Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013 Will Address Mathematician's Role In Climate Research

Scientific societies, research institutes, universities, and science organizations have dedicated 2013 as a special year for the Mathematics of Planet Earth. As part of the dedication, mathematicians will try to understand weather and climate through math.

Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013 (MPE 2013) is an initiative of the science community to encourage research in identifying and solving fundamental questions about planet Earth,encourage educators at all levels to communicate the issues related to Earth, and inform the public about the essential role of the mathematical sciences in facing the challenges to Earth.

MPE also will try and encourage young people interested in sustainability and global issues to consider mathematics as an exciting career choice.

Climate

Climate is the weather condition of an area averaged over a period of time (usually in years). The difference between weather and climate is that weather is the condition of the area in that specified time. Aside from measuring devices such as barometers, weather satellites provide images and data on a global scale on how the present condition of the Earth's climate.

When it comes to forecasting weather and predicting climate there are many factors to consider such as temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed, and elevations. Both weather and climate share these most, if not all, factors.

Mathematics is used to understand the weather and climate models. Short term weather forecasts have become more accurate now compared to 20 years ago. Computers have helped with this development but more so with the mathematics used by these computer models.

Earning A Doctorate Degree or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

A Doctoral Degree (PhD) is the highest academic degree that one can attain. The student is conferred a level of Doctor of Philosophy. The word "philosophy" in this context refers to the original greek meaning of the word (philosophia) which means 'love of wisdom'. A person who earns a Ph.D. is addressed with the title 'Doctor'.

Requirements for earning a doctorate degree vary from country to country and from school to school. Fundamentally, one must master the subject completely and extend the body of knowledge about it to attain a PhD. A PhD program demands extensive studying and dedicated effort from the student.

Mastering A Subject

Before applying for a doctorate degree, most universities require that the student has earned a Bachelor's degree (usually a four year undergraduate course) and a Master's degree, a post-graudate degree course that follows a bachelor's degree.

High Level of Math Anxiety Linked To Brain Regions For Physical Pain and Threat Detection

Ask any student what subject gives the most anxiety and chances are the answer would be math. Millions of kids have problems with math, they struggle to understand the subject often creating high levels of mathematics anxiety (HMAs).

This form of anxiety creates stress that even uses the brainpower needed to learn and solve math problems. Those who suffer HMA report feelings of tension, apprehension, and fear of math.

In her 1978 book, Overcoming Math Anxiety, Shiela Tobias writes that math anxiety causes people to have low self-esteem, lack of confidence and is predisposed to failure. She states that "math anxiety is not a failure of inellect but a failure of nerve...". She further points out the difference on how culture looks at math, Asians credit hard work in succeeding in mathematics, Americans look at it as an ability.

STEM Jobs Act Giving Green Cards To Foreign Students Hit a Snag

The STEM Jobs Act authored by Texas Representative Lamar Smith(R) would give US Green Cards to around 55,000 foreign born students who are taking up STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses in US colleges and universities.

Its goal was to keep these students in the United States which would increase the country's brain trust and also have a highly skilled workforce for industry and technology. For the students and graduates, it was an easier way of acquiring citizenship in the United States.

The STEM jobs act was simplified as an act of "stapling a green card to their (foreign students) diplomas."

The proposed bill would also help bring the US back to the forefront of science and technology by utilizing foreign students studying in the country was rejected by the US House of Representatives.

Sadly, the bill came up short when it was voted on. Only 30 democrats voted on the bill with all but 5 republicans gave their approval bringing the positive vote to 257. But because the bill was brought to the floor under special consideration which suspends House rules, the required vote needed for the bill was 274 votes.

ESO News: Launch of UNESCO–IAU Astronomical Heritage Web Portal

Buildings and monuments relating to astronomy throughout the ages stand as a tribute to the diverse and often complex ways in which people have rationalised the cosmos and framed their actions in accordance with their understanding of it. This includes, but is by no means restricted to, the development of modern science.

The importance of the sky in human heritage was recognised by UNESCO when it established its Astronomy and World Heritage Initiative in 2003, and in 2008 it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the IAU. Since then, the two organisations have been working together to promote astronomical sites of potential “Outstanding Universal Value”.

