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Lesson of the Day: ‘2021 Has Been a Bad Year for Manatees’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘2021 Has Been a Bad Year for Manatees’

This lesson is a part of our new Accessible Activities feature, which aims to welcome a wider variety of learners to our site and to The Times. Learn more and tell us what you think here.

Featured Article: “2021 Has Been a Bad Year for Manatees” by Johnny Diaz

What do you know about the gentle and cute, but odd-looking, manatee, sometimes known as the sea cow? Have you ever seen one?

Sadly, in Florida, manatees are dying at an alarming rate. In the past year, the state has lost about 10 percent of its population.

In this lesson, you will learn about the manatee and the dangers the species faces. In a Going Further activity, you will make a poster to inform others how they can help these gentle giants.

Part 1: Give your hot takes on animals.

Before reading the article, tell us your opinions on the animal kingdom using the following prompts:

  • I think the most beautiful animal is _________.

  • I think the coolest animal is _________.

  • I think the scariest animal is _________.

  • I think the funniest animal is _________.

  • I think the strangest animal is _________.

  • I think the cutest animal is _________.

  • My favorite animal is _________.

Share your list with a partner. Then, reflect together: Did you have any animals in common? Did either of you include the slow-moving but lovable manatee on your lists?

Part 2: Learn about the manatee.

Watch the three-minute video below, “Manatees Are the ‘Sea Cows’ of the Coasts,” by Nat Geo Wild. Then, answer the following questions in writing or in a discussion with a partner:

  • What are two facts you learned about manatees?

  • What is one question you have about them?

  • The video calls manatees “gentle giants.” Do you agree with this description? What adjective would you use to describe the manatee?

Here are 12 words you’ll find in this article that you may not know:

1. alarming 2. worrisome 3. decline 4. startling 5. estuary 6. graze 7. lagoon 8. sewage 9. septic 10. algae 11. malnutrition 12. collision

Which words are you familiar with? Which are new to you?

Go to Vocabulary.com to learn what each word means and to practice using them.

Click through and read the article above as a slide show, or read it here as a PDF. If you want to learn more about the dangers facing manatees, you can read a longer version of the article here. Then, answer the following questions:

1. Look at the photos in the article: What do they tell you about manatees and how they live?

2. What is one new fact you learned about manatees from the article? What is one new question you have about them?

3. How many manatees in Florida have died so far in 2021? How does that number compare with past years?

4. What are two reasons for the manatees’ deaths?

5. The article does not specify how to protect the lives of manatees in Florida. But based on what you learned about the reasons for their deaths, what is one possible solution you would recommend?

6. Describe or draw a manatee for someone who has never seen one. How would you capture the animal’s unique shape, size, movement and personality?

Option 1: Make a poster to inform the public about the plight of manatees.

How can you inform others about what you have learned from the article?

You might use information from the article or your own research to create a poster. You can draw your poster or use Canva or another graphic design program to produce your designs. Then, share what you made via social media or with peers at your school.

Who would be your target audience — teenagers, adults or the general public? What message do you want to communicate? What do you want your audience to know about the dangers facing manatees? What kind of language, images and graphics will grab their attention?

For your poster, include:

  • A drawing or picture of a manatee

  • One statistic from the article

  • One reason for their recent deaths

  • One possible way that we can all help protect this animal

  • A tagline or message

Option 2: Learn about more endangered and threatened animals.

Manatees are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Visit the World Wildlife Fund for Nature to learn more about which animals around the world are endangered and threatened. What do you notice about the list of endangered animals? Are any of the animals from the list you created in the warm-up activity endangered or threatened?

Then, select one endangered or threatened animal to research.

Find out at least two facts about the animal you chose to research, one reason for their decline, and one possible way we can better protect them. Share what you learned with your class.

Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.

12 Life Hacks to save you time and spare you stress!

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12 Life Hacks to save you time and spare you stress!

Life hacks are quick, simple (but not always obvious!) shortcuts for performing everyday tasks that take up more time than they should. While there are some tasks that you get better or faster at the more you do them, life hacks are usually solutions you have to be told about in order to benefit from.

So to spare you energy and hassle, we’ve decided to share a few secrets. We’ve put together 12 fantastic courses that will teach you the tips and tricks you need to save your precious time, both in the short term and in the long run.

Start learning now to make your life easier and gain more time to spend on the things that really matter!

