MAKING IT EASIER TO BE A BETTER TEACHER

NOTEWORTHY NEWS

Here’s our weekly roundup of interesting education stories from around the world. Click each link to dive deeper:

• The insanely dangerous student-trend of blowing up their school laptop. Why is this a thing?

• So many classrooms are made up of culturally diverse students - should the teaching staff reflect this?

• Turns out most employees are using AI - but we’re all lying about it.

BRAINY BITS

Your fourth cup of coffee might just save your mobility.

A newly published 2025 study from Amsterdam found that adults who drink 4 - 6+ cups of coffee daily have significantly lower odds of becoming frail as they age.

Frailty - defined by low energy, poor grip strength, slowed walking speed, and unintended weight loss - was less common among heavy coffee drinkers.

The Study: Coffee & Frailty in Aging Adults

Researchers followed 1,161 Dutch adults over 7 years. Using a standard frailty checklist (weight loss, weakness, exhaustion, etc.), they evaluated participants’ frailty status and compared it against long-term coffee consumption.

By following participants over several years, researchers were able to track changes in their frailty status. 

It should be noted that the professions of each were not reported - and so this study does not just apply to teachers (for once!).

The Results

Here’s a quick summary of what they found:

• 0–2 cups/day → baseline risk that acted as their control group.

• 2–4 cups/day → Some reduction in pre-frailty symptoms by the end of the study.

• 4–6+ cups/day → Significantly lower risk of full-blown frailty across all symptoms observed. 

In Your Classroom:

Coffee is rich in antioxidants and polyphenols that reduce inflammation and improve muscle maintenance - this means it’s not just about the caffeine.

These compounds may help preserve physical function as we age - possibly by preventing muscle damage, boosting insulin sensitivity, and promoting better metabolic health overall.

Here’s how this research might change your approach this week:

Strategies

No, you don’t need to serve espresso in the staff lounge to prevent student or teacher frailty. But this study does suggest one thing:

• Small daily habits, like coffee drinking, can accumulate into powerful long-term health effects.

Teachers are notorious for putting everyone else’s needs ahead of our own.

But whether it’s getting enough sleep, stretching between classes, or yes - drinking a few cups of coffee - tiny choices can shape our health, even before we say goodbye to the classroom.

So the next time a colleague apologizes for that third cup of coffee before noon? Tell them they’re investing in their future agility.

TECH TOOL

No lab? No problem.

Understanding the inner workings of the human body the scale of the solar system is no small feat - especially when all you have is a flat diagram in a textbook. 

Many classrooms lack access to real lab equipment or physical models, leaving students to grasp abstract science concepts without the tools to truly see or experience them. 

This gap makes it harder for students to connect with core ideas, and even harder for teachers to bring them to life.

The Solution:  Curiscope

Curiscope offers a small batch of virtual and augmented reality products that makes science feel real, even without a lab. 

Their flagship product, the Virtuali-Tee, is an interactive T-shirt that works with an augmented reality app to turn any classroom into an anatomy lab.

When a student wears the shirt and another points a device at it, the app overlays a 3D model of the human body in motion. Students can zoom into organs, track blood flow, and explore body systems in real time.

There’s also their AR Poster series, which brings space and underwater ecosystems to life with the same phone-based tech. 

In Your Classroom:

Classroom VR is nothing new. But the problem has always been that it was too expensive, fragile, and bulky.

Curiscope changes that by making VR ‘devices’ out of a phone/tablet and some everyday objects.

Here’s how you can get started with Curiscope this week:

Strategies

• Bring anatomy to life. Use the Virtuali-Tee to help students explore the heart, lungs, and digestive system interactively, deepening understanding through visuals and motion.
  

• Create AR stations. Use a Virtuali-Tee or AR poster as part of a learning station. Students can rotate through and engage with different science concepts in a hands-on, memorable way.
  

• Reinforce vocabulary with 3D experiences. After using the app, have students accurately describe what they saw - or write a creative story from the perspective of a cell or organ.

Although the app is free, the t-shirt and posters aren’t. But they’re fairly cheap, and all you really need is 1 per classroom/department.

They tend to sell out quickly when they restock so make sure to bookmark their page if you’re interested.

For teachers working with limited lab resources or trying to make tough concepts stick, it offers a way to bring science off the page and into the minds of your students.

REFERENCES

This week’s issue adapts information from the following sources:

Tech Talk:

Curiscope. (2025). Bring Learning to Life. Retrieved from https://www.curiscope.com/

Brainy Bits:

van der Linden, M., Wijnhoven, H.A., Schaap, L.A. et al. Habitual coffee consumption and risk of frailty in later life: the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA). Eur J Nutr 64, 164 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-025-03683-0