“During the weathercast, you generally want to give people what they’re looking for at that moment,” said Jeff Berardelli, who moved to NBC’s Tampa affiliate in November after time as a national meteorologist for CBS News. “But when the opportunity presents itself, I will put it into its climate context.”
In an article on Friday about the weekend’s impending snowstorm in the Northeast, Mr. Berardelli reported that warming waters off the Northeast were probably the cause of far more frequent major winter weather events. The Tampa Bay area is also getting a share of extreme weather, with freezing temperatures expected on Sunday,which Mr. Berardelli said could be related to the storm a thousand miles away.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word impending 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 impending 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.
Today, we’re proud to announce that Coursera has reached more than 100 million registered learners worldwide. As we mark this milestone, it’s inspiring to reflect on our evolution as a global learning destination since we launched in 2012. What started a decade ago as an experiment by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng is now one of the largest online learning communities in the world.
I’m also excited to announce that Andrew Ng, alongside DeepLearning.AI and Stanford, is launching a new version of his original Machine Learning course, this time as a Specialization. On our ten-year anniversary, one of the first and most popular courses ever published on Coursera will be updated and expanded to help learners develop the right skills for today’s machine learning roles. The new beginner Specialization joins Coursera’s rapidly expanding catalog of 5,000+ courses, 2,200+ projects, 600+ Specializations, 75+ certificates, and 30+ degrees, all created in partnership with more than 250 leading universities and industry educators.
As the Coursera catalog and learning platform have grown over these last 10 years, our commitment to the mission remains unchanged: to transform lives through learning. That mission is most apparent in the personal stories of learners, like Emma in Australia, who reskilled and switched fields while on maternity leave; Bharathan in India, who pushed past vision loss to launch an AI career; and Ehab in Germany, who could keep pursuing his dreams after fleeing his home country amid conflict. These are just three examples out of the millions of unique learner journeys that occur on Coursera each day.
We’re especially heartened to see online learning reach individuals across many regions and backgrounds. Emerging economies including Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and the Philippines reported some of the highest rates of new learner growth in 2020 and 2021. Additionally, roughly half of Coursera’s global learners identify as women, and there has been encouraging enrollment growth among women learners in STEM courses and job-focused certificates over the last two years.
These transformative learning experiences wouldn’t exist without our university and industry partners. We’re grateful for their shared commitment to our mission of increasing access to quality education. As we look to the next 10 years and beyond, we’re eager to find new ways to unlock even greater access to high-quality education for learners around the world.
Ten years ago, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng had an idea—make world-class education available to anyone, anywhere. Ever since, you’ve been demonstrating just how powerful that idea can be. You’ve shown the world what’s possible when you learn without limits.
We think the best way to celebrate this milestone is to celebrate you, and all you’ve learned on Coursera. And as we take a moment to pause and reflect on our journey together, we’d like to share a few things we’ve learned about you along the way.
Here are ten things that have always been true about Coursera learners!
You’re global.
Our community is now 100 million strong, and you’re joining us from nearly every country in the world.
You have the courage to pursue change.
“It can be easy to define yourself in terms of your current job. Learning to code helped me see past that.” – Krystal, US
You give back.
Dedicated learners like those of you in our Global Translator Community have helped create 21,000 subtitles for courses in over 56 languages.
You love a good challenge.
You love to share what you learn.
“Coursera helped me engage my new community. By learning, I can be an active citizen wherever I am.” – Hadi, Turkey
You’re committed to transformation.
2.5 million of you are learning job-ready skills in Professional Certificate programs so you can launch new careers, pursue new opportunities, and reach new milestones. More than 16,000 of you are on your way to earning a master’s or bachelor’s degree. And what about you first-time learners on Coursera? More than 65% of you will go on to enroll in more courses!
You’re courageous.
“Never let anyone tell you that you can’t learn or do something. I was discouraged by a lot of people when I wanted to learn how to code. They told me I was too old to learn something ‘that hard.’ Now here I am—I showed them that nothing is impossible!” – Julio R., Chile
You’re always ready to learn – anywhere, anytime.
You’ve watched over 282 million lectures on mobile—on lunch breaks, commutes, and more!
You’re building new skills.