One of the easiest ways to stop wasting time is to learn how to manage it effectively. Some people feel that good timekeeping is a virtue but it’s really just a skill that anyone can learn with a bit of practice. With these helpful strategies for saving time and avoiding delays, you’ll never lose another second.

You’ll be surprised how much stress can be avoided in your day to day living with a bit of forward planning and strategic thinking. This is a skill that can be applied across all aspects of your life, from the professional sphere to your social engagements. Thinking ahead means worrying less!

If you take up a project but don’t have definite markers in mind to monitor your progress, then you’ll find yourself wasting a lot time, energy and resources. By setting regular goals, you’ll have deadlines to work to and targets to motivate you. You’ll find yourself working more efficiently to achieve your what it is you set out to do.

Good organization is a skill that we think of as being something you’re born with or without, but that’s not the case. Anyone can get a better handle on their life with this simple course that takes a broad view of organization and teaches you how to better organize your physical space, your schedule and your mind.

Life can always be simpler! By embracing a minimalist lifestyle, you tune out distractions and focus on what’s really important. A minimalist lifestyle isn’t just about less clutter around the house, it’s about learning how to identify what’s really important and devoting your energies to those crucial concerns, rather than getting sidetracked by unnecessary distractions.

Do you make to do lists and forget about them? Can’t find your bills? Lose your receipts? Learning to keep track of your important papers is a life hack that everyone could do with. This course will teach you tried and tested systems for coordinating your vital papers both at home and at work.

 

Where does time go? We don’t have the answer to that but this course will certainly teach you how to manage it better! The first step to learning how to use your time better is to learn how to value it correctly.

Self-discipline is one of the harder life skills to master but it’s certainly one of the most valuable and worthwhile. Much of our daily stress could be easily avoided if we only stuck to our plans and schedules. By practicing self-discipline, you’ll find that you get much more done with less stress.

Improving your productivity is about learning how to improve your practices so that you can increase your output without having to increase your input of time or energy. This course teaches you some simple tips and tricks that will go a long way in boosting your productivity, regardless of your industry or career.

You’d be surprised just how energy is used up in adapting to new situations. Change can be difficult but it doesn’t have to be a drain on time and resources. By learning a few key strategies, you’ll be able to smoothly transition from one situation to another without wasting time or energy.

The law of attraction states that positive thoughts result in positive outcomes. Positive thinking is a force that should never be underestimated. Having an optimistic outlook on life can spare you a lot of stress and anxiety and make life much easier.

Efficiency and punctuality go hand in hand. If you’re on top of your schedule or timetable then you’re halfway towards living a more productive and stress-free life. Efficiently managing your time is the first, second and third most important life hack that you can learn!

Word of the Day: wistful

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Word of the Day: wistful

: showing pensive sadness

_________

The word wistful has appeared in 163 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Nov. 5 in the Opinion essay “What I’ve Learned From Running Marathons” by Lindsay Crouse:

Training for a marathon two years ago, I ran so fast, I couldn’t believe the clock. It felt like I was lying.

Now when I trudge down those same paths where I took my limits and beat them, I’m a little wistful. It feels like a beautiful dream.

I’m not a professional runner — it’s something I do as a hobby, and it has been a rewarding one. For the 15 years I’ve raced marathons, I mostly got faster each time.

But when I got an email a few weeks ago confirming I had qualified for an elite start I’d coveted in the New York City Marathon — with a time logged just before the pandemic — my excitement quickly turned to dread. This Sunday, I’ll probably run the slowest marathon of my life.

Can you correctly use the word wistful 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 wistful can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.

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.

Lesson of the Day: ‘From BTS to “Squid Game”: How South Korea Became a Cultural Juggernaut’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘From BTS to “Squid Game”: How South Korea Became a Cultural Juggernaut’

Featured Article: “From BTS to ‘Squid Game’: How South Korea Became a Cultural Juggernaut” by Choe Sang-Hun

For many years, South Korea’s movies, TV shows and music were mostly consumed by a South Korean audience. However, with K-pop stars, award-winning films such as “Parasite” and the Netflix drama “Squid Game,” South Korean culture is now known and appreciated by a global audience.

In this lesson, you will learn about the growing industry of South Korean TV shows, movies and music. Then you will watch or listen to a South Korean TV show, song or movie and write a review about it.

Do you watch any TV shows or movies from South Korea? What about listening to South Korean music? If so, what do you like about it? What makes it unique or appealing to you?

If you’re not familiar with any TV shows, movies or music from South Korea, take a moment to watch one of the music videos and trailers mentioned in the article you’re about to read.

