Cause and Effect Activities for Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Children Looking for cause and effect activities? While cause and effect may seem like a literacy strategy discussing what happens between characters or story events, the idea of cause and effect can be applied to literally every aspect of our lives. Seriously – every single one! The consequences of our behavior, the weather, life cycles, season changes, mixing primary colors, government decisions, our food choices… you get the point. Every cause has an effect and by teaching this idea through various activities and strategies, you’re not only allowing students to understand the concept in a deeper way, but you’re creating higher level and critical thinkers in the process! I have...
A few years back I purchased an Amazon Echo device for my mom, a septuagenarian who previously had expressed little inclination to use the voice assistant aid offered by her phone. Fortunately she was beginning to show interest in trying a standalone device to serve her daily inquiries about the weather, stocks and news, so I set her up with two Echo devices, both which almost immediately became a favorite everyday tool. Its success can be attributed to Alexa’s unwavering ability to comprehend her ceaseless queries from the comfort of her sofa, alongside the ring of light integrated to offer a friendly visual cue that her command or question was heard. Amazon’s more recent effort, the Echo Show 10, builds...
By Corrie Pikul-Brown Since the 1950s, political scientists have theorized that political polarization—increased numbers of “political partisans” who view the world with an ideological bias—is associated with an inability to tolerate uncertainty and a need to hold predictable beliefs about the world. But little is known about the biological mechanisms through which such biased perceptions arise. To investigate that question, scientists measured and compared the brain activity of committed partisans (both liberals and conservatives) as they watched real political debates and news broadcasts. In a recent study, they found that polarization was exacerbated by intolerance of uncertainty: liberals with this trait tended to be more liberal in how they viewed political events, conservatives with this trait tended to be...
We’ve seen the teasers. We’ve read the stories. The divorce of Erika Jayne from Tom Girardi is far more complex than she’s led as to believe. The truth is starting to unravel this week. and the ladies are finally getting to react. What did she know? Did she know anything at all? Is their divorce a sham? These are the questions on everyone’s lips following all of these new developments. Only two people know the cold hard truth; Erika & Tom. On last week’s episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, things got nasty. The feud between Crystal Kung Minkoff & Sutton Stracke reached volcanic level animosity. It’s devolved to the point of no return. They can’t stand each other....
Basic safety needs in the paleolithic era have largely evolved with the onset of the industrial and cognitive revolutions. We interact a little less with raw materials, and interface a little more with machines. Robots don’t have the same hardwired behavioral awareness and control, so secure collaboration with humans requires methodical planning and coordination. You can likely assume your friend can fill up your morning coffee cup without spilling on you, but for a robot, this seemingly simple task requires careful observation and comprehension of human behavior. Scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have recently created a new algorithm to help a robot find efficient motion plans to ensure physical safety of its human counterpart. In...
