Building the Skills for Success Lydia Ash. Skills for Success The goals have always been to develop...

Building the Skills Building the Skills for Successfor Success

Lydia Ash

Skills for SuccessSkills for Success

•The goals have always been to develop self-directed, independent learners.

•What does this mean today?

•What skills prepare individuals to transition from being students to being innovative thinkers?


•Parents• Develop problem solving and critical thinking skills

• To be successful

•Students• Help me get into college

• Prepare me for a job

From Project Tomorrow 2008 survey


So, about 10% of you will be disappointed...


•Where does this come from?

•Actively hiring new college graduates

•Resume reviews

•Intern programs

•Just my opinion


•Who are you?

•Professional educators

•Professional observers

•Extensively trained

•Active participants

KnowledgeKnowledgeYou can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

Richard Feynman

KnowledgeKnowledge

There's a difference between knowing the trivia and knowing the significance.

KnowledgeKnowledge

• Knowledge includes the ability to find information

• Identifying what needs to be found and the methods to locate it

• How to find an expert through email networks or teachers

• How to use a static repository of knowledge such as a book

• How to pose a question

• How to dig for more information

• How to know when you have an answer

• Evaluating the information

KnowledgeKnowledge

•What becomes critical to Knowledge?

•Developing the ability to learn!

•The ability to retain information

•Exposure• Being introduced to a lot of different information doesn't

mean it all must be memorized

• Gaining new knowledge is more difficult without existing knowledge to associate it with

KnowledgeKnowledgeTools

•Repetition

•Drills - Multiplication tables

•Recitation - Literature, Vocabulary, Spelling

Repeticio est mater studiorum.

St Thomas Aquinas


•Immersion

•Krebs Cycle Placemats

•Hills of Rome Signs

KnowledgeKnowledgeTools•First letter or Acronym

•Roy G. Biv

•Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

•Kings Play Cards on Fat Green Stools

•Every Good Boy Does Fine

•Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

•FOIL


•Rhymes

•Thirty Days Hath September...

•In 1492 Columbus...

•I before E except after C,Or when sounded “A” as in...

•’59 was the date, when Alaska...

KnowledgeKnowledgeTools•Visualization - Build an image

• To the right you see an ark, like Noah’s ark, with a can in front of it. The ark is holding a saw in its hand. The ark, the can and the saw are the tangible pictures of the state of Arkansas. You can now see an Arkansas. It is no longer an intangible word. It has been changed from a “nothing” to a “something.” If you look again you will see that the can is being used as a holding place for the ark to saw a little rock in half. Now you can easily see that the capital of Arkansas is Little Rock. And, more importantly, for the rest of your life every time you think of Arkansas this picture will automatically pop into your mind, and you will see an Arkansas and the capital of Little Rock.

(c) Lucas Learning System


•Visualization and Loci

•Memory Palace


•Use Music• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC1qkLn6IRI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC1qkLn6IRI


•Rules

•Multiplying by 9

•The Mouse and the Box

KnowledgeKnowledge

•What sort of knowledge?

•How many feet in a yard?

•How many days in a year? Workdays?

•What is the distance between NYC and LA?

•How many people live in NYC?

•What is the GDP of France?

Examples

KnowledgeKnowledge

•For Google...

•How many bits in a byte?

•Explain a database to your eight year old nephew. Now do it in three sentences.

Examples

LogicLogic

Reasoning and Analysis

LogicLogic

•Thinking deeply to manipulate knowledge

•Developing the ability to manipulate information

•What is relevant?

•What is not?

LogicLogic

How do you know you have arrived at the right

solution?

LogicLogicTools• Exposure

• Practice

• Planning

• Puzzle games

• Experimentation

LogicLogicExamples

Why are manhole covers round?

LogicLogicExamplesWhy are manhole covers round?

• A round cover cannot fall through an opening where a square cover could.

• Round is a very strong shape

• Round is easier to produce

• Round covers do not need to be aligned in any particular direction

• A round hole is roughly the right shape for a human

• Round is easy to roll out of the way

• Tradition

LogicLogicExamplesHow many quarters high is the Empire State Building?

What’s their worth?

LogicLogicExamples

Estimates...100 stories

How many quarters high is the Empire State Building?