Why do you think what you just watched has appealed so strongly to a global audience? What specific elements of it resonated for you?

Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. What are some of the factors that have led to the change in how South Korean content is consumed and appreciated internationally?

2. How did South Korean creators start to develop new content? What kinds of content served as inspiration?

3. How have other countries in the region responded to recent South Korean popular culture?

4. What role do broadcast companies and censorship play in the kind of cultural content South Koreans are able to experience?

5. What are some of the qualities and characteristics that make South Korean TV shows and movies unique, according to those quoted here? Are you familiar with any of the TV shows, bands or movies mentioned in the article? If so, have you noticed any of these qualities?

6. The articles states that many of the issues explored in South Korean TV shows and movies “speak to common people” there. Are these issues relevant to a global audience? If so, which and how?

Analyze a movie, TV show or song from South Korea. You could choose an example from the featured article or something else.

As you watch or listen to the selected content, take notes. You can write down quotations from the show or song, or write down feelings that come to mind as you listen to it. You can also consider some of the observations from the featured article as you watch or listen to your selected content. For example, are you able to find similarities between the South Korean TV show and anything else you’ve watched? Or are you able to pick up on themes such as activism, or do you notice a tone of combativeness?

After watching or listening, develop your own opinion about the TV show, movie or song. How do you feel about it? Is it something you would recommend to others? Why or why not?

Write your review, either recommending the TV show, movie or song to others, or advising them to avoid it. Whatever your opinion is, be sure it is clearly expressed in your review and supported with details from the TV show, movie or song.

If you would like to further develop this or any other review, consider submitting it to our Seventh Annual Student Review Contest. The contest is open from Nov. 10 to Dec. 15. Be sure to carefully read the rules before submitting.

Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.

Interpreting Data to Understand Community Opinions on Climate Change

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Interpreting Data to Understand Community Opinions on Climate Change

This last step, where students presented what they found in their surveys, completed the arc of our project. It was essential because it was where students stepped up and took charge of making change. Also, in the spirit of the article that inspired this project, we wanted students to practice synthesizing and communicating their findings to a broader audience.

Some of our classes focused primarily on creating a visual representation of their data and the findings from their work. Here are a few examples:

Student Example 1

Student Example 2

Student Example 3

Others turned their research into letters to share with an audience of their choosing, such as their parents, siblings, friends, or the school community at large.

The beautiful part about this step is how much it can vary based on your school and your students. Additional ideas for getting students to share their work might include hosting a climate change night where students present their findings to members of the community; creating infographics for other students about the realities of climate change and what they can do about it; submitting an editorial related to their topic to The Learning Network’s annual editorial contest; creating social media posts to be posted by the school; or whatever creative ideas you and your students can come up with!

This project was a first for all of us. All three of us attempted to design a unit where students could engage with data in the context of climate change and understand how it affects them and their communities directly. At the end of the unit, we are confident that students learned how to analyze and interpret complex data sets and communicate new learning through data visualization or writing. In math, students also learned how to apply the concepts of mean, median and mode to their own data collection practices. In science, students learned how to navigate Google Sheets to build infographics from large amounts of survey data.

For us teachers, this was a fun and exciting project to plan. Instead of trying to get students to just understand the why and how of climate change, this unit focused on a skill (data interpretation) in the context of climate change. This brought a different feel to the classroom because it was engaging.

In evaluating the final survey we gave, students mentioned that they appreciated a focus on skills and getting to learn more about a relevant topic. Specifically, being able to look at organic data from the community was an experience that was unique for most students.

Creating a space for data-driven conversations about climate change proved to be invaluable. Our students mentioned that most of their news comes from social media or that they had heard of climate change but didn’t really understand much about it, so using The New York Times as a grounding resource was extremely helpful. The Times and The Learning Network do a great job of making very complicated data accessible to a wide range of people through data visualizations and well-reported stories.

What Is Your Reaction to the Tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival?

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What Is Your Reaction to the Tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival?

Panic and then desperation spread through the crowd of 50,000 mostly young people just as the popular hometown rapper they had come to see, Travis Scott, took the stage Friday night. It came like a wave, an unstoppable movement of bodies that could not be held back.

Some collapsed. Others fought for air. Concertgoers lifted up the unconscious bodies of friends and strangers and surfed them over the top of the crowd, hoping to send them to safety. Others shouted out for help with CPR and pleaded for the concert to stop.

It kept going.