“I’ve always wanted to upskill myself, but I didn’t know I could do it online and earn certificates from well-known universities. I enrolled in my first-ever course and loved it! In fact, I fell in love with learning! I started taking courses one after another and I recently completed the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate program. The courses in this program were perfectly tailored for beginners. I’m so grateful to have discovered Coursera and thankful to @Google for creating such a great, informative program. I’ve gained so many skills!” – @_rakshith.s.n
You continue to learn without limits.
As of 2021, you’ve collectively enrolled in more than 194 million courses.
While you continue to learn on Coursera, we continue to learn from you. Your dedication, commitment, and passion are what motivate us every day. Thank you for ten remarkable years, and here’s to the next amazing decade together!
When songs have similar melodies, chords or lyrics, do you think it is more often a result of plagiarism or sheer coincidence?
“Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran is currently the most streamed song on Spotify, but another musician accused Mr. Sheeran of copying parts of it. In “Ed Sheeran Wins ‘Shape of You’ Plagiarism Case,” Alex Marshall writes about a judge’s recent ruling that has wider implications for the music industry:
Ed Sheeran did not steal from another songwriter when he wrote his 2017 megahit “Shape of You,” according to a highly anticipated court ruling here on Wednesday.
Justice Zacaroli, the judge overseeing the case, said “Mr. Sheeran neither deliberately nor subconsciously copied” the track “Oh Why,” by the British songwriter Sami Chokri, who records as Sami Switch.
There was “no more than speculative” evidence that Mr. Sheeran had even ever heard “Oh Why,” Justice Zacaroli added, dismissing Mr. Chokri’s claim of copyright infringement.
The plagiarism case was only the latest involving a prominent songwriter, but recording industry executives have been watching the case closely, because of its potential to bolster other claims. Mr. Sheeran still faces a pending trial in New York over another of his hits, “Thinking Out Loud,” which won song of the year at the 2016 Grammys; some of the owners of the rights to Marvin Gaye’s song “Let’s Get It On” accuse Mr. Sheeran of copying it.
At the heart of the case in London was a short passage in “Shape of You,” which topped charts worldwide and currently stands as the most streamed song on Spotify, with over three billion plays. In the track, Mr. Sheeran repeatedly sings the hook “Oh, I,” in a rising pentatonic melody, which Mr. Chokri claims was based on a section of his song “Oh Why,” which was released in 2015 but had comparatively little success.
The article concludes:
In his ruling, Justice Zacaroli wrote that while Mr. Chokri’s shock at hearing “Shape of You” was understandable, given the similarities between the two songs, such coincidences “are not uncommon.” Even if Mr. Sheeran had been looking for inspiration for the track, he added, Mr. Chokri’s track was “far from an obvious source.”
Shortly after the ruling, Mr. Sheeran posted a clip to his Instagram account saying that as much as he was “happy with the result,” he felt “claims like this are way too common now.”
“There’s only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music,” Mr. Sheeran said, adding that, given that, “coincidences are bound to happen if 60,000 songs are released every day on Spotify.” The culture of lawsuits, Mr. Sheeran said, “really does have to end.”
After the ruling, Mr. Sheeran said that given the limited notes and chords common in pop music and the thousands of songs released each day, “coincidences are bound to happen.” Do you agree? If two songs sound alike, do you tend to think it’s a result of one artist stealing from another — consciously or unconsciously — or a coincidence?
Briefly listen to the two songs in this case: Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” and Sami Switch’s “Oh Why.” How alike do they sound to you? If you were the judge, how would you have ruled, and why?
In your view, when is it OK for an artist to borrow from someone else’s work? Can you think of any examples when it would be acceptable? When do you think borrowing crosses the line into plagiarism?
Do you think artists should be punished for “cryptomnesia” — a term for when someone mistakes an idea they have already encountered for an original thought? Have you ever experienced cryptomnesia? Do you think it is possible to determine when it has occurred?
This case is similar to many other suits against pop musicians. Do you agree with Mr. Sheeran, who believes that cases of this kind are too common? Why or why not?
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.
On the morning of April 24, Emily Arnold and Youssef Ait-Khouya walked over the dunes at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park outside Kanab, Utah, chose a spot to get married and began accessorizing it. They laid down Moroccan rugs and pillows, set up a portable table and decorated it with vases of flowers, a tea set and Moroccan lanterns. The surrounding dunes were continually changing shape because of the near-constant wind. A sign inside the park reads: “When you left your car in the parking lot, you left stability behind.”
