Memory is like a Slippery Fish...

 Photos this week were selected to show the range and power of human communication with words...Words that we assume lead to memory  Most of the black and white photos are the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. 

Try a little experiment with yourself – think about a lecture, speech, or  'listening encounter' that you have had within the last week.  Now, sit down with a paper and pencil and see how many of the concepts and details from the talk you can jot down.  How did you do?  Most of us leave the lecture with a sense that "that was really interesting" or "boring" or "I really liked it a lot"...but at the same time we remember few details.  Heck, most of the time I can’t even remember what I had for dinner two nights ago. 

High School Class - Tanzania

Now imagine that you are 15 years old and its 4^th period, just before lunch. The teacher is explaining the difference between mitosis and meiosis.  This student may be thinking, “  I’m starving – should I get pizza or a hot dog for lunch…? I wonder where that new cute girl eats…?  I wonder if she would talk to me if I sat down at her table?  All this time the teacher is explaining critical ideas about gamete production by meiosis.  The teacher is quite pleased because today everyone seems to be looking intently at her during the presentation. 

Henri Cartier-Bresson - Relaxing at Picnic

When the time comes to ask review questions about how mitosis and meiosis are alike and different – the first person passes – “I’m not sure…” The second student says that they both have something to do with cell division… “That’s correct – Can you tell us more?”…”Well, I think that only plants have meiosis”  …“No, animals have meiosis too. Would you like to call on someone to help you …?”  "Tayeisha will you help Jerome…" “Well with mitosis you end up with two identical cells that each have a full set of  chromosomes, but with meiosis you end up with two cells with only half as many chromosomes”. Teacher "Good now we can go on -  'What is a tetrad?" … 

Student group in Washington DC

Stop … hold the camera… this is the moment to examine…Clearly few of the students understood the difference between mitosis and meiosis and yet the teacher made the assumption that students upon hearing the correct answer suddenly  “got it”and that its safe to move on… "They heard it - they learned it - OK to move on"  Have you ever seen this is a class you observe ...or have you done it yourself?

Henri Cartier-Bresson - Neighbors

When free discussion of a topic occurs in class - how much permanent learning occurs  for students?  The discussion may be interesting for the moment - but sit down one on one with students the next day and have them tell you what they remember from the encounter...   Its humbling to discover 'not much'.  Good teachers do 'research' like this frequently.

Henri Cartier-Bresson - Civil Rights dispute

If you go to Google and ask ‘how much of what we hear do we retain?’ Generally  a very small number is listed... 

The following chart is attributed to William Glasser:

     "At the end of each day, the average person can remember:
      11% of what they heard that day
      30% of what they saw
      50% of what they heard and saw
      90% of what they did"
 

Gossip

Such information, though often quoted, needs to be interpreted with a grain of salt.  Many factors determine how much we retain.  Think back to your own experiences about what  causes you to 'learn' and remember.  How intently interested are you in the topic affects retention, the authority of the speaker influences learning,  how much information is presented, did you relate positively to the speaker, are you sleepy or anxious?, how abstract is the content ?...  How long ago did the learning take place?

I know a local politician who had to read and remember vast amounts of information  before each city council meeting.  He found that it worked better for him if he read the materials just before the meeting.  He often quoted:  "Read no piece before its time".

Henri Cartier-Bresson: Tribunal end of WW II

 It is also true that the more senses that are involved in our learning the more we retain.  Most good teachers today begin with a careful section of learning goals for the day, and for the unit.  The learning experience is presented with multiple encounters with the concept using different learning modes.  We can choose to present ideas that require the student to listen, read, talk within teams of 2 or 4, lab activities, and more...  The challenge is to limit the number of concepts to be learned and then to provide adequate varied learning experiences. 

Henri Cartier-Bresson - Matadors

Good learning is like a snowball rolling down hill.  A good teacher comes back and revisits important concepts with the students.  By reviewing, everyone reconnects with past learning and then add on to it...  Facts learned individually get lost in the shuffle.

Make it a mantra for yourself - post it where you do your lesson plans - repeat it to yourself when you enter the classroom... "Hearing does not equal learning..."  Effective teachers are constantly on the search for better methods for how to make learning happen for all students .... It becomes a career long compulsion with good teachers to continue that search.

