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How to Use GitHub to Strengthen Your Resume

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How to Use GitHub to Strengthen Your Resume

Boasting over 100 million users, GitHub is one of the leading online development environments. Programmers use GitHub every day to work on projects and collaborate with others. If you’re looking for a tech job in today’s competitive developer job market, having GitHub skills can give you a leg up on the competition.

When Codecademy learner Stina Niemann was interviewing for her first data analytics position, she was able to talk about her knowledge of Git and GitHub. She completed our course Learn Git & GitHub, and felt comfortable making Git commands and using open-source lingo. “Those small basics, I think, really helped me stand out,” Stina said.

In our course Learn Git & GitHub, you can grasp the ins and outs of how GitHub works, learn the markdown language Git and its important operations, and get a primer on how to collaborate with others using GitHub. Whether you want to start contributing to open-source projects or are preparing your resume for the job search, this free course is a solid introduction to the go-to platform. You’ll also learn how to use GitHub Copilot in this course, a popular language-agnostic tool that harnesses AI to speed up the development process.

Keep reading to learn the benefits of using GitHub to bolster your job prospects, some of the possible downfalls and how to approach them, and how entry-level, mid-career, and seasoned professionals can use GitHub to make their resumes pop.

Learn something new for free

What is GitHub?

GitHub provides internet hosting for developers who use Git — a software used to track changes made to code. With Git, programmers can work with each other to design and improve source code.

Developers use GitHub to manage and store different versions of projects. For example, if you’re working on a web application, you can upload your code to GitHub, invite others to help you work on your code, or simply store it there to work on later.

Plus, as you develop new versions of your app, you can use GitHub to get easy access to what you’ve already made, giving you a straightforward way to compare, improve, and troubleshoot your solutions.

How to put GitHub on your resume

Even though you can describe your skills and experience on your resume, adding your GitHub profile adds another dimension. Most people include a link to their GitHub profile in the header section of their resume, alongside contact information. If you have a paper resume, you can include the full URL of your GitHub profile.

Here is an example of a resume for a fictional job seeker named Joshua Parker. As you can see, there is a link to his GitHub profile right at the heading of the resume, next to the contact information.

In many ways, your GitHub profile is like a developer-specific social media profile. A strong GitHub profile features diverse projects, each with unique concepts and well-crafted README documents that communicate your work to fellow developers through clear code documentation.

During his job search, iOS Developer Matthew Ogtong worked on Docs, our open-contribution coding documentation for common programming languages and concepts. Docs is built and maintained on GitHub, so Matthew got hands-on experience working with tools that he uses every day in his role now.

“Before you even start applying to jobs it’s important to have a strong GitHub profile and a README in place for yourself, at least just to give a little intro for anyone that’s visiting your page,” Matthew said.

It’s worth taking the time to make sure your GitHub profile looks polished and thorough. You want to make a good first impression with recruiters and hiring managers who are browsing your work for the first time. We break down some more features that make a “good” GitHub profile in Learn Git & GitHub.

A good GitHub profile is one more way you can stand out in the job search.

The benefits of including GitHub work on your resume

Here are some of the top benefits of including your GitHub profile with your projects and contributions on your resume.

It shows you know how to write code

It’s easy to claim you’re a programmer, but it’s another thing to prove it. Showcasing GitHub work on your resume gives a prospective employer tangible evidence of your skills. (This is especially important if you don’t have professional programming work experience yet.) Showing some of your best work also gives your interviewer something they can share with decision-makers and other stakeholders, like the rest of the dev team.

Showing your work can be intimidating, especially if you feel like your project still needs some fine-tuning. Don’t let this stop you because analysis of what you could’ve done better is a great talking point during an interview. It shows you’re introspective about your work and capable of evaluating it with a critical eye.

It shows you can read code

When you showcase projects you’ve contributed to on GitHub, you let employers know you’re proficient at reading code. For many programmers, reading other people’s code is very challenging. Employers know this, and while they’re often ready to invest time into improving a new developer’s reading skills, they’d prefer someone who already has experience.

