In April, the singer Dolly Parton donated $1 million to help fund research for a coronavirus vaccine. Last week, after Moderna announced its progress on a vaccine, legions of Ms. Parton’s fans have credited her with helping to save the world.
What do you think of Ms. Parton’s actions? Do you believe celebrities have any obligation to give money to altruistic causes? Are there any celebrities you admire for their acts of generosity and philanthropy?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more about Ms. Parton’s career and acts of kindness.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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.
Getting stuck happens even to the most experienced programmers. And while we’d love to tell you there’s a magic button that’ll solve all your coding problems, that’s not always the case. The good news? There are a lot of ways to get unstuck. In this article we’ll share a few general practices that you can use the next time you’re stuck on a coding problem.
7 tips for getting unstuck when programming
Don’t panic
First things first: don’t panic. You’ve got this. Errors are not something to fear or be discouraged by — they’re actually opportunities for learning! So take a deep breath to calm yourself down before attempting any of these strategies to get unstuck.
Staying calm is the first step to staying positive. Believe in yourself and your ability to solve problems. You can figure this out, and it’ll be much more enjoyable if you do so from a mindset of learning and growth.
Read the error
Take the time to read the error you received. Not reading the error in detail or not understanding the error are common mistakes that new learners make. By understanding the errors you receive and connecting the dots between each error message and the solution to the problem, you’ll gain valuable coding skills.
When you get an error message while doing an exercise in Codecademy, you’ll discover valuable clues that will direct you to where you can debug your code. For instance, an error message might say: “Oops! The test returned an error. Maybe you have a syntax error or typo.” Now you know what type of error you are on the lookout for.
Check your spelling
Some of the most common errors we have are related to spelling and syntax. This means that somewhere in our code we’ve either misspelled or mislabeled something. An example would be if you forgot to encase your string in a set of quotations. The code won’t be able to read your mind and will not equate string with “string” as you intended.
Other common syntax errors are:
Incorrect use of brackets and curly braces
Using the wrong number of equal signs
Using different cases (i.e., “name” and “Name” are two independent variables)
You can avoid many of these errors by being consistent with your conventions. An example of this is to always capitalize the first letter of your variables — that way you won’t encounter errors for letter case.
Try to program using the styling standards for the language you are using. Style guides will help to reduce your error rate by making your code more readable, which makes it easier to spot your mistakes.
Verbalize the problem
Another helpful strategy to get unstuck involves speaking your problem aloud. Your problem could be a section of code you’re working on, a problem you’re solving for a client, or even a personal project. Make sure you know what the outcome is supposed to be.
By speaking things out loud (even if no one is actually around), you begin to solidify in your mind what you’re trying to accomplish. Then you can circle back to your code and figure out if it does indeed accomplish what you need it to do. If there’s a piece of your code that isn’t assisting you in reaching your goal, that’s probably where the error lies.
Break down the problem
If you are looking at your code as one large block, it can seem like a massive undertaking to hunt down one error. But if you break your code down into smaller blocks, each accomplishing a small task, it will be much easier to figure out where the error is located.
As we talked about before, if you take the time to read and understand the error message, you’ll know what type of error you’re looking for. You can also use the verbalizing tip to talk about what each block of code does and whether that particular error could be within each block of code.
If you’re still stuck, you may need to walk your code backward. This means you reverse each step in your code until you find the error. This tip is especially useful if your code was working just fine in earlier sections. Chances are the error is at the bottom, so you’ll find it quicker by working in reverse.
Google it
Even though we said there wasn’t a magic button to help you get unstuck, sometimes Google is a pretty close alternative. If you’re working outside the Codecademy platform, Google can help you to search for a solution to a particular issue you are having.
Be as specific as possible when you are using Google to get unstuck. You can copy-and-paste your error message directly into Google and then take a look at the search results that seem most applicable to your piece of code. If the results that are returned aren’t helpful, think about how you could reword your search to get closer to the solution.
