“The first rule was that we weren’t going to remove any of these majestic oaks,” Jess Field said.
“We were threading the needle between oaks, and working with the topography,” said Bernard Trainor, the founder of Ground Studio. “We didn’t lose one tree on the project, which is kind of incredible.”
To work around the trees, the architects designed concrete foundations that stopped short of the tree roots and allowed living spaces above to cantilever out among the branches. They also split the house into two volumes — one with four bedrooms and a mudroom, the other with the living, dining and kitchen areas — connected by a small, glass-box entryway.
When we set out to create a collection of Times resources on the topic of “family,” we knew our main problem would be keeping it to a manageable length.
After all, the theme shows up regularly in reporting on every aspect of our lives, and across all sections of the paper — from business and politics to science, health, sports, the arts, food and travel. In fact, the subject of “parenting” even has a whole section to itself these days.
What you’ll see below, then, is a collection of the best recent work we could find to represent a range of kinds of families told via a variety of journalistic tools. It features articles and essays, photos and videos, podcasts and comic strips, maps and graphs, all addressing questions like:
What does “family” mean?
How is the concept changing?
How does family shape us personally?
What role do family structures play in our society?
We’ve created this resource thanks to an ongoing partnership with Little Free Library. The current theme of their Action Book Club, which hopes to inspire readers to make the world a better place, is “We Are Family,” and you can find discussion prompts and actionable ideas as well as book suggestions related to this theme on their site.
Finally, we know our list is incomplete. If there is a Times piece on the topic of “family” that you would like to see us include, please post your idea in the comments, or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
Selected Reporting on Families in the U.S. and Around the World
Thousands of Canadians enlisted in an unusual mission to help Syrian refugees start new lives. Now they face a gut-wrenching issue: the relatives half a world away.
In a converted apartment building in Chinatown, five adults and seven children blend traditional values and rituals with modern roles and responsibilities.
In the wake of the college bribery scandal, critiques of parents who meddle too much can leave us questioning our everyday instincts to help our children.
Parents of first-year college students in China live in tents on campus to make goodbyes easier. Critics say they are pampering a generation of only children.
The former Communist states in Europe have seen a sharp rise in adult children living at home, but nothing like in Slovakia, where three out of four 18- to 34-year-olds live with their parents.
Paetyn’s father Tanner, 25, is a trans man. His partner and Paetyn’s biological father is David, 35, a gay man. Their daughter, they agree, is the best thing that ever happened to them.
The famadihana, a ritual in which relatives remove the dead from their tombs in an atmosphere of celebration, continues among various faiths in the island nation of Madagascar.
A five-part series about Dasani, an 11-year-old girl who is one of New York City’s thousands of homeless children. Through text, images and video,journalists show what they witnessed over a year of documenting the lives of Dasani and her family.
Photo essays from around the world by Joakim Eskildsen, Moises Saman, Sim Chi Yin, Mark Neville, Mamadi Doumbouya, Massimo Vitali, Newsha Tavakolian, Justine Kurland and Christopher Anderson. (Please note: The first of these images contains nudity.)
Going through the Times’ archive of family vacation photos is a powerful reminder that what makes a family vacation great is less about where you go and all about how excited you are to be there.
An upcoming show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston explores the idea of family: from the ones shown in the portraits to the fleeting glimpses of the photographer whose own family is back home, waiting. (Please note: One of these images contains nudity.)
“Tell your partner what you like about them, and be very honest.” We asked three couples who know everything about each other to try out Modern Love’s 36 questions, intended to bring strangers closer.
This graph of the change in the number of violent crimes and the change in the number of undocumented immigrants for the period 2007 to 2016 appeared elsewhere on NYTimes.com. The data is from 180 metropolitan areas in the United States. Both the change in the number of violent crimes and the change in the number of undocumented immigrants are expressed in terms of the number per 100,000 people.
To add more detailed information to your analysis, you may want to use the five graphs below: three violent crime graphs for aggravated assault, robbery and murder, and two property crime graphs for burglary and larceny (the taking of personal property with and without force, respectively). Note that the x-axes for all five graphs have the same scale from -3,600 to +1,400, but the y-axes’ scales for the change vary from -7 to +6 for murders to -2,023 to +922 for larcenies.
After looking closely at the graph above (or at this full-size image), think about these three questions:
What do you notice? If you make a claim, tell us what you noticed that supports your claim.
What do you wonder? What are you curious about that comes from what you notice in the graph?