Henri Cartier-Bresson - Argument

Henri Cartier-Bresson - Blessing

Sex among the ferns

'Fiddleneck'  on my Woodwardia fern

Ferns have this way of emerging from winter that makes me feel happy.  Spring is the season for growth and reproduction with most fern varieties in California - due mostly to the fact that this is usually the wettest season and warm enough for active growth.  It's the time of year that the new 'fiddle neck' curls emerge and unfold their long graceful shapes.  This year I had to cut back and move my patch of giant Woodwardia ferns.  Woodwardia are found growing naturally along cool foggy Pacific coast canyons from Northern California up into Alaska... they form patches up to 6 feet tall... I grow my colony in the coolest, most moist microclimate that I have. A spot where full sunlight never falls. 

Newly transplanted 'Woodwardia'

I also have Southern California sword fern – This form has a more narrow frond than those found in the cool moist ocean valleys of Oregon and Washington.  They are very tough and can withstand periods of drought.  They only reproduce and grow during the season of spring time moisture, but are easy to replicate asexually.   I just dig up a small clump with roots and rhizomes, stick it into the soil where I want it to grow, and give it water.    This particular variety I got from my Uncle John who collected it from the mountain valleys above Pasadena CA.

Southern California 'sword fern'

Another favorite fern of mine is the 'maiden hair' ferns – they look so delicate – but are actually quite a tough plant – I transplant them with the same lack of finesse as I do the sword ferns – dig up a small clump, with roots and rhizomes, and plunk it into the ground... with a little water – they almost always “take”.

Young 'Maiden Hair' fern

There is a book about ferns that reads like an adventure story – I highly recommend it – its “Oaxaca Journey” by Oliver Sacks:

http://www.amazon.com/Oaxaca-Journal-Vintage-Oliver-Sacks/dp/0307947440/ref=la_B000APZZY6_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366729086&sr=1-11

Arid fern

In the book he describes a group of New York fern enthusiasts (city folks)  who travel to Oaxaca Mexico to study ferns and to collect spores to grow back home in their New York greenhouses.  It is a surprisingly fun book to read!  The state of Oaxaca is a land noted for the largest diversity of ferns to be found in North America – some are adapted to the mountain-peak cloud forests, some to lower mountain valleys, and some adapted to arid desert setting.  Since reading the book I have been able to locate and add 3 varieties of arid ferns to my garden.
 

Spore cases on underside of frond - This is where cells with two sets of genetic information (2n) undergo a special cell division that will produce cells with a single set of genetic information (n) 

The life cycle of ferns has a surprise - Fern plants have two body forms that must alternate with each other!  What we call a 'fern' is the big showy green plant, but their offspring are tiny little inconspicuous things.  The offspring of those tiny plants are once more the big showy plant...  This is the sexual reproduction cycle of all ferns called 'alternation-of-generations'!  Simple life forms can tell us a lot about the development of life on our planet.  According to the fossil record, ferns developed long before there were any seed bearing plants on earth.  They even predate the time of dinosaurs!

Another variety of arid fern

Ferns reproduce by producing small reproductive 'spores' that form in certain seasons of the year on the underside of the fronds.  This is where it gets interesting!  Each cell in the tiny structures that form the spores must first undergoe a very special cell division that forms the spore cells with only one set of chromosomes (n)  from the parent plant – they are called haploid cells (n) .

Gametophyte has structures for producing both (n) sperm and  (n) egg - mature at different times

Countless millions of spores are released and a tiny few land in moist conditions and have a change to divide and grow into a tiny little heart shaped plant –usually not exceeding a quarter of an inch in length...these are so inconspicuous that we seldom see them or recognize them as special. This form of fern is called the “gametophyte” and it has within it genetic information for making a structure that will form sperm cells and another structure for forming reproductive eggs.  They generally mature at different times so they dont fertilize themselves.  Gametophytes are true independent plants necessary for the life cycle of the fern to be completed.

After fertilization, the fertilized egg stays attached to the gametophyte and it grows into a sporophyte plant
The 'n' number refers to whether the cells have one or two sets of genetic information

On a rainy day, the sperm are washed from onr tiny heart shaped gametophyte to another, from the sperm (n)  producing structure into the egg bearing structure,  and the egg (n)  becomes fertilized.   The new plant (2n cells)  grows directly out of the gametophyte.  They now have two sets of chromosomes in each cell, one from each reproductive cell.  (2n)  This new plant (what we call a 'fern plant') is called a “sporophyte” because it will grow into the ferns that we know and produce spores.

Arid cactus - Sporophyte individual

The amazing thing is that while each cell produced in the fern will have a full  2n set of genetic instructions copied from the fertilized egg.  An environmental cue is required