By Dr. Maoshing Ni
Soda, pop, cola, soft drink — whatever you call it, it is one of the worst beverages that you could be drinking for your health. As the debate for whether to put a tax on the sale of soft drinks continues, you should know how they affect your body so that you can make an informed choice on your own.
Soft drinks are hard on your health
Soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, it is what they do contain that is the problem: caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars — or worse, sugar substitutes — and often food additives such as artificial coloring, flavoring, and preservatives.
A lot of research has found that consumption of soft drinks in high quantity, especially by children, is responsible for many health problems that include tooth decay, nutritional depletion, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease.
Why the sugar in soft drinks isn’t so sweet
Most soft drinks contain a high amount of simple sugars. The USDA recommendation of sugar consumption for a 2,000-calorie diet is a daily allotment of 10 teaspoons of added sugars. Many soft drinks contain more than this amount!
Just why is too much sugar so unhealthy? Well, to start, let's talk about what happens to you as sugar enters your body. When you drink sodas that are packed with simple sugars, the pancreas is called upon to produce and release insulin, a hormone that empties the sugar in your blood stream into all the tissues and cells for usage. The result of overindulging in simple sugar is raised insulin levels. Raised blood insulin levels beyond the norm can lead to depression of the immune system, which in turn weakens your ability to fight disease.
Something else to consider is that most of the excess sugar ends up being stored as fat in your body, which results in weight gain and elevates risk for heart disease and cancer. One study found that when subjects were given refined sugar, their white blood cell count decreased significantly for several hours afterwards. Another study discovered that rats fed a high-sugar diet had a substantially elevated rate of breast cancer when compared to rats on a regular diet.
The health effects of diet soda
You may come to the conclusion that diet or sugar-free soda is a better choice. However, one study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day — and it didn’t matter whether it was diet or regular — led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly.
Diet soda is filled with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin. These artificial sweeteners pose a threat to your health. Saccharin, for instance, has been found to be carcinogenic, and studies have found that it produced bladder cancer in rats.
Aspartame, commonly known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol at a temperature of 86 degrees. (Remember, your stomach is somewhere around 98 degrees.) An article put out by the University of Texas found that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and leads to carbohydrate loading.
Carbonation depletes calcium
Beverages with bubbles contain phosphoric acid, which can severely deplete the blood calcium levels; calcium is a key component of the bone matrix. With less concentration of calcium over a long time, it can lower deposition rates so that bone mass and density suffer. This means that drinking sodas and carbonated water increases your risk of osteoporosis.
Add in the caffeine usually present in soft drinks, and you are in for even more trouble. Caffeine can deplete the body’s calcium, in addition to stimulating your central nervous system and contributing to stress, a racing mind, and insomnia.
Skip the soda and go for:
• Fresh water
Water is a vital beverage for good health. Each and every cell needs water to perform its essential functions. Since studies show that tap water is filled with contaminants, antibiotics, and a number of other unhealthy substances, consider investing in a quality carbon-based filter for your tap water.
To find out more about a high-performance filtration system, please e-mail your inquiries to endunsumin@yahoo.com
Monday, November 2, 2009
A secret to happiness: Don't "treat" myself.
When feeling low, a lot of us get the urge to give ourselves a treat (I usually pick something candy-ish). But does giving yourself a treat actually boost your happiness?
It depends on what you choose. Treating yourself to a long walk in the park, say, is a good idea – but the things we choose as “treats” frequently aren’t good for us. When you’re feeling blue or overwhelmed, it’s tempting to try to pick yourself up by indulging in a guilty pleasure, but unfortunately, the pleasure lasts a minute, and then feelings of guilt, loss of control, and other negative consequences just deepen the blues.
So when you find yourself thinking, “I’ll feel better after I have a few glasses of wine…some ice cream…just one cigarette…a new pair of jeans,” ask yourself – will it REALLY make you feel better? Or is it likely to make you feel worse, in the long run?
For example, I realized that one of my personal “treats” is the decision not to pick up after myself. Instead of trying to tidy as I go, as I usually do, I let small tasks mount up. “I can’t possibly be expected to hang up my coat, or put the newspapers in the recycling bin, or unload the dishwasher,” I tell myself. “I’m too busy/too frazzled/too upset/too rushed. I deserve a break.”
The problem is that, in the end, the mess makes me feel worse. Maybe I enjoy a tiny buzz from flinging my coat onto the floor, but the disorder just makes my bad mood deepen. (Plus it’s not nice for anyone else, either.) On the other hand, serene, orderly surroundings make me feel better. Outer order brings inner calm.
Now, instead of “treating” myself to a mess, I make a special effort to keep things tidy when I’m feeling low. Same with my other guilty pleasures, like skipping going to the gym, eating fake food, not picking up phone messages…although skipping a little duty feels like a “treat” for a minute, actually, I cheer myself up more by doing the things I know I ought to do.
The warning signs: whenever I tell myself things like, “I deserve this,” “I need this,” or “Today I shouldn’t have to stick to my usual resolutions,” that’s a signal that I’m trying to justify a pernicious “treat.”
How about you? Do you ever “treat” yourself to things that, in the end, just make you feel worse? Or have you found good treats, that actually make you feel better?
* Interested in starting your own happiness project? If you’d like to take a look at my personal Resolutions Chart, for inspiration, just email me at grubin, then the “at” sign, then gretchenrubin dot com. (Sorry about writing it in that roundabout way; I’m trying to thwart spammers.) Just write “Resolutions Chart” in the subject line.
