“Lockhart believes to his core that each of us is capable of that experience of appreciation, and like Churchill’s anonymous teacher, he wants each of us to be able to catch “a glimpse of something beautiful and pure, a harmless and joyful activity that has brought untold delight to many people for thousands of years.” […]
“Darwin also stressed that natural selection is not a process by which organisms independently vie for supremacy. For instance, upon introducing the term “struggle for existence” in On the Origin of Species, he explains, “I should premise that I use the term Struggle for Existence in a large and metaphorical sense, including dependence of one […]
“Some pilot schools put their 8th graders directly into Algebra 1. Others gave 8th graders the option to enroll in two classes: the regular 8th grade math course, and Algebra 1 as an elective. The natural experiment gave researchers the ability to compare the different sequences, and see if one produced stronger outcomes.”
“In the field of math education, long plagued by heated pedagogical debates, the position paper from the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics has kicked off another round of conversations about what practices work best in the classroom—and what the subject’s ultimate goals even are.”
“In the past, coaches, experts, and publishers have all asked teachers to… Select and sequence student responses, construct a student-facing discussion resource, lead the conversation. Now we are asking teachers to… Lead the conversation.”
“Once, scientists believed in the four humors as the key to health, in phlogiston as the essence of fire and in the ether as the carrier of light. Eggs were bad for you, then fine, then maybe bad again. Even Newtonian physics, once considered unshakable, was revised by Einstein. If so many widely accepted theories […]
“The big breakthroughs often come when concepts from a different field get brought to bear on a problem for the first time.”
“It is lovely to be in an artistic atmosphere again. I realize now, more than ever before, that I can never live wholly without it. It feels so heavenly to be able to just sit in front of the fire & talk for hours — of cabbages & kings — poetry, literature, art, music, philosophy, […]
“Dr. Goodall, who earned her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, shared her observations both in scientific papers and in hugely popular books. Some experts criticized her for giving the Gombe chimpanzees names instead of numbers, and for suggesting that they had individual personalities. But her writing drew in generations of new scientists who did […]
“Then we introduced the challenge: they would conduct a chemistry experiment AND learn to use AI as a research tool. The ground rules were simple—use AI to ask any questions needed to fill out their worksheet and design an experiment using the provided compounds. All approved experimental protocols would be conducted the next day.”
“When asked how important math skills were for the majority of the U.S. workforce, 40 percent of young adults rated having math skills as very important—the lowest rating of nine skills evaluated, including reading, language, technology and leadership, according to Gallup.”
“So, I ran a correlation analysis between historic Broadway ATPs and a mix of datasets (some serious, others just for fun), to see if there’s anything producers might use to forecast a show’s box office future.”
“Learning how to be creative while an early-career scientist is important, Tabler says. However, she acknowledges that as a PhD student or postdoc, often working on a predefined project with strict timelines, deliverables and reports, it can be hard to see where the space is for creativity.”
“As to solutions, the report encourages education for teachers and parents to erase gendered stereotypes, as well as any anxieties of their own on the subject, and suggests schools should provide access to strong role models of scientists, analysts, teachers, astronauts, and statisticians for girls to appreciate and emulate. Good practices for anyone interested in […]
“In a nationally representative EdWeek Research Center survey of 1,058 teens conducted in March, nearly half of respondents said that having teachers who explain things so they understand them would have a major impact on their level of motivation in science, technology, engineering, and math classes. And educators agree. A majority of middle and high […]
“The work, they said, began decades ago with federal funding for basic research on bacterial immune systems. That led eventually, with more federal support, to the discovery of CRISPR. Federal investment in sequencing the human genome made it possible to identify KJ’s mutation. U.S. funding supported Dr. Liu’s lab and its editing discovery. A federal […]
“As a fourth-year teacher I was blown away. I’d never considered that math could be explored, discussed, or even fun. However, my students immediately responded to Linda’s approach – raising their hands, showing their thinking on paper (something I had begged them to do for months) and, in general, feeling more positive toward math.”