Let’s look at an example. If you got the error “Assignment to constant variable” you could search for it exactly in Google. But if it didn’t give you the information you needed, you could add the language to your search, or even the specific Codecademy exercise name, in the following sequence of attempts:
Assignment to constant variable
Assignment to constant variable JavaScript
Assignment to constant variable JavaScript Sleep Debt Calculator
Tap into programming resources
If you’re working through Codecademy course material, we have additional resources to help you get unstuck. In each and every exercise, you’ll find a “Get Unstuck” link in the lower right corner. Click on it to find related forum threads, concept reviews, or code solutions.
The Codecademy Forums are also a great place to start practicing the skill of asking questions. Be sure to include the following information in order to maximize the chances of getting unstuck:
Your formatted code
The error message you received
Explain what you don’t understand
Add any other relevant information
Before asking a question, take a look at the question-and-answer exchanges that are already on the forum. There’s been a lot of discussion and questions from learners that have gone through the same material you’re going through. You might find the answer to your question is already there! In addition to that, you might learn something new and unexpected just by reading through how other learners got unstuck.
If you’re stuck working on a project, you can also leverage Walkthrough Videos. These videos will take you through how to complete the project step-by-step.
Once you progress through the exercises and get unstuck, consider answering some questions on the forum to help other learners. You can lend a helping hand and let others lean on you, just like you leaned on them in the past!
I asked you on our Instagram last month if you would like to see a free holiday Blogger template. It seems that you are really enjoying those kinds of freebies so I was more than happy to refresh one of our older themes. It features a gorgeous rustic holiday wreath embellishment which is festive but also very subtle. I think it will look great even after Christmas.
Free Holiday Blogger Template
When installed on your blog, you’ll be able to edit the title, tagline, and menu link titles. All of your existing sidebar gadgets will remain with this design.
You can edit fonts and most design colors using the blogger template editor, so feel free to play with the settings. Make sure to share the results with your blog link in the comments below. Everything else comes as shown in the preview.
This design IS mobile responsive, however, remember that it is for Blogger Platform only.
Make sure to check the live demo of the desigining by clicking the image below.
For personal use only.
The download package includes an Installation Instruction to help you set-up your new design. Remember that by downloading this template you agree to these terms. Enjoy!
If you are looking for more blogger designs, you can find them in our Premade Templates Blogger Shop. They are all just $15 each, so it is a perfect option for a stylish and affordable blog makeover.
Lastly, I hope you like this free holiday blogger template. Do you like the seasonal free blogger templates or would you prefer more printables instead?
Every school day we post a new lesson plan that addresses the news. Whether it’s the development of artificial intelligence, the crisis at the United States-Mexico border or the longstanding issue of segregation in schools, we have a library of hundreds of lesson plans related to current events that is growing all the time.
Our Lessons of the Day begin with a warm up that introduces the subject, then present an article from The Times along with five to seven questions for writing and discussion. Each lesson ends with one or two activities for going further.
Ready to teach with current events? Get started here.
A recent Times article reported on the bleak circumstances of many souvenir shops in New York City. Many are struggling, devoid of their usual tourist customers.
The story explains the inextricable link between vacations and the keepsakes obtained on them:
For many tourists, no visit to New York is complete without a stop to pick up a T-shirt, cap or any other piece of memorabilia that celebrates the bustling, thriving global destination that the city is — or was, before the pandemic led to travel restrictions.
What kind of souvenirs have you collected from places you’ve traveled to? What is your favorite souvenir and where was it acquired? Do you prefer memories instead of objects when remembering a vacation?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more about the current state of New York City’s gift shops.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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.
The idea that face coverings can curb disease severity, although not yet proven, “makes complete sense,” said Linsey Marr, an expert in virus transmission at Virginia Tech. “It’s another good argument for wearing masks.”
Dr. Marr and other researchers are still sussing out exactly how much inbound or outbound virus different types of masks block. But based on a wealth of past evidence and recent observations, the amount that’s filtered out is probably high — perhaps 50 percent or more of the larger aerosols being sent in both directions, Dr. Marr said. Certain coverings, like N95 respirators, will do better than others, but even looser-fitting cloths can waylay some viral particles.
Did you know that advances in artificial intelligence over the last few years have made it possible to feed a computer program photos of real people, which it then studies and uses to generate its own photos of people who look real but are actually simulated?
In this lesson you experiment with a Times-created A.I. system that will show you how easy it is to do this, and how — at least until the technology improves — an observant human might spot these fakes. Finally, you will consider the many implications, positive and negative, this technology might have for our society.