To make your reading skills shine, you can:

  • Collaborate on different kinds of projects
  • Work with multiple developers
  • Contribute to projects that are out of your comfort zone to broaden your horizon

Doing this will add diversity to the kinds of code you can read and work with, giving your employer the confidence they need in you to move forward.

It shows your collaboration skills

The ability to collaborate with others on GitHub shows you know how to produce quality work with other programmers. While many developers create excellent products working alone, working within a team environment is a necessary element of today’s DevOps teams.

When you connect with others on GitHub and include links to your work on your resume, you show an employee you know:

  • How to take feedback about your work
  • How to provide constructive feedback that improves the end-product
  • How to maintain a focus on higher-level objectives while working on smaller pieces of a project
  • How to annotate clearly, explaining your coding ideas to others

It lets the employer know you can use Git

Granted, not every employer is going to have Git as part of their production process, but some do. Someone who knows how to use Git will require less upfront training for these companies.

Also, some other development platforms, like Helix Core and AWS CodeCommit, have a few similarities with Git. Even if the employer doesn’t use Git, your experience with it could be a bonus and give you an edge over the competition.

It shows your passion for coding

Developers who use GitHub to contribute to open-source programming have an admirable passion driving them. The time, energy, and effort it takes to invest yourself in open-source solutions—usually without any compensation—shows you have a sense of commitment to your craft that may set you apart from others applying for the position.

Potential downfalls of using GitHub on your resume

While the benefits of showcasing your work on GitHub outweigh the drawbacks, there are a few things you want to keep in mind when deciding if and how to showcase your work.

Older work may reflect past weaknesses

Showing older work is great—as long as you have the opportunity to explain how you’ve improved or how you’ve grown when it comes to that specific kind of programming.

Be careful to provide context for any work you showcase, especially products that have clear deficiencies. This will make your introspection and improvement stand out instead of the errors you made.

You may overemphasize your dependence on others

If you primarily use GitHub to get help when you’re stuck, it might seem like you rely on others to solve problems versus tackling them on your own. Do your best to avoid a narrative like, “I got stuck so I went to GitHub for help. I got stuck again, and GitHub bailed me out. And this other time when I couldn’t figure an error out, I went to GitHub…”

If you use GitHub only when you need help, be sure to highlight what you’ve learned from each experience, including:

  • How another programmer’s thinking improved your own
  • New skills you picked up by working with others
  • How watching someone else improve your code helped you improve your troubleshooting abilities

Long periods of inactivity may undercut the benefits

If you choose to showcase GitHub work on your resume, there’s a chance the hiring team will focus more on your GitHub work than the rest of your resume. If that’s the case, inactivity on GitHub may convey inconsistent performance, passion, and work ethic.

To avoid this, explain why you chose to take a break from GitHub, perhaps because you got busy with other work that paid more or had to focus on more important projects.

Advice for different kinds of GitHub users

The way you show your work on GitHub will vary based on whether you’re applying for an entry-level position, mid-career position, or if you’re a seasoned professional. Here are tips for each stage of your career.

Entry-level applicants

As an entry-level applicant, GitHub gives you a chance to show the kinds of skills many can only acquire with years of experience. By working on GitHub, you can show employers how you can:

  • Accept feedback from others
  • Improve the work of experienced programmers
  • Systematically adjust products until they meet core requirements

To ensure you have the skills you need to produce on GitHub, and for a traditional dev team, you can enroll in any of our Career Paths. For new developers, some of the best choices include:

Mid-career applicants

As a professional in the middle of your career, GitHub offers you a chance to show how you can solve more complex problems and adapt to new types of programming, including learning new languages. The ability to acquire and apply new knowledge is crucial to the skillset of a mid-career applicant.

Even if you haven’t produced stellar work with a language you’re still getting comfortable with, showing what you’ve been able to accomplish using newer skills can convince an employer you have the agility necessary to work in a flexible environment.

Seasoned professionals

GitHub offers seasoned professionals a chance to flex their knowledge and help others with their projects. Showing the hiring team how you support up-and-coming developers on GitHub is a great addition to any resume.

