Articles & Interviews

Just how important is sleep during the teenage years? It is well-known that newborns and toddlers need a lot of sleep to get through the day. Emerging research from our lab shows that teens are also vulnerable to the effects of poor sleep, both in their behavior and in brain development and functioning.

Vigorous rough and tumble play with their father is great fun for most kids. Research has now found out that it is not only fun, but helps children learn to regulate their emotions.

The Jacobs Foundation together with ReadyNation and four other European foundations host the first Forum for Business Leaders from several European countries at the end of October 2016 to discuss ways the private sector can support early childhood education and care (ECEC) for the benefit of the current and future workforce.

As the Jacobs Foundation’s successful program on labor market youth inclusion in Latin America comes to an end, we seek ways to transfer the gained knowledge from one continent to another and exchange lessons learned with our partners.

The Transforming Education Prize of 50,000 USD will be awarded to the most promising start-up with solutions to improve education in primary schools in low resource environments.

It pays to promote early childhood development and education and to encourage play-based exploration. This is the conclusion reached by the ZEPPELIN project, which is funded by the Jacobs Foundation. ZEPPELIN stands for Zürcher Equity Präventionsprojekt Elternbeteiligung und Integration, a Zurich-based research and prevention project that promotes parent participation and integration.

The Jacobs Foundation spoke to Dr. Eric A. Hanushek. He is a leader in the development of economic analysis of educational issues. The interview took place during this year’s Jacobs Foundation Conference at Marbach Castle on Lake Constance, Germany.

A long-term study of nearly 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to age 38 has found that people who smoked marijuana for up to 20 years have more gum disease, but otherwise do not show worse physical health than non-smokers. This research was supported by the Jacobs Foundation and by the New Zealand Health Research Council.

“How can we help our sons and grandsons find a job and get them off the streets?” This question was bothering the community leaders of a compound called “Linda”, 20 km from Zambia’s capital Lusaka. Many young men in the community were using alcohol and drugs –a way to cope with the loss of family members to HIV/Aids.