If you love Easter, you’ll love these Easter themed gift tags. They can be used on goodies you share with your family and friends. The download link is below.
Social Media Star
Who are your favorite social media stars? What do you like about them?
Would you ever want to be an internet celebrity? Why or why not?
If so, what would your online brand be? What kind of content would you deliver? Rants? Dance videos? Comedy? Gaming tips? Fashion or beauty tips? Something else? Why do you think you’d make a good social media personality?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to get advice from the Instagram star, Rickey Thompson, about how to be famous online.
Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan.
Word + Quiz: salubrious
salubrious sə-ˈlü-brē-əs adjective
1. promoting health; healthful
2. favorable to health of mind or body
_________
The word salubrious has appeared in seven articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on May 11 in the Ask Well column “If Fever Helps Fight Infection, Should I Avoid Fever-Reducing Drugs?” by Richard Klasco, M.D.:
Hundreds of millions of years ago, animals developed fever as an evolutionary response to infection. Awareness of this phenomenon has given rise to two appealing, but conflicting, schools of thought. One is that fever is a natural response to infection, so one shouldn’t interfere with it; the other is that fever is a potentially harmful consequence of infection, so one should suppress it to minimize its complications.
The theory of the salubrious fever has an interesting history. In the pre-antibiotic era of the early 20th century, doctors prescribed pyrotherapy, a medically induced fever, as a treatment for a variety of conditions from syphilis to rheumatic fever. They used various methods to raise the patient’s body temperature to between 103 and 107 degrees Fahrenheit.
_________
How Should Senior Year in High School Be Spent?
Would senior year in high school — or, at least, second semester of senior year — be better spent doing something different than just going to classes? If so, how do you think it should, or could, be spent instead?
In “How to Cure the New Senioritis? Make Yourself Your Senior Project,” Ned Johnson writes:
As most college-bound high school seniors learn where they’ve gotten in and decide where they’re going, many feel that the pressure is off. Whether they are celebrating acceptances to their dream schools or coping with rejections, nearly all realize at this point that the die has been cast: The push for high school grades that used to drive everything suddenly matters much less.
“Senioritis” used to have positive connotations for students. It meant coasting through their last semester in high school in anticipation of college entry in the fall. Today that mood has shifted. Many students — and their parents — have been driven to believe that high school is merely a four-year audition for the right college. A result? Eighteen-year-olds who feel their lives are not really driven by them.
Rather than being a time of freedom, the new senioritis is characterized by a sense of purposelessness.
Without an external motivator (reward of college admission or threat of college denial), far too many students have little idea of what to do or why.
…I see the end of senior year as an opportunity for kids to figure out their inner motivation, post college acceptance.
For kids who have been grinding for too long, the second semester can be downtime to recharge. But I also encourage students to use this time with intention, as it will help them enormously to be in touch with what matters to them. They can make themselves their senior project. Here are some suggestions.
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
— Do you agree with this writer that high school can seem like “merely a four-year audition for the right college”?
— How should schools rethink senior year — or, at least, the second semester of senior year? Why? How do you think you would most like to spend that time?
—Should the end of senior year be, as this author says, “an opportunity for kids to figure out their inner motivation” via one of the paths he suggests? If so, which one appeals most to you?
— What is senior year at your high school like? Do students who are about to graduate have different roles, privileges or responsiblities than those in other grades? What could your school do to make that time more meaningful or interesting?
Students 13 and older 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.
Learning With: ‘Lil Nas X Added Billy Ray Cyrus to “Old Town Road.” Is It Country Enough for Billboard Now?’
Before reading the article:
Listen to the three-minute song, “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X, below.
(Note to teachers: This video contains depictions of violence. Please preview the entire video before sharing it with students to make sure it is appropriate for your class. You can find a lyric-only version of the song here.)
In which genre do you think this song belongs and why? Consider its musical elements — rhythm, beat, tempo, form, melody, tone, instruments — as well as the imagery and themes explored in the lyrics.
(For help categorizing, you might refer to this music map that describes the characteristics, history and genealogy of each musical genre.)
When Lil Nas X first released “Old Town Road,” the song made three different Billboard charts: the Hot 100, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Country Songs. Billboard then decided to remove it from the country chart. Why do you think they made this decision? Do you think it was justified? Why or why not?
