Nobel laureates’ names have slipped out prematurely before. In 2019, the poet Katarina Frostenson, a member of the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize in Literature, left after an investigation found that her husband had repeatedly leaked the names of winners.
This year’s chemistry Nobel laureates — Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov — were selected for their discovery and development of quantum dots, used in LED lights and television screens and to help guide surgeons as they remove cancer tissue. At least one of the recipients still described the accolade as unexpected.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word accolade 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.
If you want a better idea of how accolade can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
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.
In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month this May, we’re celebrating Asian American developers who’ve built useful and entertaining applications that bolster and give back to the Asian American community in some capacity.
Whether you’re looking for a way to order Asian grocery items or want to expand your knowledge of anime or Native Hawaiian history, here are five apps to download to show your support.
Timeless
Growing up with a grandmother with Alzheimer’s, Emma Yang saw firsthand how the illness can affect families and caregivers. As a resourceful programmer, Emma sought to build a mobile app that could help people with Alzheimer’s stay connected with friends and family, remember events, and recognize their loved ones.
“During the design process I often asked myself, What would my grandmother do? And how would this help her?” Emma said in a TEDx Talk. “I want to be able to empathize with how patients like my grandmother feel and understand how my app can help them live better daily lives.” Emma launched Timeless when she was 14 and in high school, and today she’s a student at Harvard and president of the Harvard College Quantum Computing Association.
Why we love it: The app incorporates AI-powered facial recognition technology in a few ways. Users can browse photos that are tagged with the names of people and their relationship, or use the camera app to identify people in front of them. Timeless is available in multiple languages including Simplified and Traditional Chinese as well as Spanish, making it more accessible for people around the world to use.
Angelina Tsuboi is an 18-year-old multi-hyphenate programmer, founder, and researcher who focuses on applying computational intelligence and AI to diverse fields like electromagnetism, astrophysics, quantum mechanics, and biology. In addition to running her own research lab Stellaryx Labs and building aerospace cybersecurity programs, Angelina has launched several apps over her programming career.
Lilac, an app that Angelina built in 2022, won the Student Swift Challenge at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. The app provides resources for single parents to find childcare, housing, and translation services. Angelina built Lilac using React Native, Firebase, and Adobe Illustrator for the graphics.
Why we love it: The idea for Lilac came from Angelina’s lived experience. “My mom is a single mother and she’s from Japan,” she told Apple in a press release. “When she came here, she had problems with the language, so I made an app where you can find resources such as childcare or housing or grant opportunities, and translators in the community to help you connect with them.”
As a college student at Kansas State University, the closest Asian supermarket Alex Zhou could get to was two hours away — way too far to travel for his Chinese grocery staples like rice, chili oil, and tea. So when Alex graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, he founded Yamibuy, an e-commerce marketplace for buying Asian snacks, food, beauty, and health products in North America.
Alex’s mother owned businesses in China, which inspired him to become an entrepreneur, too. Being able to provide other Asian Americans with their comfort items is what makes the business so fulfilling: “Every time you’re homesick, [and] you want a taste of your hometown, you go to Yamibuy,” he said on an episode of the podcast Asian Hustle Network.
Why we love it: In addition to shrimp crackers and authentic K-beauty products, you can also find Asian kitchen appliances (like rice cookers and hot pots) and cooking tools on Yamibuy.
Like lots of software engineers, Kun Gao and his classmates in the computer science program at UC Berkeley liked to build products in their spare time. One of their projects was a video sharing site that would eventually become the wildly popular anime streaming service Crunchyroll.
Kun had interned at the now-defunct site Hot or Not, where he got a taste of how to code something from scratch. “The lesson there was it’s actually not hard to build a web startup, especially if you’re an engineer with a little bit of product sense — you can literally code it all yourself,” Kun told the podcast Asian Hustle Network.
Crunchyroll came about back in 2006, when online video was a relatively new concept. “It wasn’t just something you can do off the shelf,” Kun told the podcast Rock the Boat. Kun and his co-founders had to make their own servers, find and customize encoders, figure out how to decode video on a web browser, and learn how to deliver the bits, he said. “There was actually a lot of heavy lifting,” he says.