In the end, eight people died, ranging in age from 14 to 27, according to city officials. Hundreds more were treated for injuries at a field hospital at the concert venue, the NRG Park in Houston, or at local hospitals. Among those treated at a hospital was a 10-year-old child.

By Saturday, officials in Houston were at a loss to explain how the concert, part of the two-day Astroworld music festival organized by Live Nation and Mr. Scott, had transformed in an instant from a celebration to a struggle for life. So too were those who had been at the outdoor concert, who described a thrust of the crowd that would not let up as Mr. Scott took the stage around 9 p.m.

“It was like hell,” said Nick Johnson, 17, who still had his concert bracelet on as he spoke on Saturday morning. “Everybody was just in the back, trying to rush to the front.”

“People were literally grabbing and pinching at my body trying to get up from the ground,” said Chris Leigh, 23, adding that he lost contact with his friends as he tried to make it out of the crowd. “I was fighting for my life; there was no way out.”

The event appeared to be one of the deadliest crowd-control disasters at a concert in the United States in many years. Similar episodes have occurred at venues around the world, during performances of all genres of music, including an electronic dance music festival in Germany in 2010 at which 18 people were trapped and crushed, and a 1979 Who concert in Cincinnati where 11 people died as concertgoers rushed the entrance.

But the deaths in Houston had a particularly devastating impact at a time when the rapture of live events was being felt following months of pandemic restrictions.

“Young people with bright futures — those were the people who were at the event,” said Lina Hidalgo, the top executive for Harris County, which includes Houston.

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.

Veterans Day

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Veterans Day

On Thursday, the United States celebrated the first Veterans Day in two decades without troops engaged in an active war overseas. And the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Va., commemorated its centennial, allowing the public access to the site for the first time in decades.

Is Veterans Day an important day for you, your family or your community? Did you or your community do anything to commemorate the holiday? What do we owe our veterans for the sacrifices they made serving our country? How can we best honor them?

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.

Word of the Day: savoir faire

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Word of the Day: savoir faire

: the ability to choose the right course of action, especially in drawing upon social skills

_________

The term savoir faire has appeared in 15 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Feb. 2 in the obituary “Ricky Powell, 59, Dies; Chronicled Early Hip-Hop and Downtown New York” by Jon Caramanica:

Ricky Powell, the downtown New York Zelig who with his point-and-shoot camera documented the early years of hip-hop’s ascendance as well as a host of other subcultural scenes and the celebrities and fringe characters who populated the city, was found dead on Feb. 1 in his West Village apartment. He was 59.

… The actress Debi Mazar met Mr. Powell when they were both teenagers riding bicycles around downtown Manhattan. They were, she said, “children of the city.” Together, they went to the Paradise Garage, the Mudd Club and other hot spots. “Every door opened for Ricky,” Ms. Mazar said. “When we would walk into a club, we were the cool kids. He had this savoir faire, this electricity.”

Can you correctly use the term savoir faire 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 savoir faire can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.

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.

What’s in Your Queue?

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What’s in Your Queue?

Note: Our Student Review Contest is open until Dec. 15. This writing prompt may help you generate ideas for what you might review if you’re interested in participating.

Have you read anything good recently? Is there a TV show you’re bingeing, an album you have on repeat or a movie you can’t stop recommending? What works of art, music and culture are in your queue?

In “What’s in Our Queue? ‘Betty’ and More,” Maya Salam writes about the TV shows, books, art and podcasts she’s enjoyed recently:

Students, click through and read the article, then tell us:

  • What’s in your queue? If you had to make your own version of Ms. Salam’s roundup of arts and culture, what would you include?

  • What’s next in your queue? How did you hear about it?

  • Are there particular genres that appeal to you more than others? For example, do you love true crime podcasts or romantic comedy movies? What appeals to you about your favorite genre?

  • Are there any recent works of art or culture that you’ve had strong opinions about — either positive or negative? What did you think, and why?

  • Have you watched, read or listened to anything outside your comfort zone lately? What was that like for you? How do you feel about being challenged by new artistic experiences?

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.

Vocabulary in Context: Men’s Fashion

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Vocabulary in Context: Men’s Fashion

For a stretch late last year into the early months of this year, the most withering style assessments available online came in the form of Mark Boutilier’s very round, very calm, very expressionless face.

On TikTok, he used the app’s duet function, with which you can post a reaction video side by side with someone else’s, to quietly fashion offenders, maintaining an unchanging mien while would-be influencers flaunted amateurish looks or showed off absurd Supreme hauls.

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