Now, read the article, “Lil Nas X Added Billy Ray Cyrus to ‘Old Town Road.’ Is It Country Enough for Billboard Now?,” and answer the following questions:
1. Why did Billboard decide to remove “Old Town Road” from their country chart?
2. Why did Billboard’s decision to drop the song prompt a debate about race and country music?
3. Where did Lil Nas X get the inspiration for this song? What does he see it as a metaphor for?
4. Lil Nas X posted the song online in December along with an observation: “country music is evolving.” What do you think he meant by that? How is his song an example of that evolution?
5. Ben Sisario, the reporter, writes: “The blending of country music and black American forms is certainly nothing new.” What evidence does he give to support this claim? What does it add to the discussion about race and country music?
6. How did Lil Nas X’s collaboration with Billy Ray Cyrus on a remix come about? Why might the contribution of Mr. Cyrus’s vocals help the song’s chances on country stations and charts?
Finally, tell us more about what you think:
After reading this article, how do you feel about Billboard’s decision to remove “Old Town Road” from the country chart? What role do you think race played, if any? In your opinion, is the remix any more country? Why or why not?
This decision has stirred a discussion about race and music genres. In general, do you think white artists are given more leeway than artists of color to explore and find success in different genres? What examples from the industry can you offer to support your opinion?
Ask a Data Engineer: Warby Parker Edition 👓
Last month, Codecademy and Warby Parker came together to work on a special Learn SQL from Scratch Capstone Project. It was during this time when I met Ryan Tuck, a Data Engineer at Warby, who played a major part in this partnership. So when he decided to drop by our office for the final QA round, I had to break out my notebook and ask some questions. Enjoy.
Hey Ryan, let’s start off with a question I’ve had for a while — what is a Data Engineer? (Is it similar to a Data Analyst or a Software Engineer?)
At Warby Parker, data engineers are responsible for creating and maintaining the plumbing required to support the data and reporting needs of the business. We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.
What languages/frameworks do you use at Warby?
On data engineering, we use Python as our general purpose programming language, as do most of the other teams in our Technology department. When it comes to databases, we use PostgreSQL for the majority of our SQL needs, and are beginning to use Amazon Athena and Google BigQuery for some of our larger datasets. We use Looker as our exclusive business intelligence entry point to all of this data.
What are some of the projects you worked on?
I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of of smart people in every department at our company to help them solve their varied data needs, from reconciling financial data with the Accounting team to automating and modeling standardized performance metrics for our team of over 200 customer experience advisors.
As part of a team of five supporting the data needs of a rapidly growing company, I’ve tried where possible to focus on helping our analysts solve their own problems. This includes helping people learn Python and commit to our codebase, guiding the creation of data models in SQL, and encouraging people to submit pull requests to add features in Looker, our BI tool.
Seeing dozens of otherwise “non-technical” colleagues opening up PRs on a daily basis, and consequently being part of the democratization of tech that we value at Warby Parker, is probably the most rewarding “project” I’ve been a part of.
One project finished recently during our first annual “Hackweek” is called Pipes, which allows anyone at the company to easily move large amounts of data from wherever to wherever (Looker, Google Sheets, PostgreSQL, BigQuery, etc) on a regular cadence, or manually through a simple one-line chatbot interface. The adoption has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re looking to grow this sort of tooling out even more.
“We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.”
What got you into the data field?
I’ve always been drawn to analytical fields like math, and became pretty proficient in Excel during some internships in college. Once I had learned to program and learned more about data science and its applications in artificial intelligence, I knew that anything I could do to immerse myself in the world of data would be a step in the right direction.
Three and a half years ago, I landed a job as a junior software engineer at Warby Parker not fully knowing what I was in for, but am so glad I got the opportunity to help build tools to support an interesting and ever-changing data-driven culture here.
Where did you learn SQL and Python?
I had a background in C++, and was exposed to Python through an Intro to Data Science course. When Warby Parker hired me onto the Data team in 2015, I had never written a SQL query in my life, but picked it up quickly and within a few months started up internal SQL training classes, which I still teach on a monthly basis.
What does your tattoo say?
This is Bayes’ Theorem, which is an equation that describes how to update probabilities given new evidence. Two summers ago I worked on building a tool to help predict weekly fantasy football performance. Some colleagues suggested a Bayesian approach would be appropriate, since there aren’t really enough data points in an NFL season to be able to use statistical approaches that require larger datasets, and I’d want to regularly update my predictions after each player’s latest performance.
I did a deep dive into understanding the (simple) math underlying Bayes’ Theorem and came out of that experience with a whole new worldview, understanding my entire knowledge of the world as a big and intricate probabilistic model that I was continuously updating with every experience I ever have. It was pretty transformative, and I figured that was worth a tattoo.