The questions are intended to build on one another, so try to answer them in order. Start with “I notice,” then “I wonder,” and end with a catchy headline.
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 online. Teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students’ comments.)
3. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
On Wednesday, Dec. 4, our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. By Friday morning, we will reveal more information about the graph at the bottom of this post. Students, we encourage you to post an additional comment after reading the reveal. How does the original article and the moderators’ comments help you see the graph differently? Try to incorporate the statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets in your response.
Last weekend, demonstrators stormed the field of the Yale-Harvard football game during halftime, causing the game to be delayed for about an hour. They were protesting on behalf of the movement for universities to divest investments in fossil fuels.
In this lesson, students analyze the effectiveness of the protesters’ actions and then come up with their own creative ideas for nonviolent demonstrations.
Warm Up
Watch this three-minute video from The Guardian about the fossil fuel divestment movement.
Then, fill in a Frayer Model to define the concept of divestment, including:
The definition of “divestment.”
The essential characteristics of the movement.
Examples of it now and throughout history.
Non-examples (i.e., the opposite of divestment).
Questions for Writing and Discussion
Read the article, then answer the following questions:
1. Who and what were the climate change activists at the Yale-Harvard football game protesting? How was their protest related to the fossil fuel divestment movement?
2. How effective was the protest? What evidence does the article provide to support your assessment?
3. What methods, songs, signs and slogans did the protesters use to bring attention to the issue of divestment? Why do you think they chose these symbols?
4. What did activists risk in staging this protest? Why do you think they might have been willing to take this risk, based on what you read in the article?
5. What are Harvard’s views on divestment? What are Yale’s?
6. One protester said “it felt really good” to storm the field because it brought attention to the issue of divestment, while a Yale spokeswoman said it was “regrettable” that activists chose to protest during a “collegiate career-defining contest” for fellow students. What do you think about the protesters’ method? Was it an effective way to spotlight their cause? Or was it inappropriate? Why?
Going Further
What creative ideas for a nonviolent climate change protest can you come up with?
First, you might choose one specific issue related to climate change to focus on, like sustainable fashion, recycling in your community, or climate-friendly food choices. Then, consider your audience: Whose attention do you want to attract and why?
Now, get creative. What methods could you use to get your audience’s attention? Where would you hold this protest so your audience couldn’t ignore it? What symbols, hash tags or slogans could you use to appeal to them?
For example, maybe you could create a video that you would show at a school assembly. Or a social media campaign driven by a hash tag. Or maybe you would want to stage a good old-fashioned march at a strategic location. (Here are some more creative protest ideas from around the world to get you thinking.)
Brainstorm ideas on your own or with your classmates. Then write up a short explanation of the key elements of your protest and how they would work to get your target audience’s attention.
If you have more time, you can represent the elements of your protest, like the location, method or symbols, by creating a mood board.
Does it make you laugh — or perhaps it confuses or alarms you? What do you think led the critter in the picture to its current circumstance? Use your imagination to write the opening to a short story inspired by what you see.
Post in the comments, then read the related article to learn more about savvy wildlife.
Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan. You can find all our Picture Prompts in this column.
renege ri-ˈneg also -ˈnāg, -ˈnig; rē- verb and noun
verb: fail to fulfill a promise or obligation
noun: the mistake of not following suit when able to do so
_________
The word renege has appeared in 25 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on July 17 in “U.S. Punishes Turkey by Canceling Sale of Jets” by Katie Rogers and Thomas Gibbons-Neff:
WASHINGTON — The White House informed Turkey, a NATO ally, on Wednesday that the United States would not sell it F-35 stealth fighter jets, in retaliation for the country’s purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems.
…. The F-35 program has already cost billions of dollars more than what was budgeted for its production, which was delayed years longer than expected. Ms. Lord said the decision to renege on the sale to Turkey would cost the United States $500 million to $600 million.
New roles in product, marketing, sales, and other functions will complement growth in our engineering team
By Richard Wong, SVP of Engineering
In the six short months since we announced a new engineering office in Toronto, the team has delivered an impressive number of product innovations, more than tripled in size, and outgrown our original location in the city’s Chinatown. I am thrilled to announce that what began as an engineering office to accelerate innovation and tap into local talent will now also include other disciplines.
As I shared with the team while they settled into a larger office in downtown Toronto, Coursera will significantly grow its footprint in Canada by doubling the size of the team here over the coming year. Engineering will further expand in Toronto to include growth, learner experience, partner experience, and infrastructure developers, as well as security and IT roles. The office will also welcome new Courserians in marketing, product, content, sales, recruiting, and other roles. This will ultimately make Toronto our second-largest hub — even as teams in other locations like Bulgaria, India, and the UK continue their growth.