It depends on what you choose. Treating yourself to a long walk in the park, say, is a good idea – but the things we choose as “treats” frequently aren’t good for us. When you’re feeling blue or overwhelmed, it’s tempting to try to pick yourself up by indulging in a guilty pleasure, but unfortunately, the pleasure lasts a minute, and then feelings of guilt, loss of control, and other negative consequences just deepen the blues.
So when you find yourself thinking, “I’ll feel better after I have a few glasses of wine…some ice cream…just one cigarette…a new pair of jeans,” ask yourself – will it REALLY make you feel better? Or is it likely to make you feel worse, in the long run?
For example, I realized that one of my personal “treats” is the decision not to pick up after myself. Instead of trying to tidy as I go, as I usually do, I let small tasks mount up. “I can’t possibly be expected to hang up my coat, or put the newspapers in the recycling bin, or unload the dishwasher,” I tell myself. “I’m too busy/too frazzled/too upset/too rushed. I deserve a break.”
The problem is that, in the end, the mess makes me feel worse. Maybe I enjoy a tiny buzz from flinging my coat onto the floor, but the disorder just makes my bad mood deepen. (Plus it’s not nice for anyone else, either.) On the other hand, serene, orderly surroundings make me feel better. Outer order brings inner calm.
Now, instead of “treating” myself to a mess, I make a special effort to keep things tidy when I’m feeling low. Same with my other guilty pleasures, like skipping going to the gym, eating fake food, not picking up phone messages…although skipping a little duty feels like a “treat” for a minute, actually, I cheer myself up more by doing the things I know I ought to do.
The warning signs: whenever I tell myself things like, “I deserve this,” “I need this,” or “Today I shouldn’t have to stick to my usual resolutions,” that’s a signal that I’m trying to justify a pernicious “treat.”
How about you? Do you ever “treat” yourself to things that, in the end, just make you feel worse? Or have you found good treats, that actually make you feel better?
* Interested in starting your own happiness project? If you’d like to take a look at my personal Resolutions Chart, for inspiration, just email me at grubin, then the “at” sign, then gretchenrubin dot com. (Sorry about writing it in that roundabout way; I’m trying to thwart spammers.) Just write “Resolutions Chart” in the subject line.
5 tips for dealing with feeling unappreciated
Oh, how I crave gold stars. One of my worst qualities is my insatiable need for credit; I always want the recognition, the praise, the gold star stuck on my homework. I struggle to master my need for gold stars, because it makes me a resentful score-keeper.
Several of my resolutions are aimed at this desire, like Don’t expect praise or appreciation and "Do it for myself." One of my Twelve Commandments is "No calculation" – it comes from a quotation from St. Therese of Lisieux, who observed, “When one loves, one does not calculate.”
Nevertheless, for all my efforts, I have to admit that I still crave gold stars. Whether or not I should want them, I do. Here are the strategies I use to try to curb my craving:
1. Do it for yourself. For a long time, I self-righteously told myself that I made certain efforts “for the team.” While this sounded generous, it led to a bad result, because I sulked when my husband or whoever didn’t appreciate my efforts. Now, I tell myself, “I’m doing this for myself. This is what I want.” I want to send out Valentine’s cards. I want to organize the cabinets. This sounds selfish, but in fact, it’s less selfish, because it means I’m not waiting for a gold star. No one else even has to notice what I’ve done.
2. Find ways to reward yourself. Maybe other people aren’t giving you credit, but you can give yourself credit. One reason I love my Resolutions Chart is that I get a little jolt of satisfaction when I reward myself with check-mark next to a resolution. I give myself my own gold stars! (True confession: my need for gold stars is so raw that when I started keeping my Resolutions Chart, I considered buying actual gold-star stickers and literally sticking them on. I didn’t go that far.)
3. Tell people you’d like to get a gold star. Once I acknowledged to myself how much I crave gold stars, I was able to explain that to my family – and sometimes even joke about it. Since then, they’ve all been better about doling them out, because they know how important it is to me. Also, it’s easy for people innocently to overlook contributions you’ve made, and if you give a gentle reminder, they might happily load you with gold stars.
4. Express your appreciation for what other people do. One good rule for happiness is that if you wish people would act a certain way toward you, act that way yourself toward others. If you wish people would be freer with praise and appreciation, make sure you’re ladling it out yourself. Also, when you push yourself to feel grateful for what others are doing, you remind yourself of how much they do for you -- and that eases resentment.
5. Remember that being taken for granted is a form of praise. It’s ironic: the more reliable you are, and the less you complain, the more likely you are to be taken for granted. If you always meet deadlines, if you never lose your temper, if you’re always prepared, people overlook your efforts. Really, that’s a compliment.
* Interested in starting your own Happiness Project? If you’d like to take a look at my personal Resolutions Chart, for inspiration, just email me at grubin, then the “at” sign, then gretchenrubin dot com. No need to write anything more than “Resolutions Chart” in the subject line.
Several of my resolutions are aimed at this desire, like Don’t expect praise or appreciation and "Do it for myself." One of my Twelve Commandments is "No calculation" – it comes from a quotation from St. Therese of Lisieux, who observed, “When one loves, one does not calculate.”
