Today, Google for Education and NCWIT announced that they are releasing EngageCSEDU. This is a set of course materials for best practices in CS education for engaging a diverse student population.

Especially of interest for TIDES are the materials on engagement:

What struck me most about Deaf Jam was how much Aneta and her peers' personalities came through in their signing, both while performing slam poetry and talking between each other. Aneta, in particular, had a certain rhythm in the way she communicated that was very engaging and expressive. In our conversations about speech and tonal patterns of Mawrtyrs, I was disappointed that we are the same in that way. Yes, voices are special and unique, but as a dancer, I feel I can understand people better when I know how they move. You know how you can recognize your best friend's walk all the way across campus? For me, knowing that sort of sets a tone for the rhythm of conversation with that person and their frame of reference.

So Grace, Sydney, Rina & I looked at chapter 1 today! The chapter focused on the indigenous golden frogs in Panama, and how the population has suddenly been cut down out of nowhere. They figured out the decimation was due to a fungus brought on by introduction of North American bullfrogs (which are immune to it). The extinction is happening everywhere in Panama—from highly populated areas to even more isolated ones—and all of the frogs are dying. Although measures are being taken by the EVACC organization to help, they can only save so many frogs.

In Chapter 5 of Elizabeth Kolbert's novel, "The Sixth Extinction", it evauates human impacts on the planet and discusses geology on a broader term. Kolbert speaks with a more direct tone as she makes a transition within the reading and refers to the consequences. While reading, there is a consistent pressure of the need to reflect as Kolbert points out our flaws and own doing of driving ourselves into extinction (i.e Climate Change). Instead of re-evaluating our lifestyles years ago, we’ve made this dangerous lifestyle a native tongue. Something that’s so embedded within us that we don’t seem to recognize our flaws as another species. However, we look at ourselves as human -beings; superior to everything else. 

Chapter 8 of The Sixth Extinction talks about how global warming can affect the envionment, especially tropics, and lead to species extinctions. There are some very vivid data to show how traumatic it can be for the environment to change. "We've entered Anthropocene", the character Thomas said. "Look around, kill half of what you see, that's what we could be talking about", an Paleontologist describes the extinctions. Because of Anthropocene, because of global warming, the tropics are dying, the species are dying. 

WhoAmI and I dissected the final chapter of Elizabeth Kolbert's novel, "The Sixth Extinction." We concluded that she focuses her writing, in this chapter, on four key elements. First, she notes our capacity to appreciate nature and need to react in action through her story of the birds. Second, she plays deeper into the ethical actions of man. Third, Kolbert emphasizes the shared world we live in and the need to acknowledge the direct, and indirect, consequences of our actions. Fourth, Kolbert outlines our slow moving attempt at change and lack of true conviction. Ultimately, all the chapters of the book build up to this final moment when an answer is desired but not given.