Each time that I connect with the Toronto team and community, I am impressed by the quality and diversity of talent in the region. I look forward to bringing new roles into the office that will leverage the team’s momentum to date, support new business initiatives, and help us grow Coursera’s impact around the world.
The founding team here has accomplished so much, swiftly contributing to our business and culture. Recently, I watched with pride as multiple projects by developers in Toronto were among the top eight in our global Make-a-Thon and one went on to win the Courserian Impact Award. I am excited to see their collective impact multiply in the coming months as new team members join from different backgrounds. To join this remarkable team at an exciting time, browse open roles in Toronto now — with more coming in early 2020 — at coursera.org/careers.
When preparing to apply for an online MCS, students often ask the essential question – am I prepared for this degree program? In part three of this three part “Getting an MCS” series, we have asked ASU professor Andrea W. Richa to share some insights on the online MCS degree program.
Professor Andrea W. Richa joined Arizona State University (ASU) in 1998. Her recent work has focused on developing the algorithmic foundations on what has been coined as programmable matter, through her work on self-organizing particle systems (SOPS) (see sops.engineering.asu.edu ). Her two decades in computer science have seen many changes in the field, including the introduction of online master’s programs. According to Professor Richa, the advantage of an online program compared to an on-campus program is “the flexibility it gives you, especially if you are working.” Despite having an impressively broad expertise in general computing, when asked about her favorite Computer Science topic, Professor Richa said “Algorithms,” going on to specify “distributed Algorithms in the world.” Richa received the 2017 Best Senior Researcher award from the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering (CIDSE). She was the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award in 1999, an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, and the keynote speaker and programgeneral chair of several prestigious conferences. Richa has also delivered several invited talks both nationally and internationally.
When preparing to apply for an online MCS, students often ask the essential question – am I prepared for this degree program? In part two of this three part “Getting an MCS” series, we will be going in-depth on how to prepare for the MCS program once you have applied.
Once you have applied to the program (this may have involved applying the first day you heard about the program, or working on your math requirement, mastering prerequisite skills, or improving your GPA to prepare your profile), it is typical to wonder what the program will be like.
What is an MCS and can I earn it online?
Many students want to understand exactly what an MCS is, and what it is like to earn it online. The MCS program is a master’s degree that aims to educate its students around the most topical, important subjects in the computer science field. This means students will spend a total of 30 credit hours (which translates to 10 courses) mastering advanced computer science topics such as AI, Software Engineering, Cloud Computing, Big Data, and Cybersecurity. All online MCS students take one foundations course, one systems course, one applications course, and any seven additional courses. Students in the ASU online MCS program earn the same degree as students who study on-campus upon graduation.
For students in the online program, the day-to-day learning experience includes attending live classroom sessions with professors, participating in group projects using Zoom and Slack, and accessing instructors during live office hours. The Coursera platform provides students with features like interactive video transcription, in-course note taking, and seamless learning across multiple devices. Faculty in the online program are hands-on and interactive in classes and projects, and hold weekly live class sessions that cover multiple time zones across the world. Online ASU MCS students have access to many of the benefits of ASU that make the program unique. For example, as an online student, you can opt to work with on-campus organizations such as the one-of-a-kind Blockchain Research Laboratory, which offers a rich ecosystem of partners including private companies and government agencies.
Is it hard?
Students often want to know how difficult the MCS program is. The answer is that the MCS program has rigorous coursework, but also has systems and people in place to support its students and empower them to succeed.
The coursework is challenging; students are assessed by ASU faculty and staff on a rigorous set of assignments, projects, and exams required for university degree credit. Each course is about a 15-20 hour commitment. However, the MCS program is also set up to support its students at every stage of the degree program. One crucial piece of this support system is the role of the Success Coach. Each student who enrolls at ASU online is assigned a Success Coach. Success Coaches are segmented based on student affiliation, and work one-on-one with students to tackle time management, goal attainment, and connecting to ASU resources. Coaches are experts in asking the right questions, uncovering challenges, and working through difficulties that may arise during one’s time in the program. Many ASU students cite success coaches as instrumental to their success. The Success Coach has two components to their role. One is to provide coaching sessions that cater to the student’s personal, professional, or academic goals. These coaching sessions are unlimited to students in the online degree program. The second component is to perform proactive outreach based on a list of critical flags, such as not being registered for a course as the registration date approaches.