“Teachers often respond to students in a couple of common ways here: 1. They talk about the right answers. 2. They ask students to share their answers. Both responses risk brain death. Neither one necessarily tells students, “There is a task for you here beyond listening.” Neither one necessarily sets up a shelf in a […]
“Mr. Harrison, an Australian who died last month at 88, was one of the most prolific donors in history, extending his arm 1,173 times. He may have also been one of the most important: Scientists used a rare antibody in his plasma to make a medication that helped protect an estimated 2.4 million babies in […]
“In a series of experiments, Duflo’s field staff in India pretended to be ordinary shoppers and purposely bought unusual quantities of items from more than 1,400 child street sellers in Delhi and Kolkata. A purchase might be 800 grams of potatoes at 20 rupees per kilogram and 1.4 kilograms of onions at 15 rupees per […]
“At midday, the undergraduate poster session buzzed with expositions on topics including lunar time synchronization; the math of piano tuning; loops in four-dimensional space; and a model for wildfire containment, smoke spread and their public health consequences… “Why is it math?” asked Aleksandra Upton, 7, of a geometric puzzle. “Because we can count all the […]
“The “LeBron James of Excel,” as he was introduced in Vegas, was Diarmuid Early, 39, an Irish financial consultant who lives in New York, who entered the arena in jeans, sandals and a jersey patterned to resemble abdominal muscles. The Kobe Bryant was Andrew Ngai, 37, a soft-spoken actuary from Australia known as the Annihilator, […]
“While not a full curriculum—it doesn’t cover all of the standards at each grade level—the materials, which include pre- and post-assessments and teacher guides, are designed to be used as core lessons. They touch on life science, earth science, and physical science, and are aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards, said Andrew Sliwinski, the […]
“Mathematicians have been extremely busy this year: they’ve discovered the biggest prime number yet, a new formula for pi, mysterious patterns in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and even a whole new kind of shape… Here’s a look at a few of the most exciting mathematical discoveries we wrote about this year.”
“Previously, researchers assumed that absence was represented in the brain by neurons not firing. But recent studies have shown that the brain encodes absence with unique neural patterns.”
“These were outstanding and fundamentally human accomplishments, to be sure. But the Nobel recognition underscored a chilling prospect: Henceforth, perhaps scientists will merely craft the tools that make the breakthroughs, rather than do the revolutionary work themselves or even understand how it came about. Artificial intelligence designs and builds hundreds of molecular Notre Dames and […]
“The train and rider moved at the same speed in opposite directions, which made it seem as though, from the perspective of someone on the ground next to the train, that the rider is nearly horizontally stationary.”
“Consider in vitro gametogenesis, or I.V.G., a technology under development that would allow the creation of eggs or sperm from ordinary body tissue, like skin cells. Men could become genetic mothers, women could be fathers, and people could be the offspring of one, three, four or any number of parents. The first baby born via […]
“More than a decade later, welding department instructors say that math for welders has had a huge impact on student performance. Since 2017, 93 percent of students taking it have passed, and 83 percent have achieved all the course’s learning goals, including the ability to use arithmetic, geometry, algebra and trigonometry to solve welding problems, […]
“I’d wager that if you wanted to see the most exciting drama happening at the MGM on this Friday night, you’d have to walk through the casino and look for the small sign advertising something called The Active Cell. This is the site of the play-in round for the Excel World Championship, and it starts […]
“Ethnomathematics falls under the same umbrella as culturally responsive math instruction. Experts say that teaching math this way requires teachers to get to know their students and create a learning environment where students can connect to math concepts. It involves developing lessons that reveal the math in everyday activities, like skateboarding, braiding and weaving. It […]
“A surprising number of math teachers, particularly at the high school level, simply said we don’t use the district or school-provided materials, or they claimed they didn’t have any.”
“A new curriculum will use project-based learning and culturally relevant teaching strategies to engage high school physics and chemistry students.”
“While there’s been ample research on tracking’s negative effects, studies of positive effects resulting from detracking are scant. In perhaps the only attempt to summarize the detracking literature, a 2009 summary of 15 studies from 1972 to 2006 concluded that detracking improved academic outcomes for lower-ability students, but had no effect on average and high-ability […]
“Who wields significant influence in how students are tracked? Teachers. Of the principals who reported that students were in some way grouped by achievement level, more than 80 percent reported using teacher recommendations as one consideration when making their decisions. Researchers say that teachers should recognize the critical role they can play in determining students’ futures. […]
“Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven tools can respond to students’ thinking and interests in ways that previous tools could not… Students will continue to need teachers’ mathematical, pedagogical, and relational expertise, though teachers are also likely to benefit from AI-driven tools. In some cases, AI may serve as a teaching assistant, but students will need teachers to […]
“too many science classes focus on what science knows instead of how it knows, leaving too many unable to spot claims that seem scientific…but aren’t. Science literacy is more than memorizing facts – it’s understanding how the process of science works.”