Also, if you’ve been working on a pet project on GitHub, letting employers see this work can be just as beneficial. A little passion project lets them know you’re still hungry, innovating, and ready for challenges.

With the help of our courses, you can acquire and improve the skills necessary to shine on GitHub—and your resume. We teach you not just skills, but also provide valuable experience working with others. Also, you can develop a portfolio of work to upload to GitHub and show to potential employers. Get started today, free of charge.

This blog was originally published in September 2021 and has been updated to include our new GitHub courses and resources.

5 Inspiring Women in AI You Should Know About

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5 Inspiring Women in AI You Should Know About

When cutting-edge AI systems and tools come on the scene, it’s easy to forget that there are lots of humans behind these tech marvels. Sure, you might hear the same names of a few high-profile CEOs and thought leaders in the news (like Elon Musk and Sam Altman), but the AI and machine learning field is full of diverse and accomplished people. 

Women contribute to AI research and innovations, often to less fanfare than their male counterparts. Women hold just 35% of STEM jobs in the U.S., and the fraction of women working in AI is even slimmer. A past report from the World Economic Forum suggests that women only account for 22% of AI professionals in the workforce.  

For International Women’s Day, we put together a list of women in technology who are developing AI advancements, fostering important discussions about ethics in AI, and serving as role models for aspiring technologists from marginalized communities. This is by no means a comprehensive list — if you want to take a deep dive into today’s tech talent, the organization Women in Machine Learning maintains a database of women experts working in the field of machine learning.   

Learn something new for free

We hope these inspiring women motivate you to pursue ambitious goals and keep learning about AI and machine learning. Be sure to check out the rest of our Women’s History Month blogs, including this list of programming languages that were created by women, and books by and about women in tech

Lead Research Scientist at Google DeepMind 

Known for: Pre-training, scaling, and finetuning of Large Language Models. She was the Technical Lead who theorized and coded PaLM (Pathways Language Model) and was a core contributor on Gemini

In an interview on Google’s “Meet a Researcher” YouTube series, Dr. Chowdhery talked about how AI tools are making it easier for people to work with lots of programming languages. As a child, she was fascinated by computers and would spend hours learning different languages like Lotus 1-2-3, Logo, FORTRAN, COBOL, and Basic. (Fun fact: a bunch of those languages were invented by women technologists.)

“It was a ton of languages that I had to learn to program each of these different tasks,” Dr. Chowdhery said. “What’s really inspired me is that now I don’t have to go learn all these languages; I can talk to computers like I can talk to humans. This is really a turning point in the history of human-computer [and] human-machine interaction.”  

Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute 

Known for: She co-created ImageNet, a large-scale dataset for visual recognition, which has been instrumental in advancing the field of computer vision and deep learning. Her 2015 TED Talk on the subject is worth watching even today.

Dr. Li is a renowned AI expert and leader at one of the foremost AI research institutes. When it comes to gender diversity in academia, 76% of computer science, computer engineering, and IT faculty at North American universities are male, according to The AI Index 2023 Annual Report by Stanford University. 

“Now we have a new generation of women professors. But this is far from enough,” Dr. Li told CNBC. “This field has a severe lack of women and underrepresented minority and this will impact the technology.”  

Bren Professor of Computing at Caltech  

Known for: She’s held top research positions at NVIDIA and AWS. Her research focuses on algorithmic foundations for AI in scientific domains, and she specializes in neural operators, optimization, probabilistic models, and tensor methods. 

Both of Anima’s parents were engineers in Mysore, India, and her mother was one of the first women in their community to pursue engineering. Seeing her mother confidently navigate a male-dominated industry impacted Amina. 

“I never saw it as something weird for women to be interested in engineering. My mother inculcated in us that appreciation of math and sciences early on,” she said in an interview with Quanta Magazine. “Having that be just a natural part of who I am from early childhood went a long way. If my mom ever saw sexism, she would point it out and say, ‘No, don’t accept this.’ That really helped.” 

AI Researcher and Founder of the Algorithmic Justice League 

Known for: Her groundbreaking research on facial recognition technology and her book Unmasking AI, which digs into the how racism, sexism, colorism, and ableism manifest in AI.  

