Sunflowers originated in the Americas, but for a long time, especially in the 1800′s, has been planted and used a lot more in Eurasia. Today, a lot more is being produced in the U.S., because the potato chip industry prefers sunflower oil to the partially hydrogenated oils that their customers believe are healthier. Dan Charles’ story on NPR traces some of this history.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2012. Seeds of Change: Sunflowers, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in Social WorldNo Comments » - Tags: audio, geography, history, npr, seeds of change

All that arguing with your teenager is, basically, teaching them how to argue. You yell, they learn to yell. You listen, and make your rational arguments respectfully, and they learn to do the same — both with you and with others; so much so that it inoculates against peer-pressure.

Patti Neighmond has a nice story about the benefits of parent-teenager arguments, on NPR’s All Things Considered. One particularly interesting is that adolescents who learn to argue well are much less susceptible to peer-pressure.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2012. Teaching Your Kids how to Argue, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in audio, PedagogyNo Comments » - Tags: argument, audio, npr, Pedagogy, research

So other than digging in Morocco, where do we get more phosphorus? Here’s a hint: the symbol for phosphorus on the periodic table… is “P.”

– Horwich (2011): The end of phosphorus on APM’s Marketplace.

Marketplace’s Jeff Horwich has an excellent article on the uses of the element phosphorus, where it comes from, why it’s getting scarce, and where we might get more.

The answers to these questions are:

• It’s a key element in DNA, so the major use is fertilizer,
• most of it comes from Morocco these days,
• since Morocco supplies about 85% of the world supply, they’re developing a bit of a monopoly and the price is going up,
• the main alternative sources are manure and urine that have lots of phosphorous. In fact, burning sewage leaves behind a phosphorous rich ash.

Marketplace tells the story in much more detail.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2011. Phosphorus: What is it good for?, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in Chemistry, Natural World, Social WorldNo Comments » - Tags: biology, chemistry, chemistry applications, economics, Marketplace, monopoly, npr, radio, supply and demand

In fact scientists have found that variety boosts both attention and retention.

–Patti Neighmond on NPR’s Morning Edition (2011): Think You’re An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Scientists Say It’s Unlikely

Morning Edition has an excellent piece that points out that there is little or no actual experimental data supporting the idea that teaching should be individually tailored for different learning styles.

So presenting primarily visual information for visual learners has no proven benefit.

This is something we’ve seen before, however, this article points out that providing each student with the same information in different ways makes it much more interesting for them, increasing their motivation to learn and their retention of what was taught.

Which is fortunate because it means that if you were trying to teach in multiple ways, hoping that the more vocal stuff benefits the auditory learners and the pretty diagrams resonate more with the visual learners, even if this principle is all wrong, all of your students would still have gotten the benefits of variety.

Another key point is that:

Recent studies find our brains retain information better when we spread learning over a period of time versus cramming it into a few days or weeks.
–Patti Neighmond on NPR’s Morning Edition (2011): Think You’re An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Scientists Say It’s Unlikely

So the educational psychologist, Doug Rohrer, recommends giving less math problems at a time but spreading the work out over a longer time. Our block schedule, with three weeks on and three weeks off, ought to work well for this, since students will be studying math intensely on the on-blocks and doing revision assignments on the off-blocks.

The article is below:

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2011. Learning from Multiple Perspectives Works Better, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in audio, PedagogyNo Comments » - Tags: audio, education, multiple intelligences, npr, Pedagogy

Monument to the periodic table and Dmitri Mendellev (photo by mmmdirt, caption via Wikipedia).

NPR has a nice article on how physicists come up with new elements (in supercolliders) and then name them.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2011. Naming the Elements, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in audio, Natural WorldNo Comments » - Tags: atoms, npr, periodic table, physics, science

NPR reports on the discovery of a 11,500 year old house in Alaska that probably belonged to some of the first people to migrate to the Americas over the Bearing Land Bridge during the last Ice Age. Just 500 years later the Land Bridge was submerged by rising sea levels.

It’s a good article to go to for our discussion of human migration patterns. It also has the added poignancy of the fact that, at the end, the home was turned into a burial crypt for a young member of the family.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2011. Crossing the Bering Land Bridge, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in audio, Natural World, Social WorldNo Comments » - Tags: archeology, migration, npr, poignant

NYU scientists have traced the evolution of tomcod fish that’s been driven by pollution in the Hudson River. The NPR article is nice because it really breaks down how fish with the right genes preferentially survived the PCBs and dioxins in the river, and passed their genes on.

It also turns out that the fish “selected” for pollution tolerance end up being more sensitive to other things, like high water temperatures. It really puts, “survival of the fittest” in context. The fish are “fit” for polluted rivers, but not “fit” for warmer water.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2011. Modern Evolution, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in audio, Natural WorldNo Comments » - Tags: biology, evolution, genetics, npr

Vali Nasr’s interview on NPR’s Morning Edition talks about what it takes to make a successful revolution. Particularly, they focus on the need for a vibrant, educated, middle-class for a successful transition to democracy.

Another key, and I think essential point, is that the Egyptian protesters share the same global-citizenship values that Brazilians, South Koreans, and even Europeans and American, share. That they have these values, from years of communication with the outside world, offers the best chance that this revolution will be successful.

Edmund Burke supported the American Revolution, but opposed the French Revolution because the former was a conservative revolution, the colonists were fighting to regain rights that had lost, while the latter were trying to impose an ideal of democracy and equality that they had no experience with. He was right; the French revolution lead to the Terror then eventually to Napoleon and the restoration of the aristocracy.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2011. The Economy and Revolution, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in audio, Social WorldNo Comments » - Tags: citizenship, Egypt, government, npr, politics, revolution