Why we love it: If you’re just wading into anime and want to explore past seasons from popular shows, or you’re an anime stan who wants to stream episodes an hour after they air in Japan, it’s easy to find something for you on Crunchyroll. Plus, there are lots of language options for subtitles, making the content accessible to people who don’t speak Japanese.
Software engineer and diversity activist Tracy Chou created the app Block Party to give people a tool that could protect them from online harassment and abuse. “On the technical side, I’ve written code from the startup ground floor of three consumer web-scale platforms — Facebook, Pinterest, Quora,” Tracy wrote on the Block Party website. She saw the shortcomings in the anti-harassment tools that social media platforms offer, and decided to build something better.
Chou, whose parents are Taiwanese immigrants, is outspoken on social media and unfortunately has dealt with trolls, harassers, threats, and stalkers. “My whole life is oriented around how I can be safe, psychologically, mentally, and physically,” she told Fast Company. With the rise of anti-Asian racism and hate crimes in recent years, Block Party’s offerings are essential: A 2021 Pew survey found that 81% of Asian Americans said that violence against them is increasing.
Block Party offers a handful of anti-harassment tools for Twitter (though they aim to expand to other platforms), like customizable Lockout Filters that mute people who are most likely to harass you. (There’s a basic plan that allows you to use Block Party for free, or you can pay $12 a month for more advanced block lists and filters.)
Why we love it: The beauty of Block Party is that, once you enable the tools, you can continue to use social media as usual without stressing over what you might come across on your timeline. There’s even an option to enlist a trusted person as a “helper” who gets permission to mute, block, and remove harmful tweets for you so you don’t have to see them yourself.
Sign up for Block Party by connecting your Twitter account here.
Honeycomb
If you’re constantly sending photos and videos of your kid to far-flung loved ones, you’ll love Honeycomb, a private digital scrapbook for families.
Honeycomb started as a tool for families to record their own histories to pass down to younger generations. “For years, I begged my mom and dad to record the stories they used to tell me and my sister as kids, stories about their lives growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, how they met, why they decided to come to the United States,” Amelia Lin, who co-founded Honeycomb with Nicole Wee, wrote in a blog.
Why we love it: You can post audio snippets (for all those baby giggles and first words) to Honeycomb in addition to photos and videos. And the app is free to use and offers unlimited storage — so there’s no worries about over-documenting.
Native Stories is an audio app with a digital map of Hawaii and guided walking tours that teach you about the history behind points of cultural significance on the islands. Nohealani Hirahara Frizzell — whose ancestors originate from Maui, Kauai, and Japan — created the app to preserve indigenous Hawaiian wisdom and bring storytelling and oral tradition into the modern era. The audio tours, which are written and narrated by Native Hawaiians, only cost $1.99 to access, and all of the proceeds go to the Native Stories nonprofit.
Why we love it: You can download the audio tours to use offline if your service is spotty, plus there’s an option to read the text rather than listen to it. And if you’re not in Hawaii, you can always listen to the Native Stories podcast, which features interviews with inspiring indigeous people.
So far, we’ve heard about your various desires to strengthen your skills in data analysis, project management, information security, artificial intelligence, and human resources. Would you believe it if we told you that there is a technical skill that shows up in all of these fields and more?
It’s spreadsheet software.
Spreadsheet software, like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, is among the most commonly sought technical skills in job listings across all career areas and occupations. (Actually, we used spreadsheet software to discover this fun fact!)
According to our analysis using data from job listings in the past 12 months, this key skill frequently shows up in career areas ranging from the obvious—planning and analysis, business management, administration, and finance—to the technical—engineering, information technology, and science and research—all the way to the unexpected—hospitality, human resources, health care, marketing, sales, and customer support.
That’s because these tools are extremely versatile, and mastering them enables a wide range of tasks. You can use them to organize information, track progress, analyze data, and create charts.
The specific way spreadsheet software will show up in a role may vary, but tasks are generally guided by the same fundamentals. You can go far if you know how to format a spreadsheet, sort data, and use basic formulas and functions, like SUM and COUNT. You can go a bit farther if you know how to use conditional formatting, create pivot tables, and use slightly more complex functions like SUMIF, CONCATENATE, and VLOOKUP.