Dr. Buolamwini is an artist in addition to an academic, and she goes by the moniker “Poet of Code.” Art is a medium that humanizes AI and can reach lots of different people who may not have technical backgrounds.  

“Research was not enough for me to teach everyday people whose life opportunities and pathways were being shaped by often faceless and nameless technology,” Dr. Buolamwini told TIME. “So I began to find my voice as a poet of code, a person who could penetrate technical jargon to highlight the harms and equip people with knowledge to resist harmful uses of AI.”

Senior AI Reporter at MIT Technology Review 

Known for: Writing about how AI is changing our society. Check out one of her recent stories, which was a letter to Taylor Swift that unpacks how we can combat deepfake porn.  

In a recent interview with “The Good Robot Podcast,” Melissa emphasized the importance of intersectional feminism and inclusivity in the development of technology. If technologists can consider how technology affects people from different genders, races, and classes from the outset, “I think we have a chance of this technology becoming a really powerful helpful tool instead of a sh-t show,” she said.    

OLAY and Coursera launch cosmetic science Specialization to bridge the gender gap in STEM

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OLAY and Coursera launch cosmetic science Specialization to bridge the gender gap in STEM

OLAY will award $2 million worth of scholarships for learners interested in cosmetic sciences

By Marni Baker Stein, Chief Content Officer, Coursera

Today, OLAY is launching a new Specialization, Introduction to Cosmetic Science and Ingredients, on Coursera. This is OLAY’s first Specialization on our platform and is designed to educate learners on skin care fundamentals and encourage more learners, especially women and women of color, to enter the cosmetic science field. 

Our partnership with OLAY comes at an important time for careers in STEM. As of 2023, women’s representation remains low, comprising just over one quarter of the overall STEM workforce. The new cosmetic science Specialization is the first of a series of STEM Specializations from OLAY that reflect OLAY’s commitment to doubling the number of women in STEM and tripling the number of women of color in STEM by 2030.

To bolster this effort, OLAY and Coursera will provide $2 million in scholarships over three years for the course to anyone interested in cosmetic science. From 2024 – 2026, 5,000 recipients will receive a one-year subscription to Coursera Plus, which also includes more than 6,900 courses, as well as entry-level Professional Certificates and hands-on projects that teach job-relevant business, technology, and data science skills. Women and women of color are encouraged to apply.*

The new Specialization is taught by OLAY’s in-house cosmetic scientists, including Dr. Rolanda Wilkerson, who has an extensive background in researching emerging skin and hair science. With a deep understanding of women’s skin and hair needs, Dr. Wilkerson’s work has been used to improve the formulas of Procter & Gamble’s most popular cosmetic products.

“OLAY is committed to positively impacting the STEM pipeline and supporting all women in STEM. This is why we are excited to collaborate with Coursera to put STEM education within reach for both current and aspiring STEM learners,” said Dr. Wilkerson.  “Whether you are a skin care enthusiast or someone considering cosmetic science as a career, anyone, anywhere can now learn the basics of skin care from OLAY scientists with the new ‘Introduction to Cosmetic Science and Ingredients’ course.”

Introduction to Cosmetic Science and Ingredients will ground learners in the history of the cosmetic industry while helping them understand key ingredients in various cosmetic products and how they affect the biological structure of the skin. By the end of the four-course program,  learners will be able to understand:

  • Skin physiology and how to create a model of the skin
  • Skin care, skin concerns, and how to identify effective skin care ingredients
  • Fundamental approaches and best practices to create innovative and sustainable cosmetic formulations
  • Best practices and ways to implement cosmetic quality control and safety methods

Learners who complete the program and apply to Procter and Gamble beauty roles are encouraged to acknowledge their cosmetic science certificate during the application process.

With OLAY’s commitment to inclusivity in STEM, we’re thrilled to welcome them to Coursera’s partner community and join them in helping open more doors to cosmetic sciences.

Enroll in Introduction to Cosmetic Science and Ingredients and earn a certificate on Coursera.