Warm Up
Do the faces in the picture above look real to you? Do they look like people you actually know? Like people you have seen on social media?
Spoiler: They’re fake.
Here is how the article you are about to read begins:
There are now businesses that sell fake people. On the website Generated.Photos, you can buy a “unique, worry-free” fake person for $2.99, or 1,000 people for $1,000. If you just need a couple of fake people — for characters in a video game, or to make your company website appear more diverse — you can get their photos for free on ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com. Adjust their likeness as needed; make them old or young or the ethnicity of your choosing. If you want your fake person animated, a company called Rosebud.AI can do that and can even make them talk.
Did you already know or suspect this? Have you ever seen a picture of a person on the internet that you thought might be simulated instead of real? What raised your suspicions?
Finally, a deeper question: What problems might the fact that “there are now businesses that sell fake people” raise for our society? Why?
Questions for Writing and Discussion
Read the article, then answer the following questions:
1. How are these simulated people starting to show up around the internet?
2. The Times has created its own A.I. system, which is embedded in the article. Play with it a bit. What do you notice? What do you wonder?
3. What is a generative adversarial network, how does it work, and where might it go in the future?
4. What are the problems with facial-recognition algorithms? What examples does the article give to show that A.I. is ultimately “as flawed as we are”?
5. What are some of the mistakes and patterns The Times’s A.I. system repeated?
6. With what warnings does this article end? Do you agree? Have you ever had an experience in which you trusted a machine more than yourself?
Going Further
Option 1: Consider the implications.
As this article indicated, every time you refresh thispersondoesnotexist.com you will see a new face created by A.I. Play with the site for a few minutes as inspiration to make two lists. In one column, put all the positive uses this technology could have for our society. In another column, put all the negative uses you can think of. To help you brainstorm, you might start small by considering how you personally could use such technology, then scale up gradually, considering how, say, your school or local neighborhood could use it, then how corporations, governments and other large entities might use it.
On balance, do you think this technology is more helpful or dangerous? Why?
Option 2: Learn more about A.I. with The Times.
If this article caught your imagination, there are many pieces about artificial intelligence you can read and think about next. They might also help you add to your lists if you are doing Option 1, above, since they explore a real variety of uses for the technology.
Just for starters …
If you are doing this lesson in a classroom context, you might jigsaw so that small groups read different pieces and share the information they find.
About Lesson of the Day
• Find all our Lessons of the Day in this column. • Teachers, watch our on-demand webinar to learn how to use this feature in your classroom.
How much attention do you to pay to the smells around you? Do any scents trigger powerful memories? Do any transport you to another time or place? Your childhood? A holiday? A trip abroad? Summer camp?
What would your life be like without a sense of smell? Which fragrances and aromas would you want to savor forever?
In “Welcome to Our Museum of Smells,” Jaspal Riyait and Melissa Kirsch curate a collection of reader ideas in response to a recent Times article about the power of smell. Here’s how they introduce the piece:
The restaurant critic Tejal Rao recently created a “personal smell museum” of her life in Los Angeles, cataloging the aromas she encountered in her home and her office, the scent of vanilla she detected when driving past a commercial bakery. I asked her why she thought a smell museum was such a vital way to document her life.
“Every time you notice a smell — fresh bread, your best friend’s house, a wet dog, garlic frying in butter — it means volatile particles in the air have entered your body and, just for a moment, become a part of you,” she said. “There is no sense more intimate, or more complex, which is why recalling your own personal smell memories can be so precise, vivid and even emotional. Your recollections might be one day, or several decades old, but that smell was once a part of you.”
We asked New York Times readers what smells they would archive in their own smell museums, what scents are so alive for them that they have become part of them.
These are a sampling of the reader entries describing how smell has a powerful impact on memories and experiences:
It has now been over half a year since I’ve been inside my grandmother’s house. I visited her garden and said a socially distanced “Hello,” but it wasn’t the same. I missed the smell of her house. I used to stay there for a few nights every so often and I’d always come home smelling “of Granny’s house.” I wish there was a better word for it! I think it’s a combination of home cooking, dust and love.
