4. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button to address that student directly.
On Wednesday, March 9, teachers from our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.
5. By Friday morning, March 11, we will reveal more information about the graph, including a free link to the article that includes this graph, at the bottom of this post. We encourage you to post additional comments based on the article, possibly using statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets.
Reveal
We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!
• Learn more about the notice and wonder teaching strategy from this 5-minute video and how and why other teachers are using this strategy from our on-demand webinar.
• Sign up for our free weekly Learning Network newsletter so you never miss a graph. Graphs are always released by the Friday before the Wednesday live-moderation to give teachers time to plan ahead.
• Go to the American Statistical Association K-12 website, which includes teacher statistics resources, Census in the Schools student-generated data, professional development opportunities, and more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this illustration — or, tell us about a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
WASHINGTON — President Biden vowed on Tuesday to make President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia “pay a price” for invading Ukraine, seeking to rally the world as Moscow’s forces rained down missiles on Ukrainian cities and prepared to lay siege to the capital of Kyiv.
Appearing before a joint session of Congress at a fraught moment in modern history, Mr. Biden called for a united resistance to defend the international order endangered by Russian aggression and warned the oligarchs who bolster Mr. Putin’s regime that he would seize their luxury yachts and private jets.
“Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the very foundations of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways,” Mr. Biden said. “But he badly miscalculated. He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead, he met with a wall of strength he never anticipated or imagined. He met the Ukrainian people.”
Hailing the heroism of the Ukrainian resistance, Mr. Biden introduced Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, who joined Jill Biden in the first lady’s box holding a small blue-and-white Ukrainian flag. In a show of bipartisan solidarity, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, some of them wearing blue and yellow and many of them waving Ukrainian flags, leapt to their feet in an ovation to her and her country.
While the guns of Europe overshadowed the political disputes at home that have weighed down his presidency, Mr. Biden sought to use his first formal State of the Union address to persuade glum Americans that the country is making impressive progress containing the coronavirus pandemic and rebuilding the economy.
He made a fresh pitch for the social spending programs that have been logjammed in Congress, including expanded child care, elder care, prekindergarten education, climate change initiatives and prescription-drug price cuts, without explaining how he planned to overcome the opposition. And he vowed to take action to curb inflation, saying “my top priority is getting prices under control.”
Two years after the pandemic transformed American life, Mr. Biden declared that “we’ve reached a new moment in the fight against Covid-19,” and he generated bipartisan applause by calling for schools to remain open. “Our kids need to be in school,” he said. Yet he warned against complacency and called on lawmakers who have demonstrated unity over Ukraine to put aside their differences at home.
“Let’s use this moment to reset,” he said in the hourlong speech. “So stop looking at Covid as a partisan dividing line. See it for what it is: a God-awful disease. Let’s stop seeing each other as enemies. Let’s start seeing each other for who we are: fellow Americans.”
But the discord of today’s politics erupted in the chamber in ways that would have once been unthinkable. When Mr. Biden talked about immigration reform, Representative Lauren Boebert, a far-right Republican from Colorado given to angry spectacle and conspiracies, tried to start a “build the wall” chant but was joined only by a like-minded colleague, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia.
For more background and context, students might watch this Times video of President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address, from January 2016, and this video of Mr. Trump’s final State of the Union address, in February 2020. And you can follow along via this page for all Times coverage on the State of the Union address.
Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
By Scott Shireman, Global Head of Coursera for Campus
University students today are graduating into a new labor market reshaped by automation and the pandemic that demands new skills. According to the ILO, the global youth employment rate fell by more than twice as much as the rate among adults in 2020. The changing skills landscape is creating workforce opportunities, with 149 million new digital jobs expected to be added to the global economy by 2025. However, employers and students alike feel there is a mismatch between the skills students are graduating with and the skills required in the workplace.