University of Colorado Boulder’s Everyday Excel Specialization, where you’ll dive a bit deeper into the practical uses of the spreadsheet software and complete applied learning projects, which you can use to demonstrate your skills to potential employers.
Macquarie University’s Excel Skills for Business Specialization, where you’ll gradually advance your spreadsheet skills and learn to apply them to analyze business data.
For more practice, here are some career-oriented Guided Projects, all of which take two hours or less to complete:
Before you go, tell us in the comments: What are the most creative ways you’ve used spreadsheets?
Myanmar’s military staged a coup in 2021, strangling democratic reforms and jailing much of the country’s civilian leadership. Three years later, the Southeast Asian nation is teetering on the brink of failed statehood. After years of conflict, rebels have scored victories over the military junta.
AI use is exploding! Since OpenAI was introduced in 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) design, development, and use have exploded. 2024 is the year of AI. With that explosion, the many possible uses of AI have become apparent, and many more are awaiting discovery. So, how is AI being used? AI has helped in every field imaginable, from supply chain management to education, graphics design, movies, and more. Any possible use for AI that you can think of; if it is not helping there now, it will; just give it time!
The CEO of Google was quoted as saying. “AI is one of the most important things humanity is working on. It is more profound than, I dunno, electricity or fire.” So, what is AI, and where did it come from? AI didn’t just happen overnight. AI is a few things that are used at different levels.
Wikipedia defines AI as “intelligence exhibited by machines or software, as opposed to the natural intelligence of other living beings. It is a field of research in computer science that develops and studies methods and software which enable machines to perceive their environment and use learning and intelligence to take actions to maximize their chances of achieving defined goals.”
AI is the culmination of the historical quest to organize information logically (early philosophers), turn it into 0s and 1s, and process the relevant information, usually with a database query and providing an output. You may already be familiar with big data, machine learning, neural networks, trustworthiness, natural language processing, and computer vision.
AI is about processing large quantities of data, providing an output that answers a question posed by a human, another machine, a program, or a response to a sensor providing data. It should be considered a human helper, not a replacement for humans. Although many jobs will be eliminated with AI – many more higher-level jobs will be created.
With the explosion of use and all the possible future uses for AI at work and home, it is understandable that some things are spiralling out of control. Many issues are coming to light with AI. Is it appropriate to create offensive graphics? Is it proper to have bias, such as the ability to tell jokes from one culture but not others? Is it correct to allow a chatbot to sign a contract for a car for $1 when it is worth $400,000? Is letting an AI program cheat another company out of money appropriate? All these things and more have happened already. Hence, there is a need for responsible AI.
So, What is Responsible AI, and How Do We Get There?
To have Responsible AI, we must manage eight topics: trustworthiness, robustness, resilience, reliability, accuracy, safety, security, and privacy. Therefore, the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission have published the new ISO series 42000 as of December 2023.
In my free course on the ISO standard – ISO/IEC 42001:2023 – Artificial Intelligence Management System (AIMS) on the Alison.com learning platform, I review these and other related management topics for AI that, if appropriately managed, will lead to Responsible AI in your organization.
It’s crucial to emphasize that this ISO standard applies to all organizations, regardless of whether they currently utilize AI or plan to do so. This standard pertains to entities involved in creating and implementing AI systems and to those integrating AI into their regular business operations.
The free course covers standard terms and their definitions, legislation in different jurisdictions, and AI policies. It also discusses what management needs to do and know in their organization, AI resources, AI Risk Assessment, AI System Impact Assessments, Monitoring, Measurement, Analysis, and Evaluation. Later, we discuss Internal and External Audits, Continuous Improvement, Nonconformities, Corrective Actions, and other related topics.
While there is a need to balance regulation, freedom of expression, and the free market, having a fundamental social contract that all parties agree upon is essential. ISO/IEC 42001 seeks to provide a management framework to identify those topics that need to be reviewed and how to review them in the context of a management system.
Whether you are directly involved in AI development or simply incorporating AI into your organization’s daily operations, understanding and adhering to these guidelines can significantly enhance your ability to navigate the complexities of AI management effectively. By enrolling in the course, you can access comprehensive insights and practical knowledge tailored to foster responsible AI practices within your organization. Seize this opportunity to empower yourself with the tools and receive the understanding necessary to drive meaningful progress in AI management. Enroll today and embark on a journey toward ethical and sustainable AI integration in your organization.
