Kiara shitposts @catcurator - Tumblr Blog

i don't know what older adults were on about when they said being a teenager was good <3

the solution to the Mathematician's Lament is to teach calculus in early grade school if not kindergarten & i am being 100% unironic

zvaigzdelasas

Why playing with algebraic and calculus concepts—rather than doing arithmetic drills—may be a better way to introduce children t

The familiar, hierarchical sequence of math instruction starts with counting, followed by addition and subtraction, then multiplication and division. The computational set expands to include bigger and bigger numbers, and at some point, fractions enter the picture, too. Then in early adolescence, students are introduced to patterns of numbers and letters, in the entirely new subject of algebra. A minority of students then wend their way through geometry, trigonometry and, finally, calculus, which is considered the pinnacle of high-school-level math.

But this progression actually “has nothing to do with how people think, how children grow and learn, or how mathematics is built,” says pioneering math educator and curriculum designer Maria Droujkova. She echoes a number of voices from around the world that want to revolutionize the way math is taught, bringing it more in line with these principles.

The current sequence is merely an entrenched historical accident that strips much of the fun out of what she describes as the “playful universe” of mathematics, with its more than 60 top-level disciplines, and its manifestations in everything from weaving to building, nature, music and art. Worse, the standard curriculum starts with arithmetic, which Droujkova says is much harder for young children than playful activities based on supposedly more advanced fields of mathematics.

“Calculations kids are forced to do are often so developmentally inappropriate, the experience amounts to torture,” she says. They also miss the essential point—that mathematics is fundamentally about patterns and structures, rather than “little manipulations of numbers,” as she puts it. It’s akin to budding filmmakers learning first about costumes, lighting and other technical aspects, rather than about crafting meaningful stories.

finalgirlfall

mathematician's lament pdf on github

#sci

marsoluv

Mihawk hc? I felt like he'd be cupioromantic and hypersexual (I don't know why). He's confident in his technical abilities but doubts his humanity because of how he feels. In a world where love is considered to be a pinnacle of humanity, he feels inhuman. In a world where extreme lust is condemned, he feels like a sinner.

rherlotshadow

Fallen in love with this place, this swooningly picturesque gothic ruin, a true green chapel cloaked in ivy, on the hill among the woods.

mindblowingscience

The study of dental microwear allows the analysis of the microscopic marks that foods leave on the surface of tooth enamel during masticatio

The study of dental microwear allows the analysis of the microscopic marks that foods leave on the surface of tooth enamel during mastication. In paleoanthropology, this methodology helps reconstruct the diet of fossil primates and hominins throughout human evolution. The microscopic striations in dental enamel are like microscopic archives that reveal whether the diet was rich in foods with softer or more abrasive components. Now, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports presents an innovative artificial intelligence (AI)-based methodology for identifying 3D wear patterns consistently and independently of the analyst. These 3D wear patterns differ among primates inhabiting diverse ecosystems and following different diets. The study also identifies which variables are most informative for the classification of dental microwear and proposes an analytical framework open to the entire scientific community for studying this type of surface.

#sci

fairycosmos

girl help i'm turning 30 in a few days and i've done fuck all with my life

fuck all is a classic 30 year old thing to do. youre right on track

hunnismokah

hes so breedable WHAT who said that

yuriskies

Gonna step outside my usual programming a bit because that light pollution take and a lot of the responses to it aggravated me so much.

No, wanting to see the night sky isn't a twee retvrn to ghibli-ass take. It's not a matter of some anprim impulse to dismantle industrial society for ~nature aesthetics~, it's an extremely visible symptom of environmental degradation that gets downplayed because the externality seems trivial to most people: "Oh no, the night sky, what ever will we do without it."

But it actively disrupts light-sensitive circadian rhythms in plants and wildlife, which disrupts foraging patterns, reproductive and hibernation cycles, and contributes to wildlife population declines. It's not the major contributor to those declines, but it's an additional point of stress in an ecosystem already stressed by climate change and other forms of industrial pollution. And so much of it is wholly unnecessary.