Nevertheless, for all my efforts, I have to admit that I still crave gold stars. Whether or not I should want them, I do. Here are the strategies I use to try to curb my craving:
1. Do it for yourself. For a long time, I self-righteously told myself that I made certain efforts “for the team.” While this sounded generous, it led to a bad result, because I sulked when my husband or whoever didn’t appreciate my efforts. Now, I tell myself, “I’m doing this for myself. This is what I want.” I want to send out Valentine’s cards. I want to organize the cabinets. This sounds selfish, but in fact, it’s less selfish, because it means I’m not waiting for a gold star. No one else even has to notice what I’ve done.
2. Find ways to reward yourself. Maybe other people aren’t giving you credit, but you can give yourself credit. One reason I love my Resolutions Chart is that I get a little jolt of satisfaction when I reward myself with check-mark next to a resolution. I give myself my own gold stars! (True confession: my need for gold stars is so raw that when I started keeping my Resolutions Chart, I considered buying actual gold-star stickers and literally sticking them on. I didn’t go that far.)
3. Tell people you’d like to get a gold star. Once I acknowledged to myself how much I crave gold stars, I was able to explain that to my family – and sometimes even joke about it. Since then, they’ve all been better about doling them out, because they know how important it is to me. Also, it’s easy for people innocently to overlook contributions you’ve made, and if you give a gentle reminder, they might happily load you with gold stars.
4. Express your appreciation for what other people do. One good rule for happiness is that if you wish people would act a certain way toward you, act that way yourself toward others. If you wish people would be freer with praise and appreciation, make sure you’re ladling it out yourself. Also, when you push yourself to feel grateful for what others are doing, you remind yourself of how much they do for you -- and that eases resentment.
5. Remember that being taken for granted is a form of praise. It’s ironic: the more reliable you are, and the less you complain, the more likely you are to be taken for granted. If you always meet deadlines, if you never lose your temper, if you’re always prepared, people overlook your efforts. Really, that’s a compliment.
* Interested in starting your own Happiness Project? If you’d like to take a look at my personal Resolutions Chart, for inspiration, just email me at grubin, then the “at” sign, then gretchenrubin dot com. No need to write anything more than “Resolutions Chart” in the subject line.
Processed food link to depression: research
LONDON (AFP) – A diet heavy in processed and fatty foods increases the risk of depression, according to British research published on Monday.
Researchers at University College London also found that a diet including plenty of fresh vegetables, fruit and fish could help prevent the onset of depression.
They compared participants -- all civil servants -- who ate a diet largely based on "whole" foods with a second group who mainly ate fried food, processed meat, high-fat dairy products and sweetened desserts.
Taking into account other indicators of a healthy lifestyle such as not smoking and taking physical exercise, those who ate the whole foods had a 26 percent lower risk of depression than those who ate mainly processed foods.
People with a diet heavy in processed food had a 58 percent higher risk of depression.
The researchers put forward several explanations for the findings, which are published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Firstly, the high level of antioxidants in fruits and vegetables could have a protective effect, as previous studies have shown higher antioxidant levels to be associated with a lower risk of depression.
Secondly, eating lots of fish may protect against depression because it contains high levels of the sort of polyunsaturated fatty acids which stimulate brain activity.
And they said it was possible that a "whole food" diet protects against depression because of the combined effect of consuming nutrients from lots of different types of food, rather than the effect of one single nutrient.
The researchers concluded: "Our research suggests that healthy eating policies will generate additional benefits to health and well-being, and that improving people's diet should be considered as a potential target for preventing depressive disorders."
The study was carried out on 3,486 people with an average age of 55, who worked for the civil service in London.
Each participant completed a questionnaire about their eating habits, and a self-assessment for depression
Researchers at University College London also found that a diet including plenty of fresh vegetables, fruit and fish could help prevent the onset of depression.
They compared participants -- all civil servants -- who ate a diet largely based on "whole" foods with a second group who mainly ate fried food, processed meat, high-fat dairy products and sweetened desserts.
Taking into account other indicators of a healthy lifestyle such as not smoking and taking physical exercise, those who ate the whole foods had a 26 percent lower risk of depression than those who ate mainly processed foods.
People with a diet heavy in processed food had a 58 percent higher risk of depression.
The researchers put forward several explanations for the findings, which are published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Firstly, the high level of antioxidants in fruits and vegetables could have a protective effect, as previous studies have shown higher antioxidant levels to be associated with a lower risk of depression.
Secondly, eating lots of fish may protect against depression because it contains high levels of the sort of polyunsaturated fatty acids which stimulate brain activity.
And they said it was possible that a "whole food" diet protects against depression because of the combined effect of consuming nutrients from lots of different types of food, rather than the effect of one single nutrient.
The researchers concluded: "Our research suggests that healthy eating policies will generate additional benefits to health and well-being, and that improving people's diet should be considered as a potential target for preventing depressive disorders."
The study was carried out on 3,486 people with an average age of 55, who worked for the civil service in London.
Each participant completed a questionnaire about their eating habits, and a self-assessment for depression
Monday, October 26, 2009
TEACHING SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND TECHNOLOGY
Teaching Should Be Consistent With the Nature of Scientific Inquiry
Science, mathematics, and technology are defined as much by what they do and how they do it as they are by the results they achieve. To understand them as ways of thinking and doing, as well as bodies of knowledge, requires that students have some experience with the kinds of thought and action that are typical of those fields. Teachers, therefore, should do the following:
Start With Questions About Nature
Sound teaching usually begins with questions and phenomena that are interesting and familiar to students, not with abstractions or phenomena outside their range of perception, understanding, or knowledge. Students need to get acquainted with the things around them—including devices, organisms, materials, shapes, and numbers—and to observe them, collect them, handle them, describe them, become puzzled by them, ask questions about them, argue about them, and then to try to find answers to their questions.