LogicLogicExamples

Estimates...100 stories



Estimates...100 stories x 10 feet per story = 1,000 feet

LogicLogicExamples

Estimates...100 stories1000 feet



Estimates...100 stories x 10 feet per story = 1,000 feet1 foot = 305 mm 1000 feet = 305,000 mm

LogicLogicExamples

Estimates...100 stories1000 feet = 305,000 mmEstimate a quarter to be 1.5 mm thick



Estimates...100 stories x 10 feet per story = 1,000 feet1 foot = 305 mm 1000 feet = 305,000 mm305,000 mm/1.5 mm per quarter = 203,333 quarters

LogicLogicExamples

Estimates...100 stories1000 feet = 305,000 mmEstimate a quarter to be 1.5 mm thick203,333 quartersWorth $50,833.25



LogicLogicExamples

Estimates...100 stories1000 feet = 305,000 mmEstimate a quarter to be 1.5 mm thick203,333 quartersWorth $50,833.25

Reality102 stories1,250 feet = 381,000 mmA quarter is 1.75 mm thick217,714 quartersWorth $54,428



LogicLogicExamplesHow many times a day do a clock’s hands overlap?

How many piano tuners are in the United States?

How many gas stations?

How many dogs are in Seattle?

How much would you need to charge to walk all the dogs in Seattle?

LogicLogic

• Estimates are great

• The important piece is the logic

• Only bad answer is “I don’t know”

Problem SolvingProblem Solving

• Before you can be innovative, you have to understand the problem and the different dimensions of it

• Must understand different causes before proposing prevention

• You must be able to ask questions, and the right questions

• Have to be able to solve problems to innovate

Innovation is solving problems in new ways

Problem SolvingProblem Solving

•Can you frame the problem in another way?

•Can you identify ways to simplify?

•Can you identify aggravators?

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsTrial and Error

• Brute Force


• Brute Force

Three switches downstairs.Three light bulbs upstairs.Which switch is connected to which light?Determine with only one trip upstairs.


• Brute Force

Flip first switch on. Run upstairs. Return downstairs.Flip second switch on. Run upstairs.

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsReduction

• Simplifying the problem to one you can solve

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsReduction

• Simplifying the problem to one you can solve

Can you solve with three trips upstairs?Can you solve with two trips upstairs?

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsWorking backwards

• Begin with the end point and work backwards until you are blocked or hit on solutions

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsWorking backwards

• Begin with the end point and work backwards until you are blocked or hit on solutions

How do you know a lightbulb is on?

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsDelegation and Collaboration

• Finding somebody better equipped to work with or to solve parts of the problem

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsDelegation and Collaboration

• Finding somebody better equipped to work with or to solve parts of the problem

Is there somebody you can send upstairs?

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsHill Climbing

• Identifying step by step ways to move towards the solution

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsHill Climbing

• Identifying step by step ways to move towards the solution

From your position in front of the switches, what can you do from here?

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsDivide and Conquer

• Breaking big problems into smaller problems

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsAnalogy

• Do you know of problems that look similar to this?

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsResearch

• How have others solved this problem?

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingToolsRoot Cause Analysis

• What are the main problems?

• Fishbone Diagrams or Ishikawa Diagrams

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingExamples• You have eight balls all of the same size. 7 of them weigh the same, and one

of them weighs slightly more. How can you find the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weighings?

• There are 8 stones which are similar except one which is heavier than the others. To find it, you are given a pan balance. What is the minimal number of weighings needed to find the heaviest stone ?

• If you had an infinite supply of water, a 5 quart pail, and a 3 quart pail, how would you measure exactly 4 quarts?

• There are three baskets you cannot see into. One labeled Apples, one labeled Oranges, and one labeled Apples and Oranges. The labels are all incorrect. How many fruit do you have to pull out to determine the correct labels?

• Imagine you have a closet full of shirts. It’s very hard to find a shirt. So what can you do to organize your shirts for easy retrieval?

• You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingBe Aware

• Be aware of bias

• Be aware of mechanisms that select for an outcome

• Be aware of unintended consequences

• Be aware of your definitions

• Be precise

Problem SolvingProblem SolvingBeware

Attribution

Easy to see cause and effect in the short term. Remember the long term.

Correlation does not mean causation.

Anecdote is not data.

TechnologyTechnology

•Technology doesn't equal understanding

•Technology is an efficiency gain

•Technology lets us encounter each of those “be awares” more frequently because we can now move faster.


