From leading garden tours to planning a visit for Japanese teachers and participating in community theater, middle schoolers at Fort Worth's Applied Learning Academy learn academic content by working on community projects. Students' writing skills soared as they developed, edited, and field-tested brochures and trail-guide maps for their botanical…

As jobs change, schools must shift in response to evolving information technologies. The concept of "cognition enhancers" can teach us how to use these emerging technologies. School curricula will need to emphasize higher order thinking skills, learning while doing, collaboration, interconnected research capabilities, and…