Engage Students Actively
Students need to have many and varied opportunities for collecting, sorting and cataloging; observing, note taking and sketching; interviewing, polling, and surveying; and using hand lenses, microscopes, thermometers, cameras, and other common instruments. They should dissect; measure, count, graph, and compute; explore the chemical properties of common substances; plant and cultivate; and systematically observe the social behavior of humans and other animals. Among these activities, none is more important than measurement, in that figuring out what to measure, what instruments to use, how to check the correctness of measurements, and how to configure and make sense out of the results are at the heart of much of science and engineering.
Concentrate on the Collection and Use of Evidence
Students should be given problems—at levels appropriate to their maturity—that require them to decide what evidence is relevant and to offer their own interpretations of what the evidence means. This puts a premium, just as science does, on careful observation and thoughtful analysis. Students need guidance, encouragement, and practice in collecting, sorting, and analyzing evidence, and in building arguments based on it. However, if such activities are not to be destructively boring, they must lead to some intellectually satisfying payoff that students care about.
Provide Historical Perspectives
During their school years, students should encounter many scientific ideas presented in historical context. It matters less which particular episodes teachers select than that the selection represent the scope and diversity of the scientific enterprise. Students can develop a sense of how science really happens by learning something of the growth of scientific ideas, of the twists and turns on the way to our current understanding of such ideas, of the roles played by different investigators and commentators, and of the interplay between evidence and theory over time.
History is important for the effective teaching of science, mathematics, and technology also because it can lead to social perspectives—the influence of society on the development of science and technology, and the impact of science and technology on society. It is important, for example, for students to become aware that women and minorities have made significant contributions in spite of the barriers put in their way by society; that the roots of science, mathematics, and technology go back to the early Egyptian, Greek, Arabic, and Chinese cultures; and that scientists bring to their work the values and prejudices of the cultures in which they live.
Insist on Clear Expression
Effective oral and written communication is so important in every facet of life that teachers of every subject and at every level should place a high priority on it for all students. In addition, science teachers should emphasize clear expression, because the role of evidence and the unambiguous replication of evidence cannot be understood without some struggle to express one's own procedures, findings, and ideas rigorously, and to decode the accounts of others.
Use a Team Approach
The collaborative nature of scientific and technological work should be strongly reinforced by frequent group activity in the classroom. Scientists and engineers work mostly in groups and less often as isolated investigators. Similarly, students should gain experience sharing responsibility for learning with each other. In the process of coming to common understandings, students in a group must frequently inform each other about procedures and meanings, argue over findings, and assess how the task is progressing. In the context of team responsibility, feedback and communication become more realistic and of a character very different from the usual individualistic textbook-homework-recitation approach.
Do Not Separate Knowing From Finding Out
In science, conclusions and the methods that lead to them are tightly coupled. The nature of inquiry depends on what is being investigated, and what is learned depends on the methods used. Science teaching that attempts solely to impart to students the accumulated knowledge of a field leads to very little understanding and certainly not to the development of intellectual independence and facility. But then, to teach scientific reasoning as a set of procedures separate from any particular substance—"the scientific method," for instance—is equally futile. Science teachers should help students to acquire both scientific knowledge of the world and scientific habits of mind at the same time.
Deemphasize the Memorization of Technical Vocabulary
Understanding rather than vocabulary should be the main purpose of science teaching. However, unambiguous terminology is also important in scientific communication and—ultimately—for understanding. Some technical terms are therefore helpful for everyone, but the number of essential ones is relatively small. If teachers introduce technical terms only as needed to clarify thinking and promote effective communication, then students will gradually build a functional vocabulary that will survive beyond the next test. For teachers to concentrate on vocabulary, however, is to detract from science as a process, to put learning for understanding in jeopardy, and to risk being misled about what students have learned.
Science Teaching Should Reflect Scientific Values
Science is more than a body of knowledge and a way of accumulating and validating that knowledge. It is also a social activity that incorporates certain human values. Holding curiosity, creativity, imagination, and beauty in high esteem is certainly not confined to science, mathematics, and engineering—any more than skepticism and a distaste for dogmatism are. However, they are all highly characteristic of the scientific endeavor. In learning science, students should encounter such values as part of their experience, not as empty claims. This suggests that teachers should strive to do the following:
Welcome Curiosity
Science, mathematics, and technology do not create curiosity. They accept it, foster it, incorporate it, reward it, and discipline it—and so does good science teaching. Thus, science teachers should encourage students to raise questions about the material being studied, help them learn to frame their questions clearly enough to begin to search for answers, suggest to them productive ways for finding answers, and reward those who raise and then pursue unusual but relevant questions. In the science classroom, wondering should be as highly valued as knowing.
Reward Creativity
Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers prize the creative use of imagination. The science classroom ought to be a place where creativity and invention—as qualities distinct from academic excellence—are recognized and encouraged. Indeed, teachers can express their own creativity by inventing activities in which students' creativity and imagination will pay off.
