stem
The four major disciplines propelling our students and our society forward; all about education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Journey into the Sleeping Mind
Sleep and dreaming have always been an intriguing subject for researchers, scientists, and the general public alike. While sleep is a natural process that allows our bodies to rest and rejuvenate, dreaming is a mysterious realm where our minds create vivid and often surreal experiences. Despite being two separate phenomena, sleep and dreaming are closely intertwined and often regarded as a meeting point where the conscious and subconscious minds intersect.
By Seyi Egbeyinka 3 years ago in Education
Fascinating Psychological Information On Human Conduct
When you start looking after yourself, you feel better, look better, and even start attracting better companions. Friendships that begin between the ages of 16 and 28 are also more likely to be solid and enduring.
By Daudu Suleiman Danjuman3 years ago in Education
How Uncertainty Can Impair Our Ability to Make Rational Decisions
We make decisions every day, many of which are so straightforward that we hardly notice we are making them. But we tend to struggle when faced with decisions that have uncertain outcomes, such as during the pandemic. Cognitive scientists have long been interested in understanding how people make such uncertain decisions. Now our research, published in November 2021 in the journal JAMA Network Open, gives a clue.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
How Designers Engineer Luck Into Video Games
On Sept. 16, 2007, a Japanese YouTuber who goes by the handle “Computing Aesthetic” uploaded a forty-eight-second-long video with the deafening title, “ULTRA MEGA SUPER LUCKY SHOT.” The video shows a high-scoring shot in Peggle, a vastly popular video game, loosely based on Japanese pachinko machines, in which a ball bearing clatters down the screen, accruing points as it bounces through a crowd of candy-colored pegs, which disappear shortly after being touched; more bounces, more points. Although Peggle involves some skill—before firing the ball, the player must carefully aim the launcher that dangles at the top of the screen—you are principally at the mercy of the luck of the bounce. In Computing Aesthetic’s footage, the points pile up as the ball bounces fortuitously between pegs. To underscore the seemingly miraculous shot, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” blares euphorically until, in the video’s final moments, the ball bearing sinks into the bucket at the base of the screen and the words “FEVER SCORE” flash onscreen. The description on the video, which has been watched nearly a quarter of a million times, reads, “I couldn’t balieve this when it happened!!!!!!!!!”
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
Get Back on Track: 7 Strategies to Help You Bounce Back After Slipping Up
We’ve all been there… You follow your diet religiously for a week and then break it with a weekend binge. You commit to working out more, hit the gym for two days, and then struggle to get off the couch after a long day of work. You set a vision for your career and get excited by the possibilities, only to get dragged down in everyday responsibilities and not return to your dream until months later.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
Chess: How to Spot a Potential Cheat
A few years ago, the chess website Chess.com temporarily banned US grandmaster Hans Niemann for playing chess moves online that the site suspected had been suggested to him by a computer program. It had reportedly previously banned his mentor Maxim Dlugy.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
The Pitfalls of the Pursuit of Happiness
In many cultures around the world, happiness is generally considered to be a positive emotion. But is the pursuit of happiness and “feeling happy” a good thing? Clinical psychologist June Gruber, social psychologist Iris B. Mauss, and researcher Maya Tamir looked into answering a related question: might happiness be dysfunctional at times? The short answer is: it depends.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
The “Chosen Ones” Choose Themselves
In 1994, a young woman asked for an order of restraint against her husband and filed for divorce. With no job and little money to live on, she signed up for welfare benefits so that she could afford to care for her baby daughter.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
