Take some steps to improve Creativity

Stanford studies show that when walking, one's creative output is increased by an average of 60 percent.

It seems that physical activity is not only beneficial for the body, but for the mind as well. In the study, the act of walking, not the environment, was the main factor in people's boost in creativity levels. This study was conducted in 2014, but there does not seem to be extensive research since then about why the physical act of walking is linked to physiological alterations to the cognitive control of imagination.

Nonetheless, this was an intriguing discovery I recently read about, that could be very beneficial in many people's lives. I, myself, sometimes lack fresh ideas for artwork, essays, or solutions to hardships I face. I look forward to testing this out the next time I need to get my creative juices flowing. I'll keep an eye out for any new studies related to the link between walking and creativity! For now, I hope this post influences you to also take a stroll when you need inventive ideas.

- Sarah

Next Tourist Attraction is Out of This World... Literally

Remember that ancient phrase, "The sky is the limit"? Well, besides the fact that Yuri Gagarin proved that saying wrong on April 12, 1961, Elon Musk is planning on making it possible for tourists to fly around the moon in 2018. 

Musk, one of the United States' most well-known and accomplished innovators, is the head of SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company. SpaceX says the unnamed pair who are preparing to take the trip have "already paid a significant deposit to do a Moon mission [and] like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration." The passengers will travel in the Dragon 2 spacecraft, and their launch will be accomplished by a Falcon Heavy rocket.

I remember when I was younger, I turned to my friend with the wild thought, "Woahh what if everyday people could go to space for their birthday?" Although we are not quite there yet, SpaceX and NASA give me hope that one day we may make the moon and space more accessible to the public spectacle. Additionally, I recently read an article written by noted astronomer, Phil Pliat, analyzing the preliminary budget for Fiscal Year 2018. The budget says that they will, “support and expand public-private partnerships." This includes companies like SpaceX. In November, John Logsdon, the former director of the Space Policy Institute, told the Washington Post, "It is very plausible to speculate that the new administration will insert a mission to the lunar surface, probably international in character, as a step on the way to Mars... If we want to assert international leadership, we would take a position in leading a coalition to return to the moon." Reading this, I had almost forgotten that power is an incentive for these endlessly fascinating trips. I pondered space travel as a world effort rather than competing countries like we did against Russia during the Space Race. I do realize the tremendous difficulties of working as a planet, but nonetheless it scares me to think about how possible future issues of space colonization or domination of certain wonders of the currently unknown will be resolved by competing nations. Hopefully, another small step for man, is not a giant disaster for mankind.

- Sarah

Salt Lake City’s Innovations Early College High School

"We create a culture, curate content, and hire the right teachers,” says Ken Grover, the founder and principal of Innovations.

Out in Salt Lake City exists a rising school where there is an absence of bells, traditional classes, and unmotivated teens. Grover created Innovations to let students take charge of their own education through online and teacher instruction. All learners have a mentor who helps them establish goals and schedules suited towards their individual pace and interests. Students may come and go whenever they please, so long as they stay for six and a half hours per day between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Although the students must follow and complete the Common Core curriculum, they have room to take other classes of unique interest to them that are tailored towards their future professions. The school's location makes it convenient for students to take college classes so that they can get a head start. "Innovations occupies the corner of an airy new building on the South City campus of Salt Lake Community College (SLCC), along with the district’s Career and Technical Center (CTC). The state reported that last year about 1 in 10 Innovations juniors and seniors took community-college classes and more than half took courses through the CTC [...]  Innovations pays tuition for students who take community college classes and pays a fee for CTC enrollees.," writes Joanne Jacobs, author of the article High School of the Future.

"Last year, Innovations had its first student—a Latino male—graduate with an associate degree as well as a high school diploma. This year, five to seven 12th graders are on that track," Grover says. That is very impressive, especially considering how young the new institution is. Innovations seems like the school that I, along with many of my peers, had always wished existed, but always thought would be impossible to successfully function. It offers such an endless amount of opportunities. Rather than having a strict department limiting a pupil's potential, the pupil's passion and imagination are the limiting factors in his/her education. A crucial point of Innovations is that the student's success relies on the student being motivated to strive towards their best abilities. I am glad to see that the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is promoting personalized institutions like Innovations. These types of blended-learning schools have the potential to create an everlasting impact on many more students.

- Sarah

Head Start?

I was doing research about what the United States has done for education in low-income areas, when I came upon the article, "A Real Head Start" by Sara Mead, an opinion contributor.

Head Start is a government-funded program aimed to benefit underprivileged families by providing education, health, and family services. They lend a helping hand to around a million children each year. The overwhelmingly positive effects seem almost too good to be true;  CCR Analytics' Family Outcomes Survey completed by almost 11,600 parents involved with the Head Start program in California showed "90% of parents surveyed said that Head Start helped them to get or keep a job. 92% of parents surveyed said that Head Start helped them to enroll in an educational or training program. 99% of families surveyed said that Head Start helped them to improve their parenting skills, such as responding to children's misbehavior and helping their children to learn." They also found that "providing two years of Head Start to a child increases the probability by between 13% to 86% that the child will meet age appropriate expectations."However, many of the initial effects brought about by Head Start fade rather quickly because the children move onward to lower quality schools. As the Head Start Impact Study concludes, "Head Start has benefits for both 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds in the cognitive, health, and parenting domains, and for 3-year-olds in the social-emotional domain. However, the benefits of access to Head Start at age four are largely absent by 1st grade for the program population as a whole. For 3-year-olds, there are few sustained benefits, although access to the program may lead to improved parent-child relationships through 1st grade, a potentially important finding for children's longer-term development." This made me realize how difficult it is to fully equalize the youth's opportunities between the upper and lower class. Even if programs like Head Start are able to provide three and four years olds extensive benefits, they eventually go to elementary, middle, and high schools that regress to a lower quality of education and support. Creating longterm assistance to the underprivileged children and families with the limited federal funding is a challenging issue that we have yet to successfully resolve. Even creating a fair playing ground between middle to upper class people is virtually impossible in modern society. Some of us are able to afford SAT camp, amazing tutors, unique academic summer programs, and college counselors, while others simply do not have those same opportunities. This is unfair, but the degree to which it is unfair is in the hands of the educated.

- Sarah

"School of Tomorrow"

I was reading about the best ways to promote well-being in schools, when I stumbled upon a source that claimed the institutions in Finland were the archetype of an effective, inventive school system.  

Upon reading "How Finland Broke Every Rule- and Created a Top School System" by William Doyle, I was greatly inspired by their unique approach to education. I found that many of the thoughts I have had about ways to reform education lined up with what Finland had already accomplished. Specifically, since teaching is the most admired job in Finland next to medical doctors, "no teacher in Finland is allowed to lead a primary school class without a master’s degree in education, with specialization in research and classroom practice, from one of this small nation’s eleven elite graduate schools of education."

Having such qualified teachers makes sense, since these are the individuals who will be raising the future generations and future minds that will promote the world's growth. It is important for teachers to understand how children learn best and be certified to try new teaching methods. This leads to another aspect of their school system that I admire: teachers are encouraged to experiment with new techniques in order to advance learning. This is a step in the right direction because change is only found after people break away from the traditional ways of teaching. Finland's combination of self-thought, creativity, and research in education inspire me to think of more original and innovative ways that schools can promote learning. 

- Sarah