Science, mathematics, and technology are defined as much by what they do and how they do it as they are by the results they achieve. To understand them as ways of thinking and doing, as well as bodies of knowledge, requires that students have some experience with the kinds of thought and action that are typical of those fields. Teachers, therefore, should do the following:
Start With Questions About Nature
Sound teaching usually begins with questions and phenomena that are interesting and familiar to students, not with abstractions or phenomena outside their range of perception, understanding, or knowledge. Students need to get acquainted with the things around them—including devices, organisms, materials, shapes, and numbers—and to observe them, collect them, handle them, describe them, become puzzled by them, ask questions about them, argue about them, and then to try to find answers to their questions.
Engage Students Actively
Students need to have many and varied opportunities for collecting, sorting and cataloging; observing, note taking and sketching; interviewing, polling, and surveying; and using hand lenses, microscopes, thermometers, cameras, and other common instruments. They should dissect; measure, count, graph, and compute; explore the chemical properties of common substances; plant and cultivate; and systematically observe the social behavior of humans and other animals. Among these activities, none is more important than measurement, in that figuring out what to measure, what instruments to use, how to check the correctness of measurements, and how to configure and make sense out of the results are at the heart of much of science and engineering.
Concentrate on the Collection and Use of Evidence
Students should be given problems—at levels appropriate to their maturity—that require them to decide what evidence is relevant and to offer their own interpretations of what the evidence means. This puts a premium, just as science does, on careful observation and thoughtful analysis. Students need guidance, encouragement, and practice in collecting, sorting, and analyzing evidence, and in building arguments based on it. However, if such activities are not to be destructively boring, they must lead to some intellectually satisfying payoff that students care about.
Provide Historical Perspectives
During their school years, students should encounter many scientific ideas presented in historical context. It matters less which particular episodes teachers select than that the selection represent the scope and diversity of the scientific enterprise. Students can develop a sense of how science really happens by learning something of the growth of scientific ideas, of the twists and turns on the way to our current understanding of such ideas, of the roles played by different investigators and commentators, and of the interplay between evidence and theory over time.
History is important for the effective teaching of science, mathematics, and technology also because it can lead to social perspectives—the influence of society on the development of science and technology, and the impact of science and technology on society. It is important, for example, for students to become aware that women and minorities have made significant contributions in spite of the barriers put in their way by society; that the roots of science, mathematics, and technology go back to the early Egyptian, Greek, Arabic, and Chinese cultures; and that scientists bring to their work the values and prejudices of the cultures in which they live.
Insist on Clear Expression
Effective oral and written communication is so important in every facet of life that teachers of every subject and at every level should place a high priority on it for all students. In addition, science teachers should emphasize clear expression, because the role of evidence and the unambiguous replication of evidence cannot be understood without some struggle to express one's own procedures, findings, and ideas rigorously, and to decode the accounts of others.
Use a Team Approach
The collaborative nature of scientific and technological work should be strongly reinforced by frequent group activity in the classroom. Scientists and engineers work mostly in groups and less often as isolated investigators. Similarly, students should gain experience sharing responsibility for learning with each other. In the process of coming to common understandings, students in a group must frequently inform each other about procedures and meanings, argue over findings, and assess how the task is progressing. In the context of team responsibility, feedback and communication become more realistic and of a character very different from the usual individualistic textbook-homework-recitation approach.
Do Not Separate Knowing From Finding Out
In science, conclusions and the methods that lead to them are tightly coupled. The nature of inquiry depends on what is being investigated, and what is learned depends on the methods used. Science teaching that attempts solely to impart to students the accumulated knowledge of a field leads to very little understanding and certainly not to the development of intellectual independence and facility. But then, to teach scientific reasoning as a set of procedures separate from any particular substance—"the scientific method," for instance—is equally futile. Science teachers should help students to acquire both scientific knowledge of the world and scientific habits of mind at the same time.
Deemphasize the Memorization of Technical Vocabulary
Understanding rather than vocabulary should be the main purpose of science teaching. However, unambiguous terminology is also important in scientific communication and—ultimately—for understanding. Some technical terms are therefore helpful for everyone, but the number of essential ones is relatively small. If teachers introduce technical terms only as needed to clarify thinking and promote effective communication, then students will gradually build a functional vocabulary that will survive beyond the next test. For teachers to concentrate on vocabulary, however, is to detract from science as a process, to put learning for understanding in jeopardy, and to risk being misled about what students have learned.
Science Teaching Should Reflect Scientific Values
Science is more than a body of knowledge and a way of accumulating and validating that knowledge. It is also a social activity that incorporates certain human values. Holding curiosity, creativity, imagination, and beauty in high esteem is certainly not confined to science, mathematics, and engineering—any more than skepticism and a distaste for dogmatism are. However, they are all highly characteristic of the scientific endeavor. In learning science, students should encounter such values as part of their experience, not as empty claims. This suggests that teachers should strive to do the following:
Welcome Curiosity
Science, mathematics, and technology do not create curiosity. They accept it, foster it, incorporate it, reward it, and discipline it—and so does good science teaching. Thus, science teachers should encourage students to raise questions about the material being studied, help them learn to frame their questions clearly enough to begin to search for answers, suggest to them productive ways for finding answers, and reward those who raise and then pursue unusual but relevant questions. In the science classroom, wondering should be as highly valued as knowing.
Reward Creativity
Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers prize the creative use of imagination. The science classroom ought to be a place where creativity and invention—as qualities distinct from academic excellence—are recognized and encouraged. Indeed, teachers can express their own creativity by inventing activities in which students' creativity and imagination will pay off.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Komunikasi Berkesan Guru Besar
Komunikasi Pengurusan
Komunikasi pengurusan ialah proses bagaimana Guru Besar berkongsi pengalaman dengan guru-guru, kakitangan sokongan, para pelajar dan masyarakat sekitar sekolah. Seseorang Guru Besar yang berkesan, popular, disukai ramai dan disanjung oleh oleh guru-guru, ibu bapa dan para pelajar, perkara yang diambil perhatian ialah kemahiran berkomunikasi.