The online portal is the latest and potentially most significant deliverable from the accord set up between UNESCO and the IAU four years ago, and results directly from a collaboration between the IAU’s Astronomy and World Heritage Working Group (AWHWG) and the Ancient Skies Project set up through the IYA2009 Astronomy and World Heritage Cornerstone Project. Professor Clive Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy at the University of Leicester, UK, is Chair of the AWHWG. He said: “A lot of our most precious astronomical heritage — both ancient and modern — is under threat. If we don’t act to try to protect and preserve it, we run the risk of losing it. Over the coming months and years this web portal will become ‘the’ vehicle for actively supporting, as well as sustaining, political and public interest in the promotion and protection of astronomical heritage sites, both cultural and natural.”

A previous AWHWG milestone was the Thematic Study on Astronomical Heritage produced in 2010 by the IAU, working together with ICOMOS, UNESCO’s advisory body for cultural sites. Endorsed by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee in 2010, the Thematic Study provides guidelines for UNESCO member states on the inscription of astronomical properties. Much of its content has been incorporated onto the portal.

The portal contains:

• a range of general information pages;
• thematic essays and case studies, searchable geographically and temporally using a specially developed “heritage finder” tool; and
• a discussion forum permitting authorised users to discuss current entries, propose additions and changes, propose new heritage entities (case studies), and discuss general issues.

The portal will not only feature sites and monuments, but also other types of astronomical heritage such as portable instruments and intangible cultural practices, as well as dark-sky places.

Background TV Affects Cognitive And Reading Skills Of Children

The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages children before the age of 2 in watching television. The first two years is a critical time for development such as language acquisition. A child's brain triples in size during the first two years of life.

Aside from watching TV, even background TV may be detrimental to a child's mental development.

Background TV is a term used when the television is on without anyone actively watching. For children, background TV may mean that they are present near a television not watching the program being shown but doing something else.

Parents often watch a television show while a child plays nearby. Studies show that background TV affects the child as he or she plays with toys, even if they don't seem to be interested in the program. It reports that having the television on in the background can disrupt toddlers as they play with toys, causing them to lose focus during play which may lead to learning problems as they grow up.

American children exposed to high amounts of harmful background TV.

Children from the age of 8 months to 8 years are exposed to nearly 4 hours of background TV per day, according to a top paper to be presented at the International Communication Association's annual conference (Phoenix, AZ, May 24-28).

The study surveyed 1,454 English-speaking households with children between the ages of 8 months to 8-years-old. Younger children and African-American children were exposed to higher amounts of background TV. Models were included to explore whether demographic variables including child gender, ethnicity, race, age, and/or family income are associated with different levels of background TV. The report states that the rates are higher in minority households.

Previous research has shown that children with high exposure to background TV have been linked to poor performance in cognitive and reading tasks.

New Teaching Technique Provides Higher Reading Skills Among Preschoolers

Before learning to read, preschoolers have to develop skills necessary to engage in the activity.

From learning the alphabet, identifying letters in words, and learning how to pronounce basic words, children aged 3 years old to 4 years old slowly transition from just sounding out words to understanding simple basic sentences. Reading is a skill that is a result of smaller skills that just builds up on top of the other.

Encouraging youngsters to start reading is very helpful. It helps reinforce those skills and helps the child further progress. Once the child enters preschool, he or she is exposed to a more structured form of learning. Although, there is play time scheduled within the classes, the curriculum pushes forwards the necessary skills (such as reading) the child needs to learn to advance to the next level.

Preschoolers' reading skills benefit from one modest change by teachers

A small change in how teachers and parents read aloud to preschoolers may provide a big boost to their reading skills later on, a new study found.

That small change involves making specific references to print in books while reading to children – such as pointing out letters and words on the pages, showing capital letters, and showing how you read from left to right and top to bottom on the page.

Preschool children whose teachers used print references during storybook reading showed more advanced reading skills one and even two years later when compared to children whose teachers did not use such references. This is the first study to show causal links between referencing print and later literacy achievement.

Weekend Fun: 15 Things You Didn't Know About Outer Space

Did you know that by it's most accurate definition, there are only 14 known black holes? Or that the moon moves away from Earth each year? Or that Saturn if put in a big enough pool, would float? Well, here are some other things about the Universe and of outer space that would be fun to know.