*To be eligible for a scholarship, learners must be 17 years or older and meet one of the following requirements: 

a. a current high school senior

b. a recent high school graduate 

c. a college student who is interested in or majoring in a cosmetic science or skin care adjacent STEM field including: life sciences, engineering, pre-med, and nursing

d. interested in switching to a STEM-related career  

150 scholarships will be awarded in 2024; 1,500 in 2025; 3,350 for 2026. Selection based on the first number of people who meet above requirements. Scholarships are open to all, but women are encouraged to apply. 

Applications will become available in the coming months.

Playing Dominoes

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Playing Dominoes

Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this illustration or, describe a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.

Tell us in the comments, then read the related Guest Essay to learn more.


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.

Find more Picture Prompts here.

Word of the Day: dwindle

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Word of the Day: dwindle

The word dwindle has appeared in 76 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Oct. 31 in “News Group Says A.I. Chatbots Heavily Rely on News Content” by Katie Robertson:

The report also found instances of the models directly reproducing language used in news articles, which Ms. Coffey said showed that copies of publishers’ content were retained for use by chatbots. She said that the output from the chatbots then competes with news articles.

“It genuinely acts as a substitution for our very work,” Ms. Coffey said, adding: “You can see our articles are just taken and regurgitated verbatim.”

… Media executives have raised a number of concerns about A.I. in addition to the use of articles to train language models. Traffic to news sites from search engines could dwindle, some executives fear, if chatbots become a primary search tool. In addition, many media workers are worried that they could be replaced by A.I.

Can you correctly use the word dwindle 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 dwindle 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.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try our vocabulary quizzes.


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.

The Word of the Day is provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.

How Does Retrieval Improve New Learning?

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How Does Retrieval Improve New Learning?

Cover image by Dharmendra Rai from Pixabay

By Althea Need Kaminske

While we talk about the benefits of retrieval practice a lot here at the Learning Scientists, we usually talk about the benefits of retrieval practice for already learned information. However, retrieval practice has also been shown to be beneficial for learning new information. That is, retrieving already-learned material not only helps you to remember that material (1), it also helps you to learn new material (2). While this effect (called the forward testing effect or test potentiated learning or retrieval potentiated learning) has been well established (2), what is less well-understood is how retrieval facilitates new learning.

In a review of studies on retrieval potentiated learning, Chan, Meissner, and Davis (2018) four theoretical perspectives on how retrieval improves new learning: resource theories, metacognitive theories, context theories, and integration theories.

Resource Theories

Resource theories state that retrieval is beneficial for new learning because it frees up cognitive resources. Retrieval acts as a way for you to set aside already learned material and focus on the to-be-learned material. Pretend you are asked to remember two lists of words. According to this theory, you will remember more from the second list of words if you have been tested over the first list because you’re not still thinking about that first list. Chan et al. (2018) that this is consistent with the literature on expressive writing that people have fewer intrusive thoughts during a learning task if they are able to write about them before hand (see this post from Cindy about expressive writing an math anxiety).

Research on mind-wandering is also consistent with this set of theories. Szpunar and colleagues have found that testing between video lectures reduced or changed mind wandering during subsequent lectures (3, 4). Interestingly, in one study when participants were tested intermittently, they reported more lecture-relevant mind wandering than participants who were not tested (4).

Metacognitive Theories

Theories in this category theorize that retrieval practice helps learners to optimize their encoding strategies. That is, after taking a test on information they might change the way they approach learning new information. One way this may happen is that retrieval practice may change how much time or effort learners spend on items that they think are more difficult or more important to learn (2)

Context Theories

Another reason why retrieval might benefit future learning is due to updating context. Contextual information refers to any information that is not necessarily directly related to the to-be-remembered information, but that does provide information about the context (e.g. time or order information – knowing that an item was presented towards the beginning or end of a session.). According to these theories, people are better able to learn new information because old information has been associated with context (2). For example, practicing retrieval on one list of information may may make it more likely that you associate items on that list with “things that happened in the first list” and therefore will be less likely to have those interfere when you try to remember “thing that happened on the second list”.