Berkomunikasi bukan sekadar bercakap, malahan berdiam diri dan berpakaian juga jenis komunikasi. Guru Besar amat memerlukan kemahiran komunikasi pengurusan kerana beberapa faktor :
1. Menjalin hubungan
Dengan adanya kemahiran berkomunikasi, Guru Besar dapat menjalin hubungan mesra dengan semua pihak dan proses pengajaran – pembelajaran berjalan lancar.
Semua guru tidak rasa tertekan kerana adanya kemesraan daripada Guru Besar. Guru-guru merasakan diri mereka dihargai, dikasihi dan dimuliakan.
Semua pelajar lebih mudah berhubung dengan Guru Besar dan menyalurkan masalah tanpa ada sebarang sekatan. Apabila pelajar dapat menyatakan masalah, maka Guru Besar lebih mengetahui corak dan asas permasalahan di sekolah. Maka sebarang permasalahan, rasa tidak puas hati lebih mudah diselesaikan. Jadi komunikasi merupakan suatu pelepasan keluhan perasaan emosi dan memenuhi keperluan sosial.
Sebagai contoh, penyebaran risalah agama Kristian dalam kalangan pelajar Islam dan bukan Islam. Buku-buku "Bible New Testament" yang diedarkan di luar sekolah dan dibawa ke dalam kawasan sekolah tentu akan menimbulkan isu sensitif dalam kalangan pelajar terutama sekali dalam kalangan pelajar Muslim. Pelajar yang terlibat dapat memberitahu perkara itu dan tindakan dapat diambil dengan cepat. Contohnya melaporkan kepada pihak polis atau pihak berkuasa yang lain.
2.Saling faham memahami
Melalui kemahiran berkomunikasi, para Guru Besar lebih memahami situasi yang berlaku dalam pengurusannya. Pengurusan yang baik ialah hubungan mesra antara pentadbir dan orang bawahannya. Pihak atasan dapat memahami citarasa dan kehendak orang bawahan. Sementara pihak bawahan dapat mengetahui matlamat, objektif dan kehendak yang ingin dicapai oleh pihak atasan.
Segala maklumat sampai secara terus, tanpa melalui pihak ketiga. Komunikasi secara terus dan kerap adalah lebih baik. Jadi tidak akan berlaku penapisan maklumat. Tambahan pula maklumat boleh disampaikan secara formal dan tidak formal. Maklumat yang disampaikan secara tidak formal lebih memberi kesan di dalam ingatan.
Penyebaran maklumat lebih berkesan. Contohnya pengetahuan teknologi, latihan kerja, kewangan , pengurusan dan sebagainya. Pihak bawahan akan berfungsi lebih bebas, lebih kreatif, berkeyakinan dan penuh dedikasi.
Selain itu pembentukan matlamat akan lebih terarah dan terancang. Pembentukan matlamat yang merupakan perahan idea pengetua dan guru-guru akan lebih mujarab menyelesaikan masalah di sekolah . Dalam membuat keputusan , mesyuarat dan perbincangan mesti selalu diadakan. Alternatif yang dirumuskan akan diedarkan kepada semua bagi tujuan perbincangan dan maklumbalas. Apabila persetujuan dicapai, ia akan dimeteri , diedarkan dan dilaksanakan.
3. Mempengaruhi
Satu perkara yang tidak kurang penting ialah Guru Besar mempengaruhi orang bawahan secara lisan dan secara fizikal. Guru-guru dana para pelajar akan lebih kagum dan terarah fikirannya kerana ‘boss’ begitu dekat dengan mereka. Guru-guru dan pelajar dapat digerakkan untuk mengubah tingkalaku, minat dan bekerjasama ke arah peningkatan prestasi akademik dan ko kurikulum di sekolah.
Misalnya Guru Besar mahu guru-guru lain bekerjasama dan mematuhi idea yang hendak dilaksanakan seperti mengadakan Jogathon dan Jamuan amal. Aktiviti ini hanya akan berjaya jika mendapat sambutan yang menggalakkan daripada para guru dan pelajar.
Komunikasi juga sebagai alat kawalan. Organisasi sekolah mempunyai hierarki, panduan yang formal yang perlu dipatuhi. Organisasi yang leper memudahkan maklumat disampaikan.
4. Membantu
Selain itu Guru Besar dapat membantu menyelesaikan masalah orang bawahan. Masalah peribadi dapat diluahkan tanpa rasa malu. Guru Besar akan bertindak sebagai fasilitator dan kaunselor. Prestasi guru-guru dan pelajar dapat ditingkatkan dengan memberikan dorongan dan bimbingan.
Contohnya Guru Besar dapat membantu masalah guru yang tidak dapat mengawal kelas dengan baik. Guru Besar atau guru disiplin menyiasat segera aduan guru tersebut. Pelajar yang nakal , bising dan tidak membuat latihan yang diberi, mestilah dikenakan tindakan yang sewajarnya.