— Aimee Ross, 15, Inverness, Scotland
When I was growing up, my dad owned a concrete business. To this day, the smell of newly poured concrete at a construction site stops me in my tracks and I think he must be somewhere nearby.
— Jeanne Prittinen, 60, Northern Minnesota
There are two distinctive soap smells that instantly transport me back in time. One is Dove, which returns me to high school. The other is Neutrogena, which takes me back to my college dorm.
— Magdalen Livesey, 76, Wilton, Conn.
One scent that always catches me when I encounter it is the smell of my classroom in elementary school. Three of the components of this scent are books, paper and floor wax. The smell immediately evokes an image of myself as an elementary school student dressed in a cotton dress and velvet Oxford shoes.
— Nancy Pennea, 68, South Florida
The smell that fallen leaves release when I walk through them. It’s spicy and earthy and reminds me of jumping in leaf piles with my sister when I was little. Those leaves have a distinct sound, too: a brittle, airy rustle.
— Rachel Donegan, 46, New Hampshire
The smell of all of my dogs’ paw pads. The scent is exactly the same as Fritos, no matter the dog, their age, breed or where they’ve recently walked. All of them smell like corn chips.
— Jen Topp, 50, Bethlehem, Pa.
I wish there were a single word for the smell of sawdust, motor oil and soil. That combination of “manly” smells always makes me think of my father who worked with his hands all his life. It is what I smell in his garage, 25 years after he has passed away. It makes me feel safe.
— Donna Lovelady, 57, Indianapolis
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
Which of the Times reader experiences resonated most with you and why? Do some scents instantly transport you back in time as the smell of Dove or Neutrogena does for Magdalen Livesey? Or powerfully remind you of a person the way the smell of newly poured concrete does for Jeanne Prittinen?
What scents would you put in your own “personal smell museum”? Tell us about at least one smell, using the Times reader experiences as a model for your reflection.
The restaurant critic Tejal Rao writes, “There is no sense more intimate, or more complex, which is why recalling your own personal smell memories can be so precise, vivid and even emotional.” Do you agree? For you, is the sense of smell the most intimate and complex of your five senses?
How strong is your sense of smell? Does your sense of smell help you in any way? Does it ever hurt you? If so, how? One of the odd symptoms of Covid-19 is the loss of taste and smell for some people. How would the loss of smell affect your life?
What are your favorite and least favorite smells? What do you believe is the most beautiful smell in the world?
Which of your five senses — sight, hearing, taste, touch or smell — would you say is your most developed? Which is your least developed? After reading the article, do you think you will pay more attention to the smells around you?
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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.
“My name is Lwando Simane. I am a kind and friendly person and I love having people around me. I am always willing to help if I can. I am a hard worker and a go-getter who is passionate about his work. I have found Alison to be the best school I have ever been to in my entire life. I recognise Alison as the place that can help me transform my dreams into a reality.”
What was your first course on Alison, and why did you choose it?
My first course was theIntroduction to the Electrical Trade. I chose this course because I have always loved working with electrics since I was young.
Where are you working and what are you studying now?
What would you say to someone if they asked you about Alison? Would you recommend it and why?
Alison is the best online learning platform. Every man and woman who wants to change their life should sign up and start studying. Test results are given immediately and certification is also available once you pass.
Hazel Kendrick is a lecturer in Business Management in South Africa and finds that Alison’s online courses allow her to stay up to date with her teaching methods. As well as being an Alison learner, Hazel also teaches online and recommends Alison courses to her students.
“My name is Hazel Kendrick. I am a lecturer in Business Management at Damelin College in Cape Town, South Africa. I also tutor students online on a one to one basis. I learned about Alison online and my first course was the Introduction to the Learning Process for Teachers and Trainers.
I followed this up with other teaching courses to help me improve my teaching skills for my Business Management programme, as well as for my online teaching. I also took the Diploma in Human Resources, which helped me tremendously. I enjoy keeping up to date and Alison allows me to learn new skills.
I’m continuing to upgrade my skillset by taking more courses whenever time permits me to do so. I’d love to take some IT courses. I also write articles for StuDoc.com.
I always recommend Alison to my friends and family and even to some of my student so that they can enhance their skills.”