The Campus Skills Report 2022, published today, explores skill trends among student learners across the globe and identifies key steps that higher education institutions can take to better align with industry, improve student employability, and increase student enrollments.
Drawing from Coursera’s 3.8 million registered student learners across 3,700 free and paid campus customers, the Campus Skills Report 2022 measures the skill proficiencies of campus learners for 5 emerging roles, provides skill-to-job pathways for 10 academic disciplines, and highlights learner skill trends for 9 countries. Importantly, while certain students use self-guided online learning to acquire skills on their own, others are guided by curated programs implemented by their higher education institutions in partnership with Coursera.
Our skills trends analysis of students on Cousera reveals the following insights:
The jobs of the future that students want, according to their major
The top jobs by student demand are data scientist, data analyst, software engineer, machine learning engineer, and marketing specialist. For example, in India, roughly 18% of Coursera for Campus students surveyed want to be software engineers, while 15% want to be data scientists.
While students around the world have made some progress in obtaining baseline proficiency in job-relevant skills, the majority have yet to meet the target proficiency needed to transition into these jobs.
Arts and humanities students who aspire to become professors and K-12 teachers are prioritizing communication, research, and writing skills.
Business students express similar levels of interest in data analysis and financial analysis as they do in marketing and consulting. To build data fluency, they are seeking out computer programming and machine learning skills.
Engineering students’ top jobs are software engineer and data scientist, so they are prioritizing core skills like mathematics, statistical programming, and computer programming.
Data scientist is a preferred job for health sciences students, who are acquiring data analysis, data management, and general statistics skills that can help them contribute to healthcare technology.
Social sciences students’ top job choices are researcher, data analyst, and economist. To complement their research skills, they are developing statistical programming and business analysis skills.
The skills that empower students to become software engineers.
The skills students are prioritizing to prepare for jobs in countries around the world
To prepare for jobs in a fast-growing digital economy, students in India are seeking out foundational and emerging digital skills, from C programming to cloud computing.
The majority of students on Coursera in the Philippines are women: a trend that higher education leaders can seize to close gender-based skills gaps in STEM fields.
Students in Egypt gravitate towards technology skills like software architecture, software testing, and software engineering in preparation for launching their own ventures in the country’s growing startup scene.
To thrive in the face of rapid technological change, students in the United States are pairing technology skills with human skills, such as decision making and change management.
A high number of students in Colombia are learning programming, software, and data analysis skills: a promising trend as the country prioritizes technology-driven endeavors.
The top skills that students in India are seeking out.
To compete amid rapid transformation, higher education institutions are increasingly connecting skills-based learning to skills-based hiring and, in doing so, preparing their students to enter high-growth digital jobs.
Naming a programming language is kind of like naming your kid — it’s a personal decision that lots of people will have opinions about, no matter what you decide.
When you’re choosing a programming language to learn, it’s easy to be intimidated or just plain confused by the names. But often a programming language’s name doesn’t have anything to do with its functionality or ease of use. Sometimes, it’s just a name that programmers chose on a whim (looking at you, Java).
That said, knowing some of the fun facts about the history of programming languages can come in handy next time you’re making small talk with another developer or attending a trivia night. Here are the stories of how popular programming languages got named.
Java
Back in 1991, Java creator James Gosling just looked out his office window for inspiration: Why not name it Oak, after an oak tree? Turns out, there were too many potential copyright issues with Oak, so the company Sun Microsystems held a brainstorming session for a new name.
“The goal was a name that sounded revolutionary, lively, dynamic and was easy to spell and remember,” Georges Saab, the vice president of development for Java, told The New York Times. Some of the frontrunners included: Silk, DNA, Lyric, Pepper, NetProsse, Neon, Ruby, WebRunner Language, WebDancer, and WebSpinner. The name Java was derived from Java coffee, hence the coffee cup logo. Plus, the name fit because “programmers drink a lot of java,” Jim Waldo, a Harvard computer scientist who worked at Sun Microsystems, told The Times.