5. Berseronok
Seterusnya komunikasi yang berkesan melahirkan rasa seronok bagi kedua-dua pihak. Pihak bawahan akan lebih megah kerana hubungan yang begitu akrab. Sementara Guru Besar sendiri mempunyai lebih banyak kawan, lebih banyak hubungan dan sentuhan.
Contohnya Guru Besar dapat memberi nasihat secara berjenaka dan jenaka tersebut dapat difahami dengan jelas , sedangkan isinya cukup pedas .
Ada beberapa halangan kepada komunikasi yang berkesan . Antaranya ialah :
Tanggapan yang berbeza antara satu dengan yang lain. Tindakan Guru Besar memuji seorang guru yang rajin akan ditanggap sebagai ‘cuba bodek’ oleh guru yang lain.
Perbezaan makna bahasa. Istilah yang sama yang digunakan oleh Guru Besar mungkin mempunyai maksud yang berbeza. Contohnya 'penyegan' - Maksud pertama ‘pemalu’ .Maksud kedua ‘pemalas’
Antara pemalu dan pemalas cukup jauh bezanya. Jadi Guru Besar harus mengelakkan istilah-istilah seperti ini.
Suasana bising mengganggu aliran maklumat ke dalam ingatan.
Emosi penghantar dan penerima mesej akan mencairkan maklumat. Mesej akan kehilangan makna jika kita sedang marah, sayang, benci, cemburu, takut dan sebagainya.
Komunikasi pengurusan ialah proses bagaimana Guru Besar berkongsi pengalaman dengan guru-guru, kakitangan sokongan, para pelajar dan masyarakat sekitar sekolah. Seseorang Guru Besar yang berkesan, popular, disukai ramai dan disanjung oleh oleh guru-guru, ibu bapa dan para pelajar, perkara yang diambil perhatian ialah kemahiran berkomunikasi.
Berkomunikasi bukan sekadar bercakap, malahan berdiam diri dan berpakaian juga jenis komunikasi. Guru Besar amat memerlukan kemahiran komunikasi pengurusan kerana beberapa faktor :
1. Menjalin hubungan
Dengan adanya kemahiran berkomunikasi, Guru Besar dapat menjalin hubungan mesra dengan semua pihak dan proses pengajaran – pembelajaran berjalan lancar.
Semua guru tidak rasa tertekan kerana adanya kemesraan daripada Guru Besar. Guru-guru merasakan diri mereka dihargai, dikasihi dan dimuliakan.
Semua pelajar lebih mudah berhubung dengan Guru Besar dan menyalurkan masalah tanpa ada sebarang sekatan. Apabila pelajar dapat menyatakan masalah, maka Guru Besar lebih mengetahui corak dan asas permasalahan di sekolah. Maka sebarang permasalahan, rasa tidak puas hati lebih mudah diselesaikan. Jadi komunikasi merupakan suatu pelepasan keluhan perasaan emosi dan memenuhi keperluan sosial.
Sebagai contoh, penyebaran risalah agama Kristian dalam kalangan pelajar Islam dan bukan Islam. Buku-buku "Bible New Testament" yang diedarkan di luar sekolah dan dibawa ke dalam kawasan sekolah tentu akan menimbulkan isu sensitif dalam kalangan pelajar terutama sekali dalam kalangan pelajar Muslim. Pelajar yang terlibat dapat memberitahu perkara itu dan tindakan dapat diambil dengan cepat. Contohnya melaporkan kepada pihak polis atau pihak berkuasa yang lain.
2.Saling faham memahami
Melalui kemahiran berkomunikasi, para Guru Besar lebih memahami situasi yang berlaku dalam pengurusannya. Pengurusan yang baik ialah hubungan mesra antara pentadbir dan orang bawahannya. Pihak atasan dapat memahami citarasa dan kehendak orang bawahan. Sementara pihak bawahan dapat mengetahui matlamat, objektif dan kehendak yang ingin dicapai oleh pihak atasan.
Segala maklumat sampai secara terus, tanpa melalui pihak ketiga. Komunikasi secara terus dan kerap adalah lebih baik. Jadi tidak akan berlaku penapisan maklumat. Tambahan pula maklumat boleh disampaikan secara formal dan tidak formal. Maklumat yang disampaikan secara tidak formal lebih memberi kesan di dalam ingatan.
Penyebaran maklumat lebih berkesan. Contohnya pengetahuan teknologi, latihan kerja, kewangan , pengurusan dan sebagainya. Pihak bawahan akan berfungsi lebih bebas, lebih kreatif, berkeyakinan dan penuh dedikasi.
Selain itu pembentukan matlamat akan lebih terarah dan terancang. Pembentukan matlamat yang merupakan perahan idea pengetua dan guru-guru akan lebih mujarab menyelesaikan masalah di sekolah . Dalam membuat keputusan , mesyuarat dan perbincangan mesti selalu diadakan. Alternatif yang dirumuskan akan diedarkan kepada semua bagi tujuan perbincangan dan maklumbalas. Apabila persetujuan dicapai, ia akan dimeteri , diedarkan dan dilaksanakan.
3. Mempengaruhi
Satu perkara yang tidak kurang penting ialah Guru Besar mempengaruhi orang bawahan secara lisan dan secara fizikal. Guru-guru dana para pelajar akan lebih kagum dan terarah fikirannya kerana ‘boss’ begitu dekat dengan mereka. Guru-guru dan pelajar dapat digerakkan untuk mengubah tingkalaku, minat dan bekerjasama ke arah peningkatan prestasi akademik dan ko kurikulum di sekolah.