Near the end of 2022, Lucas Bolt, an environmental artist and Lego enthusiast in Amsterdam, was working on a design for a Lego set the company had crowdsourced to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, the tabletop role-playing game.
“I spent two very intense weeks working on it, every night, every weekend, all the time that I had,” he said.
Mr. Bolt was hoping to create the design for Lego Ideas, a program the toymaker started in 2008 to solicit ideas online directly from fans. Typically, designers post their concept on the platform, and if a design gets 10,000 votes, the company considers it for production. This case was different, though: It was the first time the company had given fans a concept to work with.
Mr. Bolt had been designing his own sets for a few years, primarily for his followers on Instagram, but this was the first time something he had produced had gained real traction. A panel of judges selected his set and four others for a shortlist, and in a vote fans chose his set as their favorite.
Lego Ideas is part of a growing strategy among companies that are creating divisions devoted to going directly to consumers for ideas. Lego takes a more personal approach, allowing fans to submit designs, while other companies poll consumers about what they would like to see or speak to inventors about their latest projects. These initiatives are finding particular success within niche groups of collectors and other highly dedicated fans.
But it’s not just Lego. The article continues, with details about Mattel, the company behind Barbie, and more:
As it turns out, Mattel does want to know what consumers think of Barbie, but it is taking a niche approach through its Mattel Creations website, where it runs crowdfunding campaigns tailored to its fan base for Barbie, Hot Wheels and other brands.
“The wealth of information, which we generate from our fans, is priceless,” said Sanjay Luthra, managing director of Mattel’s global direct-to-consumer portfolio.
Feeding into consumer obsession is a big part of Mattel’s product development strategy, said Mr. Luthra, who added that Mattel was constantly checking what fans were saying on social media to get product ideas. For example, Weird Barbie, which the toymaker sold on the Mattel Creations website after seeing the enormous response to the “Barbie” movie on social media, was the highest-selling doll ever on the platform, he said.
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
What were your favorite toys and games as a child? How many of those are still on the market in some form today?
What classic toys, whether from your own childhood or earlier, do you think should be updated for today’s children? And how so? For instance, are there new versions of dolls or stuffed animals you can imagine? Of board games or video games? Of toy vehicles? Of building or play sets?
If you could create a toy or game from scratch, what would you make? Even if you don’t have the full concept, tell us whatever you can about it. What kind of toy would it be? For what ages would it be appropriate? Why would it be fun?
This article begins with a story about Lucas Bolt, an environmental artist in Amsterdam and a Lego enthusiast, who created a design for a Lego set to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the board game Dungeons & Dragons. Do you have a crossover idea like that, too? That is, can you think of a TV show, movie, book or any other kind of pop culture phenomenon that could become a toy or game — or Lego set?
The article points out that Spin Master, a Toronto-based toy company, has been soliciting toy inventors for ideas since its inception in 1994. Would you want “toy inventor” to be your job? Why or why not?
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 and may appear in print.
Armchair sleuths aren’t the only devotees of the open-sesame game these days. Hidden doors and secret rooms have become an increasingly popular feature in American homes, whether the goal is foiling burglars, eking out extra storage or creating so-called safe, or panic, rooms for doomsday scenarios.
… Companies that make pre-hung, ready-to-install doors that masquerade as bookcases and pool cue racks say that business started booming at the height of the pandemic in 2020, when Americans holed up at home dove into renovation projects. Some homeowners who turned bedrooms into offices for remote work swapped out regular closet doors for ones that double as shelving units to make the spaces more functional, as well as more professional-looking on Zoom calls.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word masquerade 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.
If you want a better idea of how masquerade can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
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.
To borrow a trite, yet totally true, saying: It takes a village to raise a developer. Okay, we changed the quote a little bit, but the sentiment is spot-on.
The tech industry can be tricky to navigate, especially for self-taught programmers and folks from non-traditional backgrounds who may not have access to some of the resources and opportunities you’d find in college. And it’s not just the technical stuff you have to learn — there are whiteboard interviews, corporate cultures (and subcultures), and soft skills you’ll need as you take on more leadership and responsibility. That’s one of the many reasons why having the right people in your corner throughout your career can be invaluable.
