Category Archives: Learning Related

How Children Succeed

Marshmallows Image by John-Morgan at Flickr.com

Radio Lab

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/96056-your-future-marshmallow

    • Walter Mischel- Marshmallow study
      • 2-5 years old
      • Concept of delayed gratification starts around the age of 4
        • They increased dramatically compared to 2-3 year olds
      • Children would get 1 marshmallow now or if they waited they’d would get 2
      • Tested 500~ children total
      • After 10~ years the children who performed better in the initial test were successful later in school
        • Seconds of their wait time had correlation to their SAT scores
          • 210 points
      • Also kept track of health, body mass, goal keeping

This American Life

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/474/back-to-school

    • Parents tend to be anxious about children’s brains and test scores
    • What matters in child’s life is not the skills school teaches mostly
    • GED- high school graduation exam
      • Class claimed to change people’s attitude in 2 months
    • If its true, why do we have schools
    • Is GED same as high school?
    • Farther investigation showed GED students performed slightly better than undergraduates, but didn’t perform as good as high school students
      • Performance in occupation, reading, success rates in college/marriage/military….
      • This didn’t show up in the test results, however
    • GED and high school, in terms of score/passing, its only cognitive ability
    • Non-cognitive ability affecting this?
      • Character
      • Self regulation, self consciousness, delaying gratification,  resisting impulse
    • Why testing?
        • Testing can be showed in data form, while character is not quantifiable (cognitive)
        • Character testing is also expensive, and school runs on taxpayer money (non-cognitive)
    • Poverty is unhealthy environment that gives off stress to children, which in turn makes them perform less in school environment
    • Stress hormones distracts students from learning
      • Adrenaline- short term
      • Cortisone- long term
      • Learning part of the brain shuts off, and only fight or flight is active
    • Repeated stress affects development of brain, especially pre-frontal cortex
      • Hard to pay attention
      • 1/4 of low income students had short attention span
    • Kewauna- traumatic childhood (dramatic experience)
      • Always angry, but never knew why
        • Bad temper / anger control
      • 72 referrals in 6th grade
        • Sent to the ‘Wings’ program, was not a productive class
        • Got arrested for punching a cop (assault of a police) when she was 15
        • Her mom didn’t want Kewauna to have the same life as her
        • Entered a program in high school that taught students non- cognitive skills
        • Her grades and SAT scores improved after learning the non- cognitive skills, eventually got accepted to University
    • Stress from family issues couldn’t be resolved with school
    • Non- cognitive skills can be learned even when someone is old
    • Nurture at young age leads to better performance as an adult
    • 8% of Chicago high school freshmen will graduate from college
      • One goal program (Kewauna)? 85% of them returned to college as sophomores

Internet Safety Tips

CC Image “Internet symbol” by Christiaan Colen Flickr

https://www.missingkids.org/netsmartz/videos#middleandhighschool

Internet Safety Tips

  • Fighting doesn’t solve anything
  • Talk to an adult
  • Listen to each other, try to see from each other’s POV
  • Personal information should be kept private
  • Never meet a person you first met online
  • Ignore harassment online
  • Don’t post regrettable pictures or information
  • Online does have offline consequences, including legal

Listen Smart – Safely Handling the Power of Sound

CC Image by “sound board” J. McPherskesen Flickr

Can You Hear This?

Hearing Test: http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/can-you-hear-this-hearing-test/

Sound Levels: http://makeitlouder.com/Decibel%20Level%20Chart.txt

 

Listen Smart- Safely Handling the Power of Sound

  • Sound is measured in decibels, loudness of sound
  • Prolonged exposure to  loud sounds, starting at 80 db can cause hearing deterioration
  • Pain starts to occur at 125 db
  • Once its damaged, it cant be repaired
  • Doesn’t only affect old people- young people can be affected too
  • 10-20% of high school students have partial hearing loss
  • More than 1/3 of all hearing loss is attributed to noise
  • People tend to not worry about hearing loss
  • Can happen quick as 30 seconds or gradually over time
  • Cochlear hair cells are used for hearing, and they cannot be replaced
  • Losing the hair cells mean losing the ability to hear
  • 28 million americans are hearing impaired
  • Ringing in ears are temporary but can be permanent
  • Prevention is important, music artists protect their ears especially on stage
  • Cotton and tissues cannot protect your ears
  • Ear plugs are available at the drug store

SoundAdvice.info For Audio Career Tips

  • Bars, nightclubs, orchestras, theaters, and recording studios, for example, are most susceptible to loud sounds
  • Reducing noises in music is to protect people, both performers and audiences, not to destroy art
  • Employers will need to prevent/reduce the risks of noises at work to protect the worker’s hearing.
  • Employers are required to prevent or reduce the hearing damage received at work, within reasonable amounts under The Control of Noise at Work Regulations, 2005
  • The law also states that employers and employees must prevent or reduce the hearing damage on the general public, too
  • To protect your hearing, choose a device that decreases noise to around 85 dB, and peak to 137 dB
  • Over-protection will make the wearer feel isolated
  • Properly clean the device for it to be effective

Sound Levels Chart

Image from hearnet.com