Misalnya Guru Besar mahu guru-guru lain bekerjasama dan mematuhi idea yang hendak dilaksanakan seperti mengadakan Jogathon dan Jamuan amal. Aktiviti ini hanya akan berjaya jika mendapat sambutan yang menggalakkan daripada para guru dan pelajar.
Komunikasi juga sebagai alat kawalan. Organisasi sekolah mempunyai hierarki, panduan yang formal yang perlu dipatuhi. Organisasi yang leper memudahkan maklumat disampaikan.
4. Membantu
Selain itu Guru Besar dapat membantu menyelesaikan masalah orang bawahan. Masalah peribadi dapat diluahkan tanpa rasa malu. Guru Besar akan bertindak sebagai fasilitator dan kaunselor. Prestasi guru-guru dan pelajar dapat ditingkatkan dengan memberikan dorongan dan bimbingan.
Contohnya Guru Besar dapat membantu masalah guru yang tidak dapat mengawal kelas dengan baik. Guru Besar atau guru disiplin menyiasat segera aduan guru tersebut. Pelajar yang nakal , bising dan tidak membuat latihan yang diberi, mestilah dikenakan tindakan yang sewajarnya.
5. Berseronok
Seterusnya komunikasi yang berkesan melahirkan rasa seronok bagi kedua-dua pihak. Pihak bawahan akan lebih megah kerana hubungan yang begitu akrab. Sementara Guru Besar sendiri mempunyai lebih banyak kawan, lebih banyak hubungan dan sentuhan.
Contohnya Guru Besar dapat memberi nasihat secara berjenaka dan jenaka tersebut dapat difahami dengan jelas , sedangkan isinya cukup pedas .
Ada beberapa halangan kepada komunikasi yang berkesan . Antaranya ialah :
Tanggapan yang berbeza antara satu dengan yang lain. Tindakan Guru Besar memuji seorang guru yang rajin akan ditanggap sebagai ‘cuba bodek’ oleh guru yang lain.
Perbezaan makna bahasa. Istilah yang sama yang digunakan oleh Guru Besar mungkin mempunyai maksud yang berbeza. Contohnya 'penyegan' - Maksud pertama ‘pemalu’ .Maksud kedua ‘pemalas’
Antara pemalu dan pemalas cukup jauh bezanya. Jadi Guru Besar harus mengelakkan istilah-istilah seperti ini.
Suasana bising mengganggu aliran maklumat ke dalam ingatan.
Emosi penghantar dan penerima mesej akan mencairkan maklumat. Mesej akan kehilangan makna jika kita sedang marah, sayang, benci, cemburu, takut dan sebagainya.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
BAHAYA SOTONG KERING
Anda suka makan sotong kering? Sedapnya kalau makan nasi lemak dengan sambal sotong keringkan?
Kanser daripada sotong kering - Mengandungi logam toksik sama seperti bateri, plastik dan baja fosfat
GEORGE TOWN - Ramai mengetahui keenakan sotong kering ditambah lagi jika dimasak sebagai sambal.
Namun Persatuan Pengguna Pulau Pinang (CAP) mendedahkan, tidak mungkin ramai pengguna sedar bahawa sotong kering kaya dengan logam toksik jenis kadmium, bahan yang sama digunakan dalam membuat bateri, plastik dan baja fosfat.
"Kesan pengambilan kadmium mendedahkan seseorang terhadap kanser payu dara, kanser prostat serta penyakit buah pinggang,'' kata Presidennya, S. M. Mohamed Idris pada sidang media di pejabatnya di sini semalam.
Menurutnya, selain sotong kering, makanan laut kering lain seperti tiram, ikan bilis dan udang juga mengandungi kadmium tetapi pada kadar yang lebih rendah.
"Hasil ujian yang dilakukan mendapati kandungan kadmium dalam sotong kering melebihi empat kali ganda had yang dibenarkan,'' ujarnya.
CAP membuktikan perkara itu melalui ujian rawak melibatkan enam sampel sotong kering dan hasilnya mendapati lima sampel mengandungi kadmium serta tiga daripadanya mempunyai kandungan logam itu secara berlebihan.
Kanser daripada sotong kering - Mengandungi logam toksik sama seperti bateri, plastik dan baja fosfat
GEORGE TOWN - Ramai mengetahui keenakan sotong kering ditambah lagi jika dimasak sebagai sambal.
Namun Persatuan Pengguna Pulau Pinang (CAP) mendedahkan, tidak mungkin ramai pengguna sedar bahawa sotong kering kaya dengan logam toksik jenis kadmium, bahan yang sama digunakan dalam membuat bateri, plastik dan baja fosfat.
"Kesan pengambilan kadmium mendedahkan seseorang terhadap kanser payu dara, kanser prostat serta penyakit buah pinggang,'' kata Presidennya, S. M. Mohamed Idris pada sidang media di pejabatnya di sini semalam.
Menurutnya, selain sotong kering, makanan laut kering lain seperti tiram, ikan bilis dan udang juga mengandungi kadmium tetapi pada kadar yang lebih rendah.
"Hasil ujian yang dilakukan mendapati kandungan kadmium dalam sotong kering melebihi empat kali ganda had yang dibenarkan,'' ujarnya.
CAP membuktikan perkara itu melalui ujian rawak melibatkan enam sampel sotong kering dan hasilnya mendapati lima sampel mengandungi kadmium serta tiga daripadanya mempunyai kandungan logam itu secara berlebihan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