“In fact, the team’s results show that the strength of the magnetic field in Mesopotamia was more than one and a half times stronger than it is in the area today, with a massive spike happening sometimes between 604 B.C. and 562 B.C. By combining the results of archaeomagnetic tests and the transcriptions of ancient […]
“Bose, who performed for the duchess of Gotha, designed an experiment that turned ladies into electric Venuses. For this demonstration, which he called “Venus electrificata” and which Franklin later renamed the “electric kiss,” a lady stood on an insulated stool while a gentleman tried to kiss her, only to receive painful sparks from her lips. […]
“The researchers identified six effective practices among these games—three focused on the social-emotional aspects of game play, and three related to mathematical practices.”
““Noticing and describing,” according to these people, are not mathematical activities. What is then? Math, to hear many technologists describe it, is the basket of operations you can ask computers to perform, the formal operations that result in either a single correct answer or, if we absolutely must, multiple answers which computers can deterministically evaluate […]
“The foremost principle: Math instruction must be systematic and explicit. Teachers need to give clear and precise instructions and introduce new concepts in small chunks while building on older concepts. Such approaches have been endorsed by dozens of studies highlighted by the Institute of Education Sciences, an arm of the U.S. Education Department that evaluates […]
“In recent years, Parsonnet’s team has found that the average body temperature in the U.S. has dropped from 98.6 F by about 0.05 F every decade since the 19th century, likely due to better health and living conditions that reduce inflammation. They found that today’s normal body temperature hovers closer to 97.9 F… The researchers […]
“How do math teachers select curriculum materials, and what instructional practices do they use? A new EdWeek Research Center survey sheds some light on these questions.”
“In its most extreme version, this new math movement revives an old fight between advocates of teacher-led instruction of step-by-step procedures against those who favor student discovery and a conceptual understanding of math. It also raises new questions about what makes for good evidence in math education and pits well-designed quantitative studies of achievement gains […]
“The basic reason why math fact fluency matters, cognitive scientists say, is that it frees up brainpower or working memory to do more complex mathematical work—like figuring out how to structure a multistep word problem, model a solution, or puzzle out systems of equations. It’s harder for students to do those things when they’re simply […]
“I share my story, one of love of science and discovery, in hopes of inspiring the next generation to enter health-related careers — and to stay the course, regardless of challenges and surprises that might arise.”
“The project helped convince him that image-generating AI will lead to an explosion of creativity that permanently changes humanity’s visual environment. “Anything that can have a visual will have one,” he says, potentially upending people’s intuition for judging how much time or effort was expended on a project. “Suddenly we have this tool that makes […]
“For 3-D printing, whose origins stretch back to the 1980s, the technology, economic and investment trends may finally be falling into place for the industry’s commercial breakout, according to manufacturing experts, business executives and investors.”
“I suggest much of what large pre-trained models do is a form of artificial mimicry. Rather than stochastic parrots, we might call them stochastic chameleons. Parrots repeat canned phrases; chameleons seamlessly blend in new environments. The difference might seem, ironically, a matter of semantics. However, it is significant when it comes to highlighting the capacities, […]
“The additional notes added to the poem continue with some wildly improbable theories about how the sun works. Yet, in his obscure way, Darwin had stumbled on exactly what happens with photosynthesis and plant growth.”
“Richard Mann is the founder of Nerdle, the daily math game inspired by Wordle and launched in January 2022.”
This feat was made possible by a new approach to designing and constructing projects. Using one highly detailed digital three-dimensional model this approach is saving time and money on what can be expensive, slow, and complex building projects…”
“The Modern Mathematics standards for PreK-10th grade encompass traditional branches such as Arithmetic, Geometry, and Algebra, curated for relevance, and augmented by more comprehensive coverage of Statistics/Probabilities, and the explicit introduction of Discrete/Computational mathematics.”
“I was able to see that every product, every device, was a solution to a real-world issue. But that wasn’t being taught in my classes. We were never taught how to conduct interviews or do ethnographic research to figure out the underlying challenges that needed to be tackled. In other words, we were given the […]
“In Euclid, Lincoln found a language in which it’s very hard to dissimulate, cheat or dodge the question. Geometry is a form of honesty. The ultimate reason for young people to learn how to write a proof is that the world is full of bad logic, and we need to know the difference. Geometry teaches […]
“The man was able to type with 95% accuracy just by imagining he was handwriting letters on a sheet of paper, a team reported Wednesday in the journal Nature.”
“Numbers can be at their most dangerous when they are used to control things rather than to understand them.”
“We once obsessed about how to restrain machines we could not predict or control — now we worry about how to use machines to restrain humans we cannot predict or control. But the old problem hasn’t gone away: How do we know whether the machines will do as we wish?”
“In publishing his theory, Loeb has certainly risked (and suffered) ridicule. It seems a good deal more likely that “Extraterrestrial” will be ranked with von Däniken’s work than with Galileo’s. Still, as Serling notes toward the end of “In Search of Ancient Astronauts,” it’s thrilling to imagine the possibilities: “Look up into the sky some […]
“Do you love me, now that I can dance?”
