A 16-year-old German high school student has written a paper that purports to have solved two mysteries that were beyond the intellect of the great Isaac Newton.
Shouryya Ray, an Indian-born student who won second prize this month in the math and informatics category for Germany's Jugend Forscht student science competition created formulas to answer the following questions that have puzzled scientists for centuries:
How do you account for air resistance in calculating the trajectory of ball thrown out at an angle?
Precisely how does a ball thrown against the wall rebound?
Because Ray's paper was a school-based project and was submitted for a contest, it is not subject to the publication process and peer review that professional work typically goes through. That has led some experts in the field to reserve jugement of the work until they've seen it for themselves.
However, everyone who has commented about Ray's paper has said it is an achievement that very few high schoolers could duplicate.
“Our Riverside school uses a curriculum that we call ‘Humane’, and the 5 E’s that shape our curriculum are Empathy, Ethics, Excellence, Elevation and Evolution” – Kiran Bir Sethi
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Did You Know?
There’s an expression in education known as “teaching to the middle.” This means gearing the majority of instruction and curriculum towards students performing at grade level or in the middle of the class.
I’ve never cared for this concept since I believe it produces a mediocre mindset in teaching, and thus, mediocre results. Rather, I resonate with the idea of teaching to the top of of the class, which means setting the bar high and expecting students to eventually meet those...
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But when the dust settles and you’ve checked all the boxes on your classroom close-up list, carve out a few hours to systematically reflect before you...
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