Film Club: ‘Go Behind the Scenes of All 10 Best Picture Oscar Nominees’

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Film Club: ‘Go Behind the Scenes of All 10 Best Picture Oscar Nominees’

“My name is Greta Gerwig, and I am the co-writer and director of ‘Barbie.’” “(SINGING) I’m just Ken. Anywhere else, I’d be a ten.” “The thing that I can say most about this sequence is that this was the thing that I most knew what I wanted it to be, and no one else knew what I wanted it to be. Every time I look at this, it’s just the ridiculousness of how we did it, which is they’re obviously arriving on these pedalos on a beach that has no water. It’s a solid mass with these waves that are sculptures. And I had everyone in this scene pretend to be moving in slow motion except for Ryan, who’s singing. And I think I got four takes into it, and I thought, this just — is this so ridiculous that I’m doing pretend slow motion? But then I thought, I think I just have to commit. Now I’ve done it. There’s nothing else I can do. My stunt coordinator, Roy Taylor, who’s a brilliant, brilliant person, and he worked with my choreographer, Jenny White, because I wanted all the fighting to be somewhere between dancing and a kind of vaudevillian ridiculousness of a Buster Keaton or a Charlie Chaplin. I love that kind of physical comedy. So you see men tangoing in the background in addition to fighting. Because they’re Kens, they’re children. It all sort of goes together.” “Ah!” “Ah! Ah!” “Then we have our Barbies, who are sort of watching with their pink boilersuits, which I think Jacqueline Durran, who is the costume designer, she did the pink boilersuits because I wore boilersuits every day. And she was like, I’ve decided what the Barbies will wear when they’re taking back Barbieland. And I cried when I saw it because I was like, oh, it’s a tribute to me. So much of this sequence is the song that Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt wrote, which was not in the script. But I did ask them because they were writing the song that became Dua Lipa’s ‘Dance the Night.’ I said we need a Ken song, and I think it goes in the battle. And then they wrote this song from the perspective of Ken. And then I said, Ryan, are you up for singing this? And he said yes, ultimately. But initially, I don’t know. I think he was like, you never said anything about this at the beginning. But I think they sent me 30 seconds of an idea for the song, that I just loved. And then I was like, Can you make it 11 minutes long? Because I want it to go through this whole sequence. And then this part, this dream ballet part, Sarah Greenwood, who is a production designer, and Katie Spencer built this stage to echo the dream ballet stage from ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ because I love that movie. And that has one of the best dream ballets of all time because they have a dream ballet that is inside of another dream ballet, which, I think, when people are like, will anyone understand this? I was like, yes. There is a context for this. They’ll grasp it. And every Ken, every Barbie, is a dancer the whole time. And then I chose all the actors, too, because they were good dancers. Jenny White, who was my choreographer, she and I looked at a lot of different musicals, different dream ballets. But Busby Berkeley was a huge reference.” “(SINGING) I’m just Ken. Anywhere else, I’d be a ten.” “I kind of love that ‘we’re putting on a show’ element of this movie, which is very connected to theater and also the pleasure of making something in a childlike way. And we started with dance rehearsals, and I think it was a good way to put everybody in that mindset of it’s not about perfection. It’s about this joy. And they obviously embodied that. In a way, you want the audience to walk out and say, I’d like to go make something. I want to go play. I want to go set something up. I want to do a performance. And that’s how I felt when I watched a lot of movies when I was a kid, or theater. I instantly was like, I’m going to organize my own version of ‘Starlight Express’ right now.” “(SINGING) Nobody else Nobody else I’m just Ken.”