“Artificial intelligence (AI) has solved one of biology’s grand challenges: predicting how proteins curl up from a linear chain of amino acids into 3D shapes that allow them to carry out life’s tasks. Today, leading structural biologists and organizers of a biennial protein-folding competition announced the achievement by researchers at DeepMind, a U.K.-based AI company. […]
“The atoms in a sucrose molecule are usually stacked in a well-ordered lattice, but when this structure becomes what scientists call “amorphous,” its atoms frozen in random chaos, it dissolves on the tongue much more quickly. Incredo’s exponentially more soluble structure rapidly saturates your taste buds, delivering an intense hit of sweetness.”
“One entry looks like an animation straight from a video game. Another is a recreation of Vincent Van Gogh’s famous “Starry Night.” Others could pass for postcards of the iconic Hong Kong skyline or the Eiffel Tower.”
“Most of us know that COVID-19 can be much more severe than a typical flu, but lesser known are the mechanics behind how the virus causes pneumonia in its victims.”
“As humans, we are not good at judging the size of large numbers. And even when we know one is bigger than another, we don’t appreciate the size of the difference… We know a million, a billion, and a trillion are different sizes, but we often don’t appreciate the staggering increases between them. A million […]
“The researchers scanned the forearms of several volunteers and observed common tissue features such as muscle, fat, and bone, down to about 6 centimeters below the skin. These images, comparable to conventional ultrasound, were produced using remote lasers focused on a volunteer from half a meter away.”
“What do people actually do when they do ‘exploratory data analysis’ (EDA)? This 2018 paper reports on the findings from interviews with 30 professional data analysts to see what they get up to in practice.”
“Sophisticated computer software reads the brainwaves and turns them into instructions for controlling the exoskeleton.”
“If you’re not convinced yet, here’s a quick algebraic proof…”
“These three dimensions—disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices—are supposed to be integrated across the curriculum… The requirement that these three dimensions work together is partly why materials have been so hard to develop.
“In tests, JPMorgan Chase found that Persado’s machine-learning tool crafted better ad copy than its own writers could muster, as measured by the higher click rates—more than double in some case—on digital ads for Chase cards and mortgages.”
“The quantum microphone the group developed consists of a series of supercooled nanomechanical resonators, so small that they are visible only through an electron microscope. The resonators are coupled to a superconducting circuit that contains electron pairs that move around without resistance. The circuit forms a quantum bit, or qubit, that can exist in two […]
“A group of Stanford… have created Doggo, a four-legged bot that can dance, backflip, jump and trot without requiring exotic hardware. The mechanical canine is made of readily available supplies that achieve the intended acrobatics at minimal cost — less than $3,000.”
“No one tells birds and other animals how to move together without colliding. Can we examine their behavior to help autonomous vehicles navigate highways and skyways?”
“Four thousand years ago, the Babylonians invented multiplication. Last month, mathematicians perfected it.”
“The image, of a lopsided ring of light surrounding a dark circle deep in the heart of a galaxy known as Messier 87, some 55 million light-years away from Earth, resembled the Eye of Sauron, a reminder yet again of the implacable power of nature. It is a smoke ring framing a one-way portal to eternity.”
“Mercury is closer to Earth, on average, than Venus is because it orbits the Sun more closely. Further, Mercury is the closest neighbor, on average, to each of the other seven planets in the solar system.”
Sparck Jones’s seminal 1972 paper in the Journal of Documentation laid the groundwork for the modern search engine. In it, she combined statistics with linguistics — an unusual approach at the time — to establish formulas that embodied principles for how computers could interpret relationships between words.”
“Elowan is an attempt to demonstrate what augmentation of nature could mean. Elowan’s robotic base is a new symbiotic association with a plant. The agency of movement rests with the plant based on its own bio-electrochemical signals, the language interfaced here with the artificial world. These in turn trigger physiological variations such as elongation growth, […]
“Now MIT engineers have built and flown the first-ever plane with no moving parts. Instead of propellers or turbines, the light aircraft is powered by an “ionic wind” — a silent but mighty flow of ions that is produced aboard the plane, and that generates enough thrust to propel the plane over a sustained, steady […]
“Science is a verb, not a noun. It is not the truth, but it is the best compass we have invented to guide us there… The challenge ahead for science is to avoid extinction. Can we learn from it how to disseminate news that is factual, maybe even good, more rapidly than falsehoods can spread?”
“Henceforth, all seven units in the International System of Units, otherwise known as the S.I., will no longer be defined by material objects and instead will be defined only by abstract constants of nature.”
