About 50 million kids are headed back to school, lugging backpacks filled with heavy textbooks. An education can 1 as much as 30 pounds, making back-to-school a backbreaking ordeal(折磨).
And it's not just the weight of textbooks that 2 a serious strain(扭伤) — those books can put a dent(凹痕) in your wallet as well — so we 3, what if we didn't have textbooks?
The 4 of textbooks has skyrocketed more than 800%, since 1978. Right now, the 5 college student spends about $1,200 on books if they buy them all. 65% of students said they skipped the bookstore because textbooks were too 6, preferring a more digital route.
So with 14. 8 million high school kids across the country, schools are 7 spending more than $7 billion dollars a year on textbooks. For one fifth of that cost, schools could 8 their students with tablets. “Nowadays you can get a tablet for $100 so it's very 9,” says Frank Portanova, Assistant Principle at Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, NY.
Portanova says his students were paying $500-$600 dollars a year on school books 10. But going all digital has hidden costs, and public schools would send taxpayers a heavy check.
Archbishop Stepinac High School (a private institution) went digital and spent $1 million dollars in upgrades — adding wireless 11points to accommodate the 750 students downloading any given textbook, at any given time.
So we'd 12 tons of paper every year if we stopped printing textbooks, but what about the content itself? Would it pay to choose plastic over paper?
Last year, that all-digital school in New York saw its 13 rate drop from 12 percent to 6.1 percent.Failure rates in college could drop as well. 82% of students surveyed said they would feel better about their performance, if an online text was 14.
A cheaper, more customized(定制) 15 with higher success rates maybe result in a few less trips to the doctor's office.
A study published in Child Development,the top－ranked educational psychology journal,provides some of the strongest evidence yet that gesturing may have a unique effect on learning.Teachers in the United States tend to use gestures less than teachers in other countries.
"Gesturing can be a very beneficial tool that is completely free and easily employed in classrooms," said Kimberly Fenn,study co－author and assistant professor of psychology at Michigan State University."And I think it can have long－lasting effects."
Fenn and Ryan Duffy of MSU and Susan Cook of the University of Iowa conducted an experiment with 184 second－,third－ and fourth－graders in Michigan elementary classrooms.
Half of the students were shown videos of an instructor teaching math problems using only speech.The others were shown videos of the instructor teaching the same problems using both speech and gestures.In the speech－only videos,the instructor simply explains the problem.In the other videos,the instructor uses two hand gestures while speaking,using different hands to refer to the two sides of the equation.Students who learned from the gesture videos performed better on a test given immediately afterward than those who learned from the speech－only video.
Another test was given 24 hours later,and the gesture students actually showed improvement in their performance while the speech－only students did not.
While previous research has shown the benefits of gestures in a one－on－one tutoring－style environment,the new study is the first to test the role of gestures in equivalence learning in a regular classroom.
The study also is the first to show that gestures can help students transfer learning to new contexts—such as transferring the knowledge learned in an addition－based equation to a multiplication－based equation.
Fenn noted that U.S.students lag behind those in many other Western countries in math and have a particularly hard time mastering equivalence problems in early grades."So if we can help them grasp this foundational knowledge earlier," she said,"it will help them as they learn algebra and higher levels of mathematics."
After returning from her round trip, the angry woman stood outside the ticket office of the station. “The railway owes me 12 pounds，” she said to Harry Jenks, the young man working at the office. “You sold me a ticket for May 22nd, but there was no ship from Jersey that night. So my daughter and I had to stay in a hotel. It cost me 12 pounds.”
Harry was worried. He remembered selling the woman a return ticket. “Come into the office, Madam，” he said politely. “I'll just check the Jersey timetable for May 22nd.”
The woman and her little girl followed him inside. She was quite right, as Harry soon discovered. There was no sailing on May 22nd. How could he have made such a careless mistake? He shouldn't have sold her a ticket for that day. Wondering what to do, he smiled at the child. “You look sunburnt，” he said to her. “Did you have a nice holiday in Jersey？”
“Yes，” she answered, shyly. “The beach was lovely. And I can swim too！”
“That's fine，” said Harry. “My little girl can't swim a bit yet. Of course，she's only three ...”
“I'm four，” the child said proudly. “I'll be four and a half.”
Harry turned to the mother. “I remember your ticket, Madam，” he said. “But you didn't get one for your daughter, did you？”
“Err, well ...” the woman looked at the child. “I mean …, she hasn't started school yet. She's only four.”
“A four-year-old child must have a ticket, Madam. A child's return ticket from Jersey costs .., let me see ... 13.50 pounds. The law is the law, but since the mistake is mine ...”
The woman stood up, took the child's hand and left the office.
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A. Organize your materials. B. Start with difficult material first. C. Your room may be an ideal place for studying. D. This will help you quickly get into the state of study. E. Schedule an hour or two for studying during those times each day. F. However, many students find their former study habits are not suitable for college. G. You can also use apps to stop distracting websites like Facebook while you're studying. |
Having good study habits is key to success in college. To begin making the change, you need to get organized to study.
Create a fixed study space. Find a quiet space in your room or somewhere on campus where you can focus. Studying in the same place every day makes your brain combine a certain environment with work.
Find a regular time for studying. If you study at the same time each day, your brain will be prepared for learning when you sit down. Review your schedule and see when you have free time. You can study during gaps between classes or in the evening after your classes are done for the day.
Make sure you have everything you need to study at your study space. If you're studying in a place in your home, keep things like your books, pencils, pens, and paper in that area. If you go out to study, you can take a book bag and keep all your studying materials stored there.
Avoid distractions (干扰). When you prepare your study space, it's important to keep it away from distractions. Remove any technologies that will take your mind off your work, like your iPad. Besides, keep other distracting materials such as outside reading, away from your study area.
