Unwrapping The German Tradition of Schultüte

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Image Credit: Pixabay Schultüte is a cherished tradition in Germany designed to ease the anxieties of the little ones starting first grade. Parents or godparents would make a Schultüte (“school cone”) or a Zuckertüte (“sugar cone”) at home, mark it with the children’s names, and take it to school to hang it in the “Schultütenbaum” (school cone tree). Then, on their first school day, children would pick their cones from the magic Schultütenbaum on the school grounds, careful not to break them. After the …

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Exaptation, Nature’s Way to Bridge Past and Future

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Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. Frank Herbert – Dune  Exaptation, a term coined by palaeontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba, refers to repurposing a trait during evolution. Initially serving one specific function, a trait can be co-opted for a different purpose. Charles Darwin was the first to propose that a trait’s function can evolve and change over time. This idea was initially referred to as “preadaptation”. However, because …

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Rubber Duck Debugging – Making Problem Solving Child’s Play

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When we hit a wall with a problem, a simple way to solve it is to take a break and explain the issue to a rubber duck. This entertaining concept started from a story in The Pragmatic Programmer book where a programmer would carry around a rubber duck and explain their code to the duck in detail.  You’re stuck with a difficult bug. You’ve already spent a lot of time on it, and the deadline is looming. So, you ask a co-worker for help. They walk …

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Metaphorical Thinking – The Cloud Metaphors

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Metaphorical Thinking – Introduction Metaphorical Thinking – the Guest Metaphor Metaphorical Thinking – the Cloud Metaphors Metaphorical Thinking – the Web Metaphors The ethereal, shape-shifting quality of clouds makes them a perfect instrument for concepts that apply to metaphors, meditation, behavioural science, or computer science. I am on cloud nine. Every dark cloud has a silver lining.  I have my head in the clouds.   Cloud Computing In the remarkable Dictionary of Symbols by Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, clouds are defined as “instruments of apotheosis and epiphany” and “clouds were connected with the symbolism of …

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But What Use Is It – Judging the Value of New Ideas

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If you could transport yourself back to the 1840s and ask the people what might improve their lives, it’s unlikely anyone would have responded, ‘How about some blue sparks leaping between copper spheres?’ Yet, that’s what Michael Faraday presented in his experiments before a puzzled audience. When Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, having witnessed Michael Faraday’s demonstration of the newly discovered phenomenon of electromagnetic induction [a fundamental force of nature most commonly used to generate electricity], asked: ‘But what use is it? Faraday famously replied, …

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Changing the Face of War – Sir Harold Gillies and the Origins of Modern Reconstructive Surgery

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[Describing World War I] Only one village in all of France escaped without losing at least one of its citizens. This explains why, even in the tiniest of villages, there is a monument honouring those who were killed in the war. Every year, wreaths are laid, and ceremonies are held. Wherever we went, people kept returning to one theme: the extraordinary amount of blood that had been shed. “World War II,” they would say. “Oh, it was terrible, but it was nothing compared to …

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Tips and Tricks for Travelling with Kids

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Mommy, I have a feeling I have never felt before. It’s excitement, and joy, and anger that you never brought me here before, and unbelievability that something this beautiful can exist. A nine-year-old girl arriving in Venice, Italy Lawrence Cohen – The Opposite of Worry We’ve been home for a week after a long-awaited break, and I am still lingering in vacation mode. Here are some tips and tricks my husband and I use to make a family vacation enjoyable. Pre-Vacation Planning Learn from Previous …

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Integrating the Zone of Proximal Development, Deliberate Practice, and Flow into Child Education

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Lev Vygotsky introduced the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) during the 1930s as a groundbreaking and counter-educational theory to the child development theories proposed by Maria Montessori or Jean Piaget. Vygotsky acknowledged the benefits of curiosity-driven settings for motor and practical skills but argued that a teacher or a more knowledgeable individual was necessary for specific domains, such as mathematics or writing. He proposed that in such areas, there are learning tasks within a child’s grasp and other tasks that are too far ahead, …

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