Biosensors to monitor students' attentiveness. ( or how to program students ) The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has poured more than $4 billion into efforts to transform public education in the U.S., is pushing to develop an "engagement pedometer."  Biometric devices wrapped around the wrists of students would identify which classroom moments excite and interest them -- and which fall flat. The foundation has given $1.4 million in grants to several university researchers to begin testing the devices in middle-school classrooms this fall. To truly improve teaching and learning, she said, "we need universal, valid, reliable and practical instruments" such as the biosensors. One of the world's richest philanthropies, the foundation reflects Microsoft founder Bill Gates' interest in developing data collection and analysis techniques that can predict which teachers and teaching styles will be most effective. The Gates Foundation has spent two years videotaping 20,000 classroom lessons and breaking them down, minute by minute, to analyze how each teacher presents material and how those techniques affect student test scores. note:  Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2012-06-12-sns-rt-us-usa-education-gatesbre85c018-20120612-story.html