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Help students avoid online hurt
The average young person is online nearly eight hours each day, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, and most of this time is outside of school. Although anxiety about children’s Internet use once focused mainly on security and adult predators, increased student use has led to concerns about the ways children present themselves online and what these presentations mean for their futures.
In early 2010, a student from South Hadley, Mass., committed suicide after being bullied online. This incident and others like it show that many young people do not fully understand how their actions on the Internet can be both public and permanent. The incident has led states to re-examine their bullying policies so they’re focused more on prevention than punishment. It has also led school districts around the country to present classes on Internet use and etiquette to their students.
Classes offered by companies such as Common Sense Media (www.commonsensemedia.org) address the line between public and private, which many students don’t understand. Courses focus on identity (presenting yourself online), privacy (the fact that most everything published online is public), ownership (plagiarism and reproductions of other works), credibility (using legitimate sources for research) and community (interacting with others on the Web). Some experts believe Internet mechanics, such as information about cookies and viruses, should be taught as well in order to balance a student’s technological education.
Source: The New York Times
Cornell professor crafts math
Diana Taimina, an adjunct professor at Cornell University, has been using her crochet hook and yarn to teach students about hyperbolic geometry for more than a decade. Her studies in non-Euclidean geometry, in which students are asked to “imagine” concepts, made her want to see math in a more tangible way.
Crochet allows Taimina to explain hyperbolic math—math in more than two dimensions—with works of art that draw from natural forms such as coral and holly leaves. The real-world applications of hyperbolic geometry include the study of skin growth on wounds and computer animation.
See Taimina’s work in her book Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes and at her blog, http://hyperbolic-crochet.blogspot.com
Source: CNN’s SciTechBlog, www.cnn.com/TECH
Sleep in for better academic performance
Students at a private high school in Rhode Island took part in a recent study that shows pushing the start of the school day back 30 minutes leads to students who are more likely to attend class and who are less depressed, more alert and happier.
Sleep cycles shift as much as two hours during puberty, which causes distinct differences in the amount of sleep needed by high school students compared with younger students. High school-aged kids are not physically able to fall asleep as early but still need the same amount of sleep, so early start times make it difficult for them to obtain their physically required amounts.
For the study, 200 students filled out sleep habit questionnaires prior to and after the start time change. After the change, students went to bed an average of 18 minutes later and got up 45 minutes later. The percentage of students getting at least eight hours of sleep each night rose from 16.4 percent to 54.7 percent, and the number of students getting fewer than seven hours of sleep decreased 80 percent.
Source: Healthy Day, www.healthyday.com
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