Illustrating Ideas: The Winners of Our Second Annual One-Pager Challenge

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Illustrating Ideas: The Winners of Our Second Annual One-Pager Challenge

Doras Tin, 17, Sevenoaks School, Sevenoaks, United Kingdom. “A Link Between Hearing Voices and Hearing Your Own Voice”

Devin Urbina, North Hollywood High School, North Hollywood, Calif. “What It Takes to Save the Axolotl”

Chloe Weng, 16, Clements High School, Sugar Land, Texas. “South Korea’s City of Books”

Felicity Wong, 18, Milton Academy, Milton, Mass. “Why Didn’t She Scream? And Other Questions Not to Ask a Rape Accuser”

Ying Ying Wu, Kent School, Kent, Conn. “A Year of ‘Unreal’ Fire and Warming in the Arctic”

_________

Anonymous, 13, Pioneer Heritage Middle School, Frisco, Texas. “Palestinian and Israeli Teens Swam in the Same Pool. Then Came Oct. 7”

Anonymous, 15, Western Center Academy, Hemet, Calif. “Live Music Is a Time Machine”

Anonymous, 17, Gyeonggi Academy of Foreign Languages, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. “Botox Destroyed What I Like About My Face”

What’s Going On in This Graph? | March 13, 2024

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What’s Going On in This Graph? | March 13, 2024

On Wednesday, March 13, teachers from our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.

5. By Friday morning, March 15, we will reveal more information about the graph, including a free link to the article that includes this graph, at the bottom of this post. We encourage you to post additional comments based on the article, possibly using statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets.

We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!


More?

See all graphs in this series or collections of 75 of our favorite graphs, 28 graphs that teach about inequality and 24 graphs about climate change.

View our archives that link to all past releases, organized by topic, graph type and Stat Nugget.

Learn more about the notice and wonder teaching strategy from this 5-minute video and how and why other teachers are using this strategy from our on-demand webinar.

Sign up for our free weekly Learning Network newsletter so you never miss a graph. Graphs are always released by the Friday before the Wednesday live moderation to give teachers time to plan ahead.

Go to the American Statistical Association K-12 website, which includes teacher statistics resources, Census in the Schools student-generated data, professional development opportunities, and more.

Students 13 and older in the United States and 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.

What Students Are Saying About Lowering the Voting Age

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What Students Are Saying About Lowering the Voting Age

I would argue that no, the voting age shouldn’t be extended to sixteen, due to the necessary teenage development that takes place between the ages sixteen and eighteen. Being a teenager of age seventeen, a teenager who would gain the right to vote should the age threshold be lowered, I have witnessed firsthand the actions of my friends and classmates — actions which unfortunately, I don’t think leaves my class deserving of such a privilege. Just yet. The voting age of eighteen allows time for students to start thinking for themselves, to start becoming more independent and to start acting more like adults. Even just two years earlier, the immaturity of people around this age is astonishing. Biologically, teenagers need the time to develop into more mature adults. In other words, why mess with a system that already works? There are plenty of other ways to get young members of society used to political science; testing our already very delicate democracy with rowdy teenagers is not the way to go about doing so.

Bennett, Glenbard West High School, Glen Ellyn, IL

I personally do not agree with having the legal voting age lowered to 16. I say this because we are in a world where so much information and where young people such as myself have so much information, whether it’s true or false, is thrown at them from social media apps … Voting is a very powerful and important thing that I’m not sure most people younger than 18 are capable of.

Mason, Pennsylvania

As a 16 year old, I stand by the idea that my peers should not be allowed to vote, especially in presidential elections. While it is very important for youth to have a voice on issues that concern them, we are more likely to be pressured by our peers into having a specific view on any political or social aspect. This can be said especially for students voting in school board elections. Students are more likely to base their vote off the portrayed freedom they may receive rather than the true educational aspect, whereas adults who are either running for a position or voting are truly concerned with the child’s education, and have had more experiences than the youth that can shape their mind to help form a proper decision.

Hannah, Cumberland Polytechnic High School, NC

No, the voting age should not be lowered because 16 year olds are influenced by the media very easily. Once the media has made up their mind and something starts trending, everyone will want to do the same. For example a rumor happened that Kanye West was going to run for president and many teens were willingly going to vote for him as a joke. I don’t think they are mature enough to realize how important those types of things really are. It’s all jokes and games until they vote somebody for totally not fit to be our president.

Jeanelle, Valley Stream, NY

Voting is something that is serious, because it can change the world you live in. In my opinion, I think the age of voting should be around 20-21. I think this because when you are older, this decision will apply to you more. When someone votes to choose a new president, it applies to older people, not so much to 16 year olds.

J.R., Vanden High School