The MCS program’s goal is to prepare its students for success in the world of computer science, which means that the program is proportionately rigorous in its academic expectations to what will be required by a career in computer science and that the program is structured to allow students to gain mastery and confidence in the field over the course of the program, often with the help of faculty, staff, and success coaches.
Where can my MCS degree take me? Is it worth it? Why should I earn an MCS?
Finally, students considering the MCS program often want to know where the MCS degree will take them. The ASU online MCS program is focused on making certain that its students will succeed in the current computer science field. The degree’s coursework includes applied problems that are relevant to modern businesses. Students submit a project portfolio, which is a great tool for students to showcase their experience to prospective employers. When thinking about their educational plans, students should also consider what options they hope their education will open up for them. The ASU MCS program focuses on preparing its students for the computer science jobs that are in the world today by teaching cutting edge topics and by guiding each student through their career search. This holistic preparation and guidance means that ASU Online Master of Computer Science graduates have (but are not limited to) career opportunities for jobs in Computer Networks, Computer Programming and Science, Software engineering, Computer systems, Database administration, Information technology, Computer Software Quality Engineer, Computer System Architect, Computer Systems Analyst, Geospatial Information Technologists, Information Technology Manager and more.
ASU plays a very active role in the career search process. All students enrolled in the online degree program have access to the Fulton Schools of Engineering Career Center, a one-of-a-kind dedicated career center for ASU’s engineering students with a robust offering of online services and resources. Their office is designed to help strengthen student’s job search skills, build their resume, enhance their interview skills and more. These career advising sessions are easy to access for all online students, as the office provides virtual services like online resume reviews, online tools to practice interview questions, online chat with career advisors, and downloadable information and sample resumes.
ASU’s MCS program will prepare you to thrive in whichever computer-related field you should choose.
When preparing to apply for an online MCS, students often begin by asking themselves if they have the right background for this degree. In part one of this three-part “Getting an MCS” series, we will be providing in-depth answers to some of the typical questions students ask during the application process.
Can I get in?
The two components that students must consider when applying to a master’s program are their testing profile and their educational background. For ASU’s MCS degree, considering one’s testing profile is simple – the ASU MCS degree does not require the GRE to apply. Thus, the bulk of one’s time preparing to apply to the ASU MCS should be spent reviewing their educational background.
For the ASU MCS program, students often want to know if they can get an MCS without having majored in Computer Science in their undergraduate degree. While the answer to this may initially seem like no – to be in the ASU program, you must be able to demonstrate prerequisite knowledge (on official transcripts) of the topics Computer Organization and Assembly Language Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms, Operating Systems, and Principles of Programming Languages OR Introduction to Theoretical Computer Science: Principles of Programming Languages – the answer is actually yes, you can apply to the ASU MCS program if you do not have a computer science background. ASU offers three short, self-paced non-credit courses that can help aspiring MCS students without a typical CS background demonstrate the required prerequisite knowledge. Read more about these courses on the ASU website. The fact that you do not have to have studied CS in undergrad to apply is evidenced by the profiles of the MCS’s incoming classes; some of the most common job titles from admitted students are non-CS roles, like technical Product Manager and Project Manager.
Another piece of student’s educational background that they must consider when applying to the ASU MCS program is their undergraduate GPA. The ASU MCS program requires a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 (3.25 recommended) in the last 60 credit hours (last two (2) years) of a four (4) year undergraduate degree. Again, this requirement should not be a barrier for any student aspiring to apply to the ASU MCS program, as the MCS program has a performance-based pathway to help students that don’t have the required GPA enter the program. If you complete all three pathway courses with a 3.0 GPA on the first attempt within 18 months, you will have demonstrated an ability to succeed in the subject matter and can apply to the degree program using this new GPA.
Getting an MCS without a background in mathematics
Students also want to know if you can get an MCS without a background in mathematics. The MCS program does require two (2) semesters of advanced math in Calculus I and Calculus II and a background course in Discrete Math, so if you did not complete those requirements in your previous education, you will need to either take the prerequisite courses at a local accredited University or enroll as a graduate non-degree seeking student at ASU to complete MAT 265 and MAT 266 online.
The answer to the question “Can I get an MCS degree without the GRE, an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, a GPA over 3.0 or prerequisite math courses” is YES! If you are willing to put the time into preparing your education to align with the ASU MCS requirements and you are excited to learn about computer science, then you are eligible to apply for the MCS degree.