What is a concept in SQL/Python that’s essential to your work?
Donald Knuth said, “Premature optimization is the root of all evil.” I’ve generally found this to be true, and try to live by it in my work. For example, I’ll generally prefer to keep a data model simple by rebuilding it for all time on a daily basis using a single SQL query instead of making a more complicated model that requires iteratively adding to a table, keeping track of state, updated timestamps, when something last ran, etc.
A wise man once said, “Duplicating data makes things go fast,” but databases are already impressively fast to begin with, without implementing anything to improve performance. Ultimately, I almost always approach a problem thinking about optimizing for my time over machine time, for readability over performance, and for introducing as little cognitive overhead as is required by the problem at hand. Only once performance issues or readability issues present themselves will some code be worth a rewrite.
Last question! Since you wrote Warby Parker’s internal SQL training courses, I know there gotta be some inner Curriculum Developer in you. Can you teach a SQL concept in 2 minutes?
Sure! Have you ever written a query that yields some result set and you think, “I’d love to query the stuff I just produced like it was a table?” Enter the WITH clause.
Suppose I have a mega query that gives the transaction summaries:
select
transactions.date as transaction_date,
sum(items.price) as total_cost,
count(*) as number_of_items
from
transactions
inner join
customers
on
customers.id = transactions.customer_id
inner join
transaction_items
on
transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
inner join
items
on
items.id = transaction_items.item_id
Using WITH, I can create a temporary table within my query that I can SELECT from and treat it just like a regular old table.
I will put everything from the previous query in a parentheses and use WITH to give it the name transaction_summaries.
Then I’ll apply the date and customer filtering down below for a more readable query, to separate out all the JOIN logic from the actual WHERE filters that I want to apply on that data.
with transaction_summaries as (
select
transactions.date as transaction_date,
sum(items.price) as total_cost,
count(*) as number_of_items
from
transactions
inner join
customers
on
customers.id = transactions.customer_id
inner join
transaction_items
on
transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
inner join
items
on
items.id = transaction_items.item_id
)
select
*
from
transaction_summaries
where
first_name = 'beyonce'
and
transaction_date > '2018–01–01'
order by
total_cost desc
limit
5
If you’re familiar with subqueries, this does a similar thing but makes the SQL far more readable, even if your query isn’t quite as performant as it would have been. This is essentially an implementation of the mantra “Don’t Repeat Yourself” that’s common in the world of programming.
Incredible. And love the SQL styling! 😍
Huge shout out to Ryan and the whole Warby Parker team for making this partnership happen. Special hat tips for behind-the-scenes support from:
- Lon Binder, Chief Technology Officer, Warby Parker
- Maddie Tierney, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
- Kayla Robbins, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
- Kaki Read, Senior Communications Manager, Warby Parker
- Isabel Seely, Senior Brand Manager, Warby Parker
It’s been an absolute pleasure. And of course, the fam at Codecademy. You know who you are. Couldn’t do it without you.
Word + Quiz: verbosity
verbosity (ˌ)vər-ˈbä-sə-tē noun
: an expressive style that uses excessive or empty words
_________
The word verbosity has appeared in two articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 19 in “John Bercow, Shouting for ‘Order’ Amid Chaos, Is Brexit’s Surprise Star and Villain” by Ellen Barry:
Even in the hyper-loquacious environment of British politics, Mr. Bercow stands out for his love of ornate language and withering insult.
“He could never say, ‘It’s great to see you’”; instead he would say, ‘It gives me inestimable pleasure to meet you for the finest condiments created by Mrs. Twinings,’” a colleague told Mr. Friedman, his biographer. A sitting lawmaker told The New York Times in 2013, “It’s as if he goes to bed every night, reads a thesaurus, inwardly digests it and then spews it out the next day.”
… He found his tribe in politics, a profession where his verbosity was an asset.
_________
17-Foot Python
What story could this image tell?
The 17-foot, 140-pound Burmese python pictured above was recently found at Big Cypress National Preserve in the Florida Everglades.
How did it get there? How did these people find it? Why were they looking for it in the first place? What would you do if you came across it?
Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem that responds to one of the prompts above.
Or, come up with your own tale inspired by the photo.
Post it in the comments, then read the related article to find out the real story behind this image.
Weekly News Quiz for Students: Historic Mayor, Final Four, Deadly Germ
How well did you follow the news this past week? How many of these 10 questions can you get right?
Is Horse Racing Ethical?