… Ms. Arnold, 34, grew up in a Mormon family in South Jordan, Utah, and was known for being studious and devoutly religious, but also venturesome and independent. “Super duper” is one of her favorite phrases and one of her favorite books is “I Married Adventure” by Osa Johnson. “I loved the idea of wanting to marry adventure, not just marry the boy next door or somebody from school,” she said.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word venturesome 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 venturesome 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.
Note: Moderators from Visual Thinking Strategies will facilitate a discussion about this photograph on Monday, April 25. We will not be hosting a live-moderated discussion on April 18.
1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?
The Reveal
We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!
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.
3. Below the response box, there is an option to click on “Email me when my comment is published.” This sends the link to your response which you can share with your teacher.
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, April 20, 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, April 22, 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.
Each Wednesday we shine a spotlight on five student activities that support a broad range of learners. In this week’s roundup of accessible activities, we invite students to learn about yawning, share how they feel about walking, watch a film about the American lawn, make observations about a photograph and reflect on forgiveness.
Note: To learn more about this new weekly feature, read our introductory post. Please share your thoughts in the comments section or by emailing us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
1. Learn about why we yawn.
In this Lesson of the Day, students learn some of the science behind yawning. Then they can think of a health and wellness question that puzzles them, and do research to find answers.
2. Reflect how you feel about taking long walks.
For this Student Opinion prompt, students will learn about two women who walked every street in their city during the pandemic. Then students can reflect on their relationship with walking: Do they walk to just get around? Or do they enjoy walking for pleasure?
3. Watch a short film about the American lawn.
This Film Club explores the ways in which the American lawn became a symbol of the American dream. Students will consider whether a perfectly manicured lawn is an ideal still worth pursuing, especially given that lawns can hurt the environment and contribute to climate change.
4. Interpret an image.
Students will look at a New York Times photograph that has been stripped of its caption, and then make observations about what they think is happening in the image. They can share their interpretations in the comments section and check back on Thursday for the reveal.
5. Reflect on forgiveness.
In this Picture Prompt, students share what forgiveness means to them and how it has felt to extend or accept forgiveness from someone else. In the comments section, they can share their thoughts about forgiveness, as well as to what extent it connects to their spiritual or religious beliefs.
Are you attracted to visual art? Do you go to exhibits? Stop on the street to admire murals, graffiti or public sculpture? Scroll through artistic photos on social media? Or even make your own?
If so, what kind of work most frequently catches your eye? What individual pieces have you found most meaningful or influential over the years? Why?
Even if you don’t think of yourself as an art lover, are there works of visual art that have made a strong impression on you, whether from childhood or only recently? How would you describe them? Why do you think you remember them? If you were to seek out visual art that would interest you right now, where might it be found?
To help you think about these questions, you might scroll through the New York Times Art and Design section. Below, we’ve chosen a few recent pieces and posed some related questions, but we encourage you to find your own, too.
We’ll start with the multisensory piece shown at the top of this post, from the exhibit “Tomás Saraceno: Particular Matter(s).” Here is how an article about it begins:
“You need to check out this installation in NYC,” reads the title card of the TikTok post.
“Must love spiders,” adds a qualifier in the caption.
The video opens onto the mouth of a white globe, 95 feet in diameter, inside the McCourt space of the Shed, a cultural center in the Hudson Yards neighborhood, where an interactive exhibition by the Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno opened in February. Overhead, 40 feet above the ground, scattered people clamber across wire mesh netting. Twenty-eight feet below, visitors sprawl out on their backs, limbs outstretched.
If you could, would you want to experience this piece, or other “interactive and experience-based art” similar to it?
Next, here is a slide show about work you can see on the streets of the Bronx:
Do you like graffiti and other kinds of street art? What are some of the more memorable works you have seen, in any artistic genre?
Maybe you’re a fan of some of the masters of 19th- or 20th- century painting, like J.M.W. Turner, whose works you can see at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston right now, or Winslow Homer, whose paintings are on view at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Have you ever seen the painting above, which many consider Homer’s greatest work? What other famous paintings do you know and admire?
If you’d like to see a range of contemporary works in many genres, there may be an exhibit near you like the Whitney Biennial. Here is a piece from the current show, a survey of recent American art, which, a Times critic writes, is “freighted with three years of soul-rattling history marked by social divisiveness, racist violence and relentless mortality.”