Fortunately, there are tons of organizations out there that help tech newbies grow and build their own circle of supporters, mentors, and collaborators. In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this May, we’re highlighting communities and organizations that are dedicated to empowering Asian American and Pacific Islander professionals in the field.
Learn something new for free
Code with Aloha
Code with Aloha is a volunteer team that works on projects that use technology and open data to improve and contribute to local Hawaiian communities. An example of an active project you can contribute to is the Hawaii Zoning Atlas, an online interactive map that shows how restrictive zoning laws can make it difficult to build diverse, affordable housing in Hawaii. The team meets on the first three Mondays of every month to work on projects and share their work, and you don’t need advanced coding knowledge to join.
Purple Maiʻa
The mission of Purple Maiʻa is to “inspire and educate the next generation of culturally grounded, community serving technology makers and problem solvers.” Purple Mai’a teaches coding and entrepreneurial skills to Native Hawaiian and other young people in Hawaii. The nonprofit also hosts hackathons, IRL community gatherings, workplace development programs, and intensives.
Aspire (Asian Sisters Participating in Reaching Excellence)
Aspire is a volunteer-driven organization that helps nurture Asian American girls and women. Many Asian American women professionals face unique obstacles in their careers, including pay gaps and harmful stereotypes. Aspire helps women of all ages prepare for and overcome these challenges by bringing them together for cross-generational dialogue on topics like professional development, confident leadership, and positive relationships.
Want to get involved with Aspire? You can participate in their local events or even apply to join one of their leadership boards and committees. And if you’re looking for a mentor (or open to mentoring someone else), consider joining their 2023 Mentorship Program.
API Who Design
API Who Design is an online directory and community of Asian and Pacific Islander designers, including Web Designers, UI/UX Designers, Product Designers, Illustrators, and more. You can join their roster by submitting your application (you have to share your selfie, portfolio, and social links). Once you’re accepted, you can meet and connect with other API creatives in their Slack channel and even find job postings.
AAMA (Asia America MultiTechnology Association)
AAMA is a global pan-Asian community of tech professionals. It’s the largest in the world, with members in everything from software engineering and robotics to virtual reality and game development. Members (you have to pay to join or get invited to a chapter) get access to exclusive networking events, discounts on various goods and services, and opportunities to connect with other members in chapters in Silicon Valley, Seoul, and Taiwan.
CSPA (California Software Professional Association)
CSPA is a non-profit organization that helps people build leadership and entrepreneurial skills. It was founded in Silicon Valley in 1988, and the group is open to everyone (though they place special emphasis on Asian demographics). CSPA members discuss emergent trends and the how-tos of doing business in the tech industry (finding funding, strategizing, etc.) in various events and conferences, and they also offer opportunities to connect face-to-face in formal and informal settings.
CSPA events are posted on Meetup.com, so just create an account and sign up to get started.
Hawaiians in Tech
Hawaiians in Tech is one of API Who Design’s many sibling sites — it’s an online directory and community of native Hawaiian technologists. (Fun fact: its co-founder Taylor Ho currently works as a Principal UX Designer for Twitch.) You can get involved through Discord, where you can connect with the community and find events like hackathons and other collaborative opportunities.
SASE (Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers)
SASE empowers Asian STEM professionals throughout the U.S. They offer collegiate chapters and employee resource groups that help cultivate community and leadership skills with various networking and skillbuilding events. The organization also has a podcast, The Adult Table, which features more casual conversations around people’s personal and professional lives.
AAASE (Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering)
AAASE helps upskill the next generation of Asian American technologists with mentoring, networking, leadership, and career development initiatives. This organization offers tons of support for high school students, with internship and mentorship opportunities, leadership and entrepreneurship workshops, and awards for participants with innovative projects.
Want to learn more about how AAPI people are making waves in tech? We’ll be sharing stories about AAPI technologists throughout May on the blog and our social accounts. Follow along to get inspired.
This blog was originally published in May 2023 and has been updated to include more organizations geared towards AAPI technologists.
Do you eat breakfast, lunch or snacks from your school’s cafeteria? If so, what do you eat? What are your favorite foods? How nutritious do you think your choices are?
New federal regulations on salt (or sodium) and sugar are coming to school cafeterias. Do you think they will change your favorite foods? Will they affect what and how much students eat at school?
