagine the frustration of studying blueberries for months, and never getting to eat any! That’s the situation Davidson student scientists have faced this semester in the new era of genomic research. Nine students who are involved in a multi-institutional effort to produce better blueberries only see the fruit as codes, symbols, numbers and letters on computer screens, rather than the nutritional, sweet treat they love.

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Davidson's Honor Code allows students to determine when to take their exams, and where in the main administration to do so.

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The gift -— the second largest in the college's history -— will support The Davidson Trust, Davidson College's commitment to meeting 100 percent of admitted students' need with grants and student employment, but without loans.

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Davidson College will share a $200,000, two-year grant with Agnes Scott College from The Teagle Foundation to develop strategies for improved student learning.

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Davidson College psychology professor Mark Smith has received a grant of almost $1 million from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to support five years of animal studies to more precisely determine the benefits of exercise at various stages in the addictive process.

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TV and radio talk shows have been abuzz with speculation about a classified CIA program which may or may not have involved assassination. Upcoming congressional hearings may reveal details about that mysterious program that was abruptly cancelled by CIA Director Leon Panetta. But according to David Perry, professor of applied ethics and director of the new Vann Center for Ethics at Davidson College, the current debate concerning assassination has unfortunately shed more heat than light. Perry addresses the ethics and legality of assassination and targeted killing in his recent book, "Partly Cloudy: Ethics in War, Espionage, Covert Action, and Interrogation."

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Anne Blue Wills, assistant professor of religion at Davidson, explains that the current version of Thanksgiving was created by a journalistic crusader, and would have been unrecognizable to the Pilgrims it supposedly honors.

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Research by Davidson College neuroscientist Mark A. Smith and students demonstrates that the benefits of regular exercise include a lowered tendency to become addicted to illegal drugs. They concluded that aerobic exercise reduces the rewarding effects of cocaine, and probably also has protective effects against cocaine abuse.

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Davidson's success in the NCAA Tournament has surprised some. Here's a look at how Davidson's "Cinderella" run is affecting some of the numbers at the small, academically rigorous liberal arts college.

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North Carolina's state agency that helps students in their college quest is teaming with Davidson College to present a public service series of financial aid seminars for high school guidance counselors.

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College technicians will build a new, 4,500-square-foot stage on top of the existing Frazier Stage and orchestra section of seats to accommodate Director Dominic Cooke's choice to present "The Winter's Tale" and "Pericles" in the rarely used "promenade" fashion. One-hundred-fifty of the 380 audience members at each performance will be on the new stage with the actors, enjoying a proximity that provides an incomparable emotional experience.

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Davidson has announced the 2007 Royal Shakespeare Company at Davidson Residency with special events, community outreach, workshops, exhibits, and symposia, all in celebration of the RSC repertory productions of "The Winter's Tale" and "Pericles" from February 8 through 18, 2007. "Days of Significance," a new play by Roy Williams, will have its American premier during the residency as part of the RSC repertory offerings.

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Davidson College Professor of Political Science Ken Menkhaus was hoping to use his sabbatical year to expand his research on African politics into new parts of the continent. But major developments in Somalia, his principal country of expertise, have forced him back to that troubled land.

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Greg Snyder, associate professor of religion at Davidson College, explains that the Biblical reference to "666" is a numeric code for a feared Roman Emperor, and not an indication of apocalypse.

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First-year students at Davidson this week face the nerve-wracking inevitability of their first-ever college exams. But their anxiety is tempered by a unique benefit of the college's Honor Code, which they all publicly signed in a ceremony during Orientation last August.

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When the Royal Shakespeare Company comes to Davidson College this academic year, it'll be students taking the stage. The centerpiece of the RSC at Davidson 2006 Residency will be a student production under the direction of the RSC actors, educators, and directors who will visit campus.

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Reporters writing about the seventy-fifth anniversary of the comic strip, "Blondie," can get a valuable historical perspective on the character of this iconic blonde from Kathleen J. Turner, Professor of Communication Studies at Davidson College.

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Royal Shakespeare Company stages first-ever-in-the-US exhibition of items from its RSC Collection at Davidson College in connection with residency there.

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Drivers who find themselves at a standstill on the interstate this week can thank a nineteenth-century women's magazine editor for creating the Thanksgiving tradition that compels us all to return to our family roots at the same time.

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In keeping with tradition at Davidson College, Commencement weekend activities will focus on members of the Class of 2004 rather than a prominent speaker. President Robert Vagt will offer brief remarks to the 400 or so graduating seniors during Commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 16.

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Drivers who find themselves at a standstill on the interstate this week can thank a nineteenth-century women's magazine editor for creating the Thanksgiving tradition that compels us all to return to our family roots at the same time.

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It's been ten years since Somali gangs shot down two US helicopters over Mogadishu, initiating a brutal urban battle that led both America and the U.N. to abandon their peacekeeping efforts there.

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A musical project initiated three years ago as a whimsical classroom exercise by two Davidson College students will hit the stage October 22-26, 2003, as the world premier of "Frankenstein: The Rock Opera." The young collaborators have completed a thirty-six song rock opera absolutely true to the plot of Mary Shelley's 1818 horror novel.

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Davidson College plans to welcome the 493 members of the Class of 2007 to campus on Thursday, August 21, to begin four days of new student Orientation. While most will arrive by car, ten students will be beaching their canoes on the shore of Lake Davidson at the conclusion of a 125-mile paddle down the Catawba River!

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While last week's Supreme Court decision affirms that colleges may consider race in making admissions decisions, Davidson College's Love of Learning program has for seventeen years helped disadvantaged high school students increase their chances for both admission and retention at institutions of higher education.

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A Davidson College Shakespeare scholar who wrote a journal article about the manhunt for Eric Rudolph finds poetic justice in the fact that he eluded legions of federal authorities, and was finally captured by a single local rookie cop.

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Students at Davidson College and citizens of Baghdad will re-engage in discussion about the relationship between their nations via a live videoconference on Thursday, May 8.

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Parents of Davidson College students at least don't have to worry about their walking around in dirty underwear. For the past eighty-three years a laundry service fee has been incorporated into mandatory student charges, and it's a price that most students and parents are happy to bear.

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While students don't generally have a lot of good things to say about finals, Davidson students are at least happy about how the tests are administered. Under the Davidson Honor Code, students take "self-scheduled exams," allowing them to tackle whatever exam they want during any of the eleven exam periods--without a proctor in the room.

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A Davidson College political scientist has had plenty to say in the public arena about United States government policy in Colombia. Now, the newly appointed senior adviser to Assistant Secretary of Defense gets to influence how that policy is actually formulated.

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The world's foremost interpreters of the works of William Shakespeare-Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company-will bring the Bard to life at Davidson College during a twelve-day residency from February 18 through March 2, 2002.