What visual arts have you seen over the last few years that speak especially well to the political and social issues of our world today? Another collection that tries to address such questions is the annual New York Times photojournalism roundup, called The Year in Pictures. Here are the Year in Pictures collections from 2020 and 2021. Which images stand out for you?
Finally, maybe you’re interested in nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, even if the question of whether or not they are art is still an open one. What do you think of the piece below?
What kinds of visual art most appeal to you? Why do you think that is?
What works first came to mind when you saw the question at the top of this post? Did you think of more examples as you read on?
Describe at least one memorable work of art in as much detail as you can. How did it affect you when you first saw it? How does it affect you now?
Do you seek out visual art, via museums, social media, studios, walks on city streets or in any other way? Do you create it yourself? What inspires you most?
Did anything you found in this post or by scrolling through the Art and Design section surprise you, inspire a strong reaction, or challenge you in some way? What? Why?
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.
New course on Uncommon Sense Teaching from Dr. Oakley, the instructor from the blockbuster Learning How to Learn course
As digital transformation rapidly transforms the world, learning has become a fundamental skill — one McKinsey calls “a critical driver of long-term career success.”
The second course, which complements the first released last summer, provides neuroscience-backed tools and practical insights to help anyone — from seasoned educators and instructors to parents — draw out the best from learners.
We caught up with Dr. Oakley to learn how her new course can help teachers solve classroom challenges.
What is one takeaway educators can learn in your new course? In increasingly diverse and often online learning environments, teachers are grappling with how to bring out the best in all their students, channel their abilities, and keep students engaged.
I truly believe that teaching online can help match the outcomes possible in a traditional classroom, and indeed, even surpass it! Way back in 2014, I started creating online courses about learning because of my own experience. I wasn’t a natural at math or science, so I had to rewire my own brain as an adult to learn them!At that time, I remember wondering why had no one written a book or taught a course about learning effectively based on what we know from science on how the brain learns. Once I saw how many learners’ online courses could reach — over 3.8 million people have taken my course Learning How to Learn — I knew I needed to share similar tips on how teachers could instill these lessons in their students around the world.
This new course, taught alongside Dr. Terrence Sejnowski and Beth Rogowsky, is based on my latest book, which was recently named a top ten book for educators. The cognitive psychology and neuroscience-linked insights we teach will enhance your teaching skills and consequently, the way students learn. So every kind of learner develops the ability to master anything — be it math, science, dance, literature, or art.
Can you share a few tips on how we can teach and learn more effectively? There are some key elements to incorporate on a daily basis:
Students can be faster (‘racecar’) or slower ( ‘hiker’) learners. So, structure the teaching. Give hikers smaller pieces of information. As slower learners, they learn more deeply and often, more creatively. Racers may learn faster but also jump to conclusions more quickly and find it tough to correct themselves when they make errors.
Understand that the way we learn facts or information is very different from our knowledge of skills, like say, learning to ride a bicycle. The former (declarative pathway) is mostly conscious learning, the latter (procedural pathway) develops through practice and happens subconsciously.
The more you retrieve what you’ve learnt, the more you remember, learn, and understand it. But don’t cram all the information at once. Space it out and try explaining it to someone else.
Try the Pomodoro technique to learn most efficiently. Avoid all distractions (including your phone). Set a time limit to focus fully on the task at hand. Once time is up, relax for five minutes and, no scrolling Instagram Reels!
Does this course focus on in-person or online teaching? Classrooms have changed drastically today and are often blended learning environments. So, you can utilize this course as a primer of sorts if you are new to teaching lessons online. Observe the personalized tone we use throughout. Or how visuals and simple animation convey complex ideas. Note how fun metaphors, puns, and analogies are great tools to keep learners engaged. Besides, every module has quizzes plus additional reading to broaden your knowledge and test your understanding.
How have learners responded to the course? It has been wonderfully rewarding to know that many have found it tailor-made to hone their teaching and learning skills. As one learner remarked: “How can we teach, without knowing how learning works?” It’s heartening also to find that many have come away with inspiration, guidance, and hope in these uncertain times — when the teaching experience itself has changed so much. This very evolution in the way we teach has, in fact, led me to start working on another course. Teaching Online, the final course in this series, will launch soon!