•Learning and logic is not dependent on technology

•Fully 43% of parents responded that the element they most wanted to improve their child's understanding and learning of science was using technology tools for investigations

•Realistically, the next generation picks up and uses the newer technology more rapidly than their predecessors - and the technology is blended into more aspects of their lives.


•Technology must support what comes before it.

•Problems arise when we use technology to replace knowledge, logic, and problem solving.

•Must be effective before you can gain efficiencies.


•Reliance on tools removes the ability to think through a problem.

•Reliance on technology makes us dependent on the technology unable to be effective without it.

•Reliance on technology mistakes the technology for the solution.

•We learn how to solve the problem with technology, but we don't learn about the problem itself.


• The error of introducing technology too soon.

• Calculator

• Learn to hit this button and that button, and in what order, but don't really understand the mechanics of what the calculator is doing or how to operate without it.

• If presented with a different model of calculator, a newer version, a computer, or a different piece of software, unable to transfer the solution.

• Spellchecking

• Language checking, etc

TechnologyTechnologyTheodoric of Freiberg experimented with rainbows in 1304 to find out what made colors. Using a spherical flask filled with water to simulate water droplets, he could see four colors: Red, yellow, blue, and green.

His theory was that the light beams were refracted when entering the atmospheric droplets, then reflected inside the droplets, and finally refracted again when leaving them. He was the first to give a correct explanation of the rainbow. Theodric's theories on light radically changed how people thought.

Just based on observation and these tools, he determined that colors are formed in the raindrops and that light is reflected within the drop and can be reflected again.


Gregor Johann Mendel was a German-Czech Augustinian monk and scientist who studied the nature of inheritance in plants.Mendel's research reflected his personality. Walking around the monastery, he found a novel variety of an ornamental plant. He dug it up and planted it next to the typical variety. He grew their progeny next to each other to see if there would be any approximation of the traits passed on to the next generation. He would cross different pea varieties "for the fun of the thing." Mendel traced the inheritance patterns of certain traits in pea plants and described them mathematically. He observed that the traits were inherited in certain numerical ratios. From 1856 to 1863 Mendel crossed and cultivated roughly 29,000 pea plants. From his studies, Mendel derived certain basic laws of heredity.


• Excellent use of technology - Genetics

• Our genes are made of only 4 components - G, T, A, C

• 20,000 - 25,000 human genes within our DNA

• We must determine the exact order of the 3 billion chemical building blocks

• Human Genome Project began in 1990 and finished in 2003

• Total sequencing output in the community was about 200 million base pairs for 1998

• In January 2003, the DOE Joint Genome Institute alone sequenced 1.5 billion base pairs for the month

• 16,666,666 : 1,500,000,000 or 1 : 90 in just five years

InnovationInnovation

• Must realize the genealogy of inventions and the evolution of theories

• Conceptually these are important

• James Burke has done an excellent job showing us how ideas are connected

Myth

Innovation springs forth from nothingness.


• "Creative people" labels indicate some people just aren't creative, and there's nothing that can be done about it.

• In reality people are creative on many different levels.

Myth

Creative people are innovative.


• Often it is the lack of resources which spurs innovations.

• Constraints can have this type of an impact.

Myth

We don’t have the resources to be innovative.


• Innovation isn't always what we really want. We think we do.

• We might actually want is incremental improvements developed thoughtfully that can be tailored and applied as they are used.

• Innovation can be expensive.

• Are the gains worth the cost?

Myth

We need to be more innovative.


Innovation isn’t always necessary

Retractable Table Top for a Toilet #US 6983493


Solutions for non-problems are silly

Weed Cutting Golf Club #US 6988954


Innovation always starts with a problem

or an idea of a way to improve.


•Brainstorming

•Experimentation

•Observation

•Exposure

Tools

InnovationInnovationHow would you design a toaster?

How would you design a spice rack for a blind person?

If you designed a car for a family of four with two dogs who enjoy the outdoors, what would you design?

What problem are you facing? What would you change around you if you could?

These are the threads that lead us to innovate!

Go tug on them!


Innovation always starts with a problem

or an idea of a way to improve.

NextNext

•Exposure and experimentation

•Read

•How to Solve It by G. Polya

•Applied Imagination by Alex Osborn

•The Day the Universe Changed by James Burke

•Puzzles in Thought and Logic

•Push yourself

Thank youThank you

Questions

Building the Skills for Success Lydia Ash. Skills for Success The goals have always been to develop...

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