JavaScript
In 1995, Brendan Eich invented JavaScript in just 10 days. At the time, Eich worked at Netscape, and wanted to make an accessible and malleable programming language. People were already familiar with Java, so the name JavaScript wasn’t completely random — but JavaScript has nothing to do with Java. “The name is a total lie,” Eich said in a 2012 interview with Computer. “It’s not really related to Java so much as to a common ancestor C in syntax.”
JavaScript was originally named Mocha, then later renamed to LiveScript, and finally JavaScript.
There was some drama between Java and JavaScript that ended in a licensing agreement, Brandon, a full-stack developer in Brooklyn, told Codecademy. Sun Microsystems, the company behind Java, allowed Netscape to name its language JavaScript in exchange for allowing Java to run inside Netscape’s web browser, he said.
Python
A python snake might be scary, but Python the programming language is not.
The name “was a bit of unwitting marketing genius on my part,” Guido Van Rossum, the Dutch programmer who invented Python in 1991, wrote in a 2016 blog. “I meant to honor the irreverent comedic genius of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and back in 1990 I didn’t think I had much to lose.”
Python is a very approachable language, and a popular choice for beginners. “For someone who is not yet a programmer, who wants to become a programmer, for those people Python is particularly easy to get,” Van Rossumsaid in a 2019 interview for Dropbox.
Ruby
Ruby creator Yukihiro Matsumoto, aka “Matz,” was inspired by the programming language Perl, and wanted to name his language after another gem. But words like “diamond” or “sapphire” were too long to remember and type, so he settled on Ruby or Coral.
“I talked to my friends and Ruby is shorter, and the ruby jewel is more beautiful, so I picked the name Ruby,” Matsumoto, who invented Ruby in 1995, said on an episode of the podcast The Changelog. By coincidence, pearl is the birthstone for the month of June, while ruby is July, so it made sense that Perl’s successor would be named Ruby, he said.
C and C++
C was born out of Bell Labs in the 1970s, and is the brainchild of a computer scientist named Dennis Richie. The name is not exactly creative: C was the followup to a programming language called B.
Then, in 1983, another programmer at Bell Labs named Bjarne Stroustrup came up with C with Classes, which was later renamed C++. Sure, they could’ve named this new language D, but the “++” is a nod to an operator for incrementing a variable in C. So, C++ really means “increment C by 1.”
C#
No, it’s not “C hashtag” or “C pound,” Microsoft’s programming language C# is pronounced “C sharp,” like the musical notation that indicates a higher pitch. According Anders Hejlsberg, who created C# in 2000, C# was almost named COOL, for C-style Object Oriented Language, but that name wasn’t ideal for trademark reasons.
“We wanted to have a reference to the language’s C heritage in the name and finally settled on C#,” Hejlsberg said in a 2009 interview. “Some other candidates I recall were e-C, Safe C, C-square, C-cube, C-prime, C-star, and Cesium… Looking at those now I’m pretty happy with our choice.”
SQL
In the 70s, the data science language SQL was originally called “Square,” and then was changed to Structured English Query Language. “In 1977, because of a trademark issue, the name Sequel was shortened to SQL,” Don Chamberlain, SQL co-creator, wrote in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. But despite the acronym, SQL is typically pronounced “sequel.”
Feeling inspired to learn one of these languages? Take our sorting quiz to figure out which language fits your personality, learning style, and goals. Or you can opt for one of these languages, which experts say you should learn first. And if you’re not sure where to start, you can also check out our Code Foundations Skill Path if you’re not sure where to start.
As Wall Street workers trickle back into their Manhattan offices this summer, they are noticeable for their casual attire. Men are reporting for duty in polo shirts. Women have stepped down from the high heels once considered de rigueur. Ties are nowhere to be found. Even the Lululemon logo has been spotted.