What do you know about the world of horse racing? Have you been to a horse race or watched one on TV? If yes, do you have a favorite horse or race?
Did you know that horsing was once one of the most popular sports in America and nearly every newspaper had a horse racing page? In fact, three horses (Secretariat, Man o’ War and Citation) and two jockeys (Willie Shoemaker and Eddie Arcaro) were included in ESPN’s 100 greatest athletes of the 20th century.
While the sport’s popularity has declined in recent years, nearly $12 billion is bet annually at North American racetracks, and the Dubai World Cup has a winner’s purse of $12 million.
Late last month, a horse was euthanized after a terrible fall during a race at Santa Anita Park in California — the 23rd death there in just over three months, igniting a longstanding debate:
Is horse racing ethical?
In “Death of Another Horse at Santa Anita Rocks the Racing Industry,” Joe Drape writes:
Horse racing is among America’s oldest sports and perhaps the only one ever run out of the White House: Andrew Jackson operated a stable there during his presidency. Yet the multibillion-dollar industry is reeling as the Kentucky Derby approaches, with the death of yet another thoroughbred at the premier Santa Anita Park in California amplifying anxiety over whether the sport will continue in the state.
On Sunday, a gelding named Arms Runner fell during a race, sustaining a catastrophic injury to its right front leg that required the horse to be euthanized. It was the 23rd equine fatality since Dec. 26, and it came on only the third day of racing at the track since it had halted competition on March 5.
“I’m concerned about the publicity we’ve been getting,” said Bob Baffert, the Hall of Fame trainer who won the Triple Crown with American Pharoah in 2015 and with Justify last year. “This is our March Madness. But we’re having the wrong kind of madness. We feel like we’re all under the gun. We should be under the gun. You can’t defend a horse getting hurt.”
The track, in Arcadia, Calif., northeast of Los Angeles, had been closed to study why it had become so deadly, as well as to begin putting in place aggressive, wide-ranging drug and safety protocols. The spike was startling considering that in 2017, there were 20 deaths in a total of 8,463 starts over a span of 122 racing days at Santa Anita, according to Jockey Club data.
The racetrack, however, will remain open after the most recent fatality and on Saturday will host one of its signature races, the Santa Anita Derby, an important steppingstone for 3-year-old horses hoping to line up for the Kentucky Derby on May 4.
“We know what the stakes are and understand that we might be the place that kills horse racing in California,” said Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of the Stronach Group, which owns the track. “Yes, we are worried, but we are confident that the track is safe and have gone the extra mile on rules that put us more in line with the rest of the world. We got to keep our doors open.”
The horse deaths have become a rallying point for the animal rights movement, which is particularly strong in California, where it would take 600,000 signatures on a petition to prompt a ballot initiative on whether horse racing should continue to exist. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to form an independent panel to investigate how the track, breeders, owners, trainers, jockeys and veterinarians treat the horses.
“The veterinarians and trainers and track have not done all that they can to protect the horses,” said Kathy Guillermo, a PETA vice president.
The article concludes:
For decades, horse racing has experienced spikes in fatalities without adopting significant changes. The Horseracing Integrity Act of 2019 was introduced in Congress last month by Representatives Paul Tonko, Democrat of New York, and Andy Barr, Republican of Kentucky. The bill would create a private, independent authority responsible for developing and administering a nationwide antidoping and medication control program for horse racing.
“I think it has a better chance to pass today,” Janney said. “Every sport, every industry, has to change with the times. This is a scary time, but every undertaking is a result of getting a glimpse at the downside of staying where you are.”
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
— Is horse racing ethical? Make the case for or against the morality of the sport.
— What is your relationship to horses? Have you ever ridden or cared for a horse? How does your experience affect your views on the sport of horse racing?
— In a related article, Lord Teddy Grimthorpe, the owner of Enable, who was named the European Horse of the Year for 2017, said:
All the good trainers will tell you that a horse has to have certain levels of athletic ability. There is no question of that, but I think the real X-factor is having the mind to actually want to do it and having that joy of wanting to gallop. Enable does. She wants to be out, and she wants to be running. That’s her natural way. She doesn’t like being left in the stable.
What is your reaction to Lord Grimthorpe’s statement? Do you think it can be said that a horse enjoys its role as a racehorse?
— What do you think could make the sport safer? If you believe horse racing is unethical or should be banned entirely, what do you think about the use of animals in other sports like rodeos or bull fighting?
— Are you a fan of horse racing? Have the recent deaths at Santa Anita Park changed your views? Will you watch the Kentucky Derby next month?