Challenging these biased algorithms may be more difficult than challenging discrimination by the police, prosecutors and judges. Many algorithms are fiercely guarded corporate secrets. Those that are transparent — you can actually read the code — lack a public audit so it’s impossible to know how much more often they fail for people of color.”
“Symmetry is among the first geometric concepts kids encounter in mathematics. Through hands-on manipulation, they see that it’s possible to rotate, flip and slide shapes around and end up with the shape they started with. This preservation of an object under change has a satisfying resonance — it’s a hint of a deep sense of […]
“This year, 135,992 students took advanced placement (AP) computer science exams, a 31 percent increase from last year… Females and under-represented minorities were among the fastest growing groups. African-American students taking AP computer science courses rose 44 percent to 7,301, Hispanic and Latino participation gained 41 percent to 20,954 and female participation rose 39 percent to 38,195.”
When we learn to play an instrument — say, the guitar — it’s obvious that simply understanding how a chord is constructed isn’t the equivalent of being able to play the chord. Guitar teachers know intuitively that the path to success and creativity at the guitar is to practice until the foundational patterns are deeply ingrained.”
Pairing up growth mindset with worksheets on decimals is a pretty abusive use of Dweck’s research.”
“The idea is that math should be part of the vernacular. When your kid asks, “Can I have some gummy bears?” say, “How many?” She says seven, then you give her three. Then you say, “How many more do you need?” That sort of thing.”
“Perhaps, none… [but] If we do want algorithms, a wide spectrum of approaches is possible: … unplugged: algorithms with no programming, no computers… integrated: algorithms fully integrated with programming and maths.”
“Content matters. But the main focus should be on the way of thinking.”
An orchestra of 120 players takes 40 minutes to play Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. How long would it take for 60 players to play the symphony?”
The Gandalf days of my career are still sharp in my mind. I enrolled in AP Computer Science in August 2012, the same year I would apply for college. It was in AP CS that I wrote my first lines of code. And, in the beginning, I struggled with everything.”
For instance, Boaler is an advocate of “number talks,” in which students work on a problem — say, 5 x 18 — then discuss the different ways each approached it. Successful students intuitively rewrite such problems in friendlier terms, but there are more ways to do that than you might expect.”
“Scientific results today are as often as not found with the help of computers. That’s because the ideas are complex, dynamic, hard to grab ahold of in your mind’s eye. And yet by far the most popular tool we have for communicating these results is the PDF—literally a simulation of a piece of paper. Maybe […]
“What I appreciated most is how humanizing our conversations were of mathematics — in terms of who was doing it — and how much curiosity students brought to the mathematical ideas they were exposed to.”
What should students be learning for the 21st century? This conference will discuss top-level changes in the Mathematics school curriculum, regarding what branches and topics should be added or emphasized and why, and just as crucially, what should be de-emphasized or removed.”
Researchers in Germany have developed a robot that is about a seventh of an inch long and looks at first like no more than a tiny strip of something rubbery. Then it starts moving… The robot hasn’t been tested in humans yet, but the goal is to improve it for medical use — for instance, […]
In October, OSIRIS-REx, a spacecraft that’s bound to intersect an asteroid in August this year, took the photo above from about 5 million km (3 million miles) away from the Earth. NASA posted the picture on Jan. 2, providing the public with a unique view of our planet and its moon. The angle is great […]
Already, his team has built proteins for purposes ranging from fighting flu viruses to breaking down gluten in food to detecting trace amounts of opioid drugs.”
This is the first example of speciation that scientists have been able to observe directly in the field. Researchers followed the entire population of finches on a tiny Galapagos island called Daphne Major, for many years, and so they were able to watch the speciation in progress.”
Philosophy doesn’t seem, to the students, to have any tangibles to show. But, to the contrary, philosophical tangibles are many: Albert Einstein’s philosophical thought experiments made Cassini possible. Aristotle’s logic is the basis for computer science, which gave us laptops and smartphones. And philosophers’ work on the mind-body problem set the stage for the emergence […]
It’s a powerful form of exposition that combines computational thinking on the part of the human author with computational knowledge and computational processing from the computer.”
How and why do atoms acquire the particular form and function of a bacterium, with its optimal configuration for consuming chemical energy? England hypothesizes that it’s a natural outcome of thermodynamics in far-from-equilibrium systems.”
In scarcely more than half a century, neutrinos have gone from wispy, exotic particles at the edge of detectability to tools for investigating matter at its most essential – from prize-worthy quarry to something more like a forensics kit. In retracing that transformation, we catch glimpses of a larger story, of physicists groping toward an […]