[10] Want kids to learn well? Feed them well.

Sam Kass gives a speach about the connection between the nutrition and school grades.

Click here to watch the talk

Sam is a chef from the family of teachers. He is curious about the connection between children's growing mind and their growing body. He asks the question: what a child can learn if their body is hungry?

As an introduction to the topic he gaves an example from the cooking competition in which he was a judge. In one special episode they wanted school chefs to compete. The mystery ingridient to be used was quinoa. One chef made a delicious pasta and just throw there quinoa. He asked her why she did that and she answered that she doesn't know what quinoa is but she knows that it's Monday, and on Mondays she does pasta in her school. Why? Because her school is in the poor district and children don't have meals during the weekends so she cooks something that will fill them up. Then he started to think where's the connection between school and nutrition.

Research show that children who don't have nutritious breakfasts have lower cognitive skills.

He took part in the program that founded breakfast and lunch to every student in schools with 40% lower income. There schools saw an increase in math and reading scores by 17,5%.

Another reaserch show that when children have nutritious breakfasts their chances of graduation increase by 20%.

Then he gives another example of the program carried in Donna Martin's school, also devoted to a nutrition in schools.

"If we focus on the simple goal of properly nourishing ourselves, we could see the world that is more stable and secure (...)" Sam says.

Vocabulary:

a staple - a main product or part of something

- Old books are a staple of many public libraries - the majority of the books is old there.

nourishment - food that you need to grow and stay healthy

- Young babies obtain all the nourishment they need from their mother's milk.

pervasive - present or noticeable in every part of thing or place

- The influence of French is pervasive in your language. You cannot say a single sentence without putting French words there.

to thrive - to grow, develop or be succesful

- Her company has thrived a lot since she set up it. Now it hires 100 employers and is very succesful.

overhaul - to repair or improve something so that every part of it works as it should.

- I got the engine in our car overhauled. Now it works properly.

sources of the images: 1

sources of definition: 1

[9] Got a wicked problem? First, tell me how you make toast.

Tom Wujec explains how to solve problems by drawing the process of making toast.

Click here to watch the talk

When workers of big companies ask Tom how to solve difficult problems, he starts from telling them to draw how they make toast. First step is to draw it on a sheet of paper. Most people draw some nodes representing steps and links representing connections with them. In the second step they have to draw the same process on the sticky notes. Now they tend to draw more complex structures with the larger number of nodes. As a third step Tom asks them to write it in a group. It gest very messy, but eventually they mix their ideas and they come up with the best ones.  It integrates diversity of each person's point of view.

Tom explains that drawings help us to understand the situation and the steps we should to take. You start with the question, you collect the nodes, you refine the nodes and the patterns emerge. And the group gets clarity. By doing this he helps the organizations solve their problems. 

To solve a wicked problem you have to make your ideas visible, tangible and consequential.

Vocabulary:

tangible - real and not imaginary, able to be shown or touched.

- We need tangible evidence instead of your imagined proofs to consider that matter.

iteration - the process of doing something again and again.

- Iteration has a big role in the process of learning.

refine - to make something pure or to improve something, especially by removing unnecessary material.

- You have to refine your notes by getting rid of unnecessary ones.

prominent - very well known and important.

- This prominent student is bound to be a head of school government. Everybody knows him.

revenue - the income that a government or company receives regularly.

- Governmen't reveue comes from taxes.

Sources of images: 1,

Sources of definitions: 1,