Around 11:40 on a cool spring day in early April, students began to stream into the lunchroom at Haleyville High School in Alabama.
Cheerleaders, soccer and baseball players, and other members of the student body filed through the lunch line and sat at their tables. They chatted and laughed about upcoming games (go, Roaring Lions!) and prom as they dug into plates of chicken Alfredo, green beans and salad.
Emma Anne Hallman, standing in a corner, watched the teenagers carefully. As the child nutrition director for the Haleyville City School District, she has the job of feeding 1,600 students, in prekindergarten through 12th grade.
For months, Ms. Hallman and other heads of school lunch programs have worried about new federal regulations that would reduce allowable sodium levels and introduce new sugar restrictions for foods served in school cafeterias. A debate has raged, with many parents and nutritionists applauding efforts to make lunches more nutritious while some school lunch administrators fretted that the results will be less tasty to students, reducing consumption and increasing waste.
“We are cringing, as it could result in changes across our menus,” Ms. Hallman said. “We would have to look at the sodium amounts in the recipes of some of our students’ favorite foods, like chicken wings, hot wings or even some of the Asian foods.”
The article continues:
While far from perfect (cafeterias serve plenty of processed foods), school lunches are arguably much healthier than they were a few years ago, thanks to a signature program geared toward combating childhood obesity and championed by Michelle Obama when she was first lady. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, passed in 2010, required schools to reduce the calories, fat and sodium in foods served in cafeterias and to increase offerings of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and nonfat milk.
The new regulations drew sharp criticism, however, and the Trump administration rolled back some of them, such as a prohibition on 1 percent chocolate milk. But last year, the Biden administration proposed updates that would gradually limit salt and sugar in school lunch foods in an attempt to meet federal dietary standards.
On Wednesday, the Agriculture Department made the new rules final after scaling back several provisions in the earlier proposal and shifting the start dates. Instead of gradually cutting sodium in lunch foods by a third from current levels by the fall of 2029, school cafeterias will have to cut sodium levels 15 percent by the 2027-28 academic year. And for the first time, schools will need to limit the amount of added sugars in cereals and yogurts, starting in the 2025-26 academic year.
Standing in a Haleyville School District pantry a few weeks ago, Ms. Hallman nodded to boxes containing cups of Cocoa Puffs and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. They contain less sugar than the cereals that are bought from grocery stores and poured into bowls at home. Still, she said many of these foods would most likely be affected by the new rules and have to be reworked by the manufacturer. The label of a Cocoa Puffs cereal bar, for instance, showed it had eight grams of added sugar, while a frosted strawberry Pop-Tart had 14 grams.
“Breakfast, particularly grab-and-go options, is going to be tricky,” Ms. Hallman said. “The changes could affect how many times a week we can offer certain items with sugar to the students.”
Many nutritionists and health-policy watchdog groups say the new rules on sodium and sugar are important, with so many children struggling to have or make nutritious choices outside school.
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
Before reading the article, were you aware that public schools must meet nutritional standards set by the federal government? Do you think these rules are reflected in what meals get served, how often certain items appear on the menu, or what foods can be served together at your school?
What, if anything, surprised you about the challenges schools face when it comes to serving food? Does it make you see school lunch differently?
Do you think the people who prepare school meals are right to fear that the new rules will require them to change or discontinue some of the students’ favorite items? Or will students embrace healthier meals at school?
What do you notice about the foods served at your school? Do students tend to eat healthy most days? Are the most popular items high in sugar or sodium?
Now think about what gets thrown out in cafeteria trash cans. Is food waste a serious issue at your school? If so, what can be done to help?
If students are less likely to eat foods that are low in salt and sugar — and perhaps less tasty — is it still worth it to make school lunches healthier? Why or why not?
Do students at your school have a say in what the cafeteria serves? If menus were created by students, what do you think would change and why?
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 and may appear in print.
It depends who you ask. A week after the March 1888 blizzard, The Times was already writing about the word’s etymology. “Blizzard was first used by those who first experienced it while settling in the Western plains,” one article read. “Until bereft of our own or better authority the American theory of the American term for an American storm will hold its own,” it added.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word etymology 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.
If you want a better idea of how etymology can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
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.