… Although banks haven’t sent out formal memos, their informal message is that returning employees should feel free to dress appropriately for the occasion — and that during a summer with few in-person client meetings, more relaxed attire is permissible. Jeans have even shown up on trading floors, and bankers have a wealth of opportunities to spring a familiar workplace joke: What’s with the tie? Got a job interview?
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the term de rigueur in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how de rigueur can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
According to a recent Times article, a new generation of influencers has discovered D.I.Y., or do-it-yourself, and is using things like spray paint, hot glue and thrift-store finds to spruce up their spaces on a tiny budget.
What D.I.Y. projects have you done, whether to improve your living space, up your fashion game, as a hobby or for any other reason? Was it fun? Successful? What did you learn? And if you’ve never taken on a D.I.Y. project, what would you most like to try?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
After months of troop buildups, grim warnings of violence and vague assurances of peace, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24. Despite efforts at diplomacy, Russia attacked several major cities, including the capital, Kyiv, resulting in dozens of deaths.
Which of the following facts about Ukraine, Russia and the roots of this war are true? CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY:
Have you ever gotten so overwhelmed by texts, emails, direct messages on social media and chatter in Discord servers and group chats that you just … stopped responding?
When do you think it is OK to ignore texts and other forms of online communication? When do you think it is rude to do so?
It was a Tuesday night. In my apartment, I was doing three things at once — packing for a short business trip, trying to get dinner on the table for my family and taking turns with my husband to calm a crying baby. Behind me, one work Slack alert after another dinged from my laptop. I ignored them all. During dinner, a text popped up on my phone. “Where are u????” asked my colleague.
I wanted to scream. Instead, I didn’t reply to the text. This wasn’t the first time I’d ignored a digital summons, and it wouldn’t be the last. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful or malicious — but at the same time I knew what I wanted my silence to communicate: This is not a priority for me right now. You are not my priority.
Ignoring messages is frowned upon in these always-on times. At its most egregious, dropping out of communication is condemned as “ghosting,” which, in the years since the term became widespread, has become a deadly sin of digital communications.
It’s often used in dating and friendship contexts — and indeed, in research published in 2018, 21.7 percent of participants of one study admitted to ghosting a romantic partner, and almost one in three participants in another study said they had ghosted a friend. But as anyone working in a digital environment can attest, ghosting in work contexts is also rampant — among co-workers, during professional networking and in the hiring process, even among those trying to get a job. An Indeed survey published last year found that 46 percent of job seekers did not show up for a scheduled interview with a prospective employer, and 77 percent of job seekers said they had been ghosted by a prospective employer since the beginning of the pandemic.
We can all agree that suddenly cutting off contact with a romantic partner or professional colleague, never to be heard from again, is rude and should happen much less than it currently does. But what about the other, less egregious ways we might blow off each other’s messages, especially at work? In these exhausting times, when so many are overburdened with family responsibilities, stress, grief and anxiety, perhaps we should let go of the outdated, demanding requirement to participate in ceaseless back-and-forth conversations.
Do you ever ignore text messages, emails or other forms of digital communication? Why or why not? If so, do you ever worry about being rude by not responding?
What factors do you take into account when deciding how quickly to respond to a message? Do certain people or topics elicit a prompt response? Why do you think that is?
Mr. Newport suggests that some people may find it harder to respond to messages when they are overburdened or stressed. Has this been your experience? Are there any other conditions in which you struggle to return messages?
How quickly do you expect others to respond to your messages? How do you feel when someone else ignores a text from you?
Do you believe that “ghosting” is “a deadly sin of digital communications,” as Ms. Dhawan writes? Have you ever been ghosted, or ghosted someone else? Why do you think ghosting happens?
Do you think our societal expectations for responding to digital messages are appropriate? Or do you agree with Ms. Dhawan that we should “let go of the outdated, demanding requirement to participate in ceaseless back-and-forth conversations”?
Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
President Biden on Friday said he would nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who announced last month that he would retire at the end of the current term this summer. If confirmed, Judge Jackson, a well-regarded federal appeals court judge, would make history by becoming the first Black woman to serve as a justice.
In this lesson, you’ll read about how Judge Jackson’s high school debate team shaped her dream of becoming a judge and prepared her for a career in law. Then, we invite you to write about how school or extracurricular activities are setting you up to accomplish your future goals, or to share what Judge Jackson’s nomination means to you.
Warm-Up
What do you know about the Supreme Court and its role in American society?
“Equal Justice Under Law” — These words, written above the main entrance to the Supreme Court Building, express the ultimate responsibility of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Court is the highest tribunal in the Nation for all cases and controversies arising under the Constitution or the laws of the United States. As the final arbiter of the law, the Court is charged with ensuring the American people the promise of equal justice under law and, thereby, also functions as guardian and interpreter of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court is made up of nine justices, who are nominated by the president of the United States and confirmed by a majority vote in the Senate. Justices serve on the court for life or until they chose to retire.
What do you think are the most important qualities of a Supreme Court justice? Make a list as long as you can. Then, share your list with a partner. Which characteristics do you agree on? Which do you disagree on? Discuss your responses and explain your thinking.
1. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s Supreme Court pick, attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School. The school has an impressive reputation. What is it known for?
2. Judge Jackson has said that being on the school’s debate team “was the one activity that best prepared me for future success in law and in life.” What skills did she learn from debate that might be useful for her as a judge and, potentially, a Supreme Court justice?
3. Why do you think the author included an anecdote about Judge Jackson’s experience with prejudice at her high school? What does it tell us about the judge?
4. Why do you think the author mentioned the résumés of other debaters at the school? What point might she be trying to make about the team and about Judge Jackson?
5. What do past and present debaters at Palmetto High say they have gotten out of the debate team? Write about how one of these things might help young people navigate both school and life beyond the classroom.
6. Based on what you’ve learned about Judge Jackson, and the qualities you listed in the warm-up activity, do you think she would make a good Supreme Court justice? Give at least two reasons to support your opinion. What else would you like to know about her to be able to answer that question?
Going Further
Option 1: How is school preparing you for your future?
Judge Jackson has spoken often about how much her high school experience has meant to her and how it has prepared her for her life in law.
What are your goals, whether for a career or some other life experience? How do you think school is helping you to achieve them?
Spend a few minutes reflecting on the experiences you have had in school or extracurricular activities and then write about how you think they might prepare you for your future. Here are some prompts that can get you started:
What has your school experience been like? What have been the best and worst parts of it for you?
What skills have you learned that you think might be useful for a career or life experience you want to have?
What relationships have you formed that have helped you navigate school? Do you think any of them will last into adulthood?
What challenges have you encountered? How did you face them? What did you learn from the experience?
Option 2: Measuring Judge Jackson’s impact
If confirmed, Judge Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court in its 233-year history. How significant do you think her nomination is?
To answer this question, you might spend several minutes doing your own research or exploring some of the following resources from The Times and beyond:
Read more about Judge Jackson’s career and why President Biden chose her as his nominee in this article. Do you think she would make a good Supreme Court justice?
Read an Opinion piece by Charles M. Blow, an Opinion columnist for The Times, who argues that “Nominating Supreme Court justices has always been about identity and politics. It’s just that for nearly the first two centuries of the court’s existence, the only people considered for inclusion were white men.” Do you agree?
After you’ve learned more about Judge Jackson and the context of the Court, discuss the following questions with your classmates:
The New York Times has called Judge Jackson’s nomination “groundbreaking.” Do you agree? Why or why not?
What would it mean to the country to have a Black woman serve as a Supreme Court justice? What would it mean to you, personally?
How important do you think it is for a president to take into account a Supreme Court nominee’s identity?
Would you like to see Judge Jackson confirmed? Why or why not? What qualities does she have, or lack, that you think make for an effective Supreme Court justice?
Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.