Weekend Video: Bikini Calculus: A Fun Way To Learn Calculus

So, take an MIT Nuclear Engineering Graduate and a Playboy model, tell them to wear sexy clothing and talk about calculus and what do you get?

Yep. Bikini Calculus.

Don't be confused. It really is a tutorial on Calculus, albeit different. The tutors are two sexy women in bikinis. And before there are any complaints, Paige earned a master's degree from MIT in Nuclear Engineering. At the time of the video, she is pursuing a PhD and an M.D. in two universities. She has also won two rodeo world championships.

This tongue in cheek video is a fun watch for those who want to relearn or even learn calculus in a different way. Watch the video below.

Text Messaging Limits Brain From Accepting New Words

The 21st century has greatly changed the way people communicate. Email, Social Networks, Online messaging, and SMS messaging or texting are the major channels of communication for this generation. But some teachers think the changes are not all for the better.

Eleanor Johnson, an English professor at Columbia University in New York City says that text messaging has made students believe that it is acceptable to make bad spelling and grammatical errors. She says her students have increasingly used less formal English in their writing. She says words and phrases like "guy" and "you know" now appear in research papers.

Research designed to understand the effect of text messaging on language found that texting has a negative impact on people's linguistic ability to interpret and accept words.

The study, conducted by Joan Lee for her master's thesis in linguistics, revealed that those who texted more were less accepting of new words. On the other hand, those who read more traditional print media such as books, magazines, and newspapers were more accepting of the same words.

The study asked university students about their reading habits, including text messaging, and presented them with a range of words both real and fictitious.

7 Hours is Optimal Sleep For High School Students Before A Test

After analyzing data of close to 2,000 students, a new Brigham Young University study found that 16-18 year olds perform better academically when they have seven hours of sleep. The U.S. Federal guidelines prescribe nine hours.

“We’re not talking about sleep deprivation,” says study author Eric Eide. “The data simply says that seven hours is optimal at that age.”

The study breaks down the optimal sleeping time by age.

The new study by Eide and fellow BYU economics professor Mark Showalter is the first in a series of studies where they examine sleep and its impact on our health and education. Surprisingly, the current federal guidelines are based on studies where teens were simply told to keep sleeping until they felt satisfied.

Words About Size and Shape Help Promote Spatial Skills in Children

Spatial skills gives the child the ability to manipulate images in his or her mind and apply it to the physical world.

Think of it as showing a child a picture of a stack of blocks, spatial skills allows the child to recreate the structure using real blocks just by looking at the picture.

In a study by Susan Levine, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, she notes that pre-school children who hear parents use words describing the size and shape of objects, (like "big", "small", "round", "tiny") and who then use those words in their day to day interactions do much better on tests of their spatial skills.

The study is the first to show that teaching children to use a wide range of words relating to size and shape may improve their later spatial skills. The study notes that children aged 1 to 4 yrs old who have heard and then spoke 45 additional spatial words describing size and shape had an average of 23% increase in their scores on non-verbal assessment of spatial thinking.

The study is published in the current issue of Developmental Science. Lead author Shannon Pruden, assistant professor of psychology at Florida International University and former postdoctoral fellow at UChicago, and Janellen Huttenlocher, the William S. Gray Professor Emeritus in Psychology at UChicago joined Levine in the study.

Levine says,"In view of findings that show spatial thinking is an important predictor of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) achievement and careers, it is important to explore the kinds of early inputs that are related to spatial thinking,"

Video: Susan Levine discusses her study on Spatial Skills in Children

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education is important for the current crop of science and technology innovators. A National Science Board report in 2007 state that in order to succeed in a highly technological society, students need to develop their STEM capabilities to levels far more above than acceptable levels the previous years. Enhancing spatial thinking is an important component of achieving this goal.

Soo-Siang Lim, the Director for the Science of Learning Centers Program at the National Science Foundation, says, "This study is important because it will help parents and caregivers to better recognize and to seek opportunities that enhance children's spatial learning. Study results could also help spatial learning play a more purposeful role in children's learning trajectories."

Levine discusses the research and the study in the video.

The research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and an award from the National Science Foundation’s Science of Learning Center program to the University’s Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center.