I don't think people realize how far-reaching the problem is, either. That light isn't just confined to the places people use. You don't escape it by just taking the bus to the edge of town. That light carries, in some cases for hundreds of kilometers. Death Valley has some of the darkest skies in the US, and yet, the dome of light above Las Vegas is visible on the horizon over 250 km away! Anywhere within 50 km of a major urban center, just about anywhere in the world, never gets darker than a night under a full moon.

And this is very much a recent problem too. Before the switchover to LEDs, it was relatively expensive to light places. That meant actually accounting for the energy use and making sure it was being used where it was needed. That light was also warm-colored, so it didn't travel as far. With the decreased cost of lighting, it became standard to light places like daytime whenever they might be needed. Lighting didn't get safer, it just got more thoughtless.

The reason you see astronomy-types sounding the alarm most loudly is because they're the ones who have been seeing the full effects of light pollution and its encroachment on dark skies. It's a hobby for me too, but it's partly because I am a night owl who grew up in a small town with nothing else to do. I used to be able to clearly see the Milky Way horizon to horizon when I grew up in the mid-00s. The last time I visited about five years ago, I could only see it overhead. The population has fallen by like 10%, but the skies are brighter. I can tell when the college decided to leave the football stadium lights overnight. I can tell where the car dealerships that added overnight display lights are. I can even see when trucks with the fuckass LED light bars are coming over a hill from 5 km away.

I'm all for well-lit, safe, and accessible spaces for people to work and play at night. But there is an impact from lighting, and it can and should be regulated like any other point source pollution. It's a pretty straightforward and materialist assessment. But go off about the big scary anprims are coming for your society so people can see the stars I guess, that's not at all a reactionary response to hearing about a problem

madgastronomer

#also a lot of the time the solution to light pollution is so stupidly easy it should be a no brainer to do it#like using more directional shades on streetlights#or different color lights instead of bright white#like#you do not actually have to live in the dark all the time to mitigate this problem!!#this is easier than fixing the ozone and we did that!

Okay, but that's an important point! Don't leave the important point in tags!

blckgirlacid

I need my weird alone time or I will explode

neurodivergentaf

it's so wild when your parent changes when you become an adult. my dad is very cordial and non confrontational - he regularly helps me with adult stuff like changing the oil or providing insurance tips. he's always smiling when i call him on video and providing jokes when i complain about college

when i was a kid, i would have to tiptoe around his anger issues often, sometimes running quietly past his work table until he got his own place completely separate from our family, locked away for days. every so often he would start screaming in the car and trying to hit me or my brother for talking too loud while my mom attempted to calm him down as he swerved on the road. and now he, smiling, helps me with car insurance.

like oh, this is just who you are when you have power over someone, and this is who you are when you dont have power over someone. no wonder you can have a normal life, friends, work while scaring the shit out of your kids and wife. i see it now. i see why no one would have believed me. that, i think, is one of the core fears of trauma - seeing the outside of it from the perspective of other adults that brushed you aside, and understanding. of course, that understanding gives the opposite of solace; it just gives you more grief with nowhere for it to go

darkelfchicksick

big news for people who are me

Archaeologists uncovered a 1,000-year-old Viking textile production center near Aarhus, revealing large-scale cloth making and trade.

The site sits near Søften in eastern Jutland, about 10 kilometers north of modern Aarhus. Excavations by the Moesgaard Museum show a planned production area instead of a normal farming village. The settlement covered at least 100,000 square meters. Most of the work focused on making textiles, though other forms of handwork also took place there.

Researchers found an area where flax was prepared before workers turned the plant into linen. They also uncovered 82 pit houses, small sunken buildings linked with Viking workshops. Many held spindle whorls and loom weights, showing cloth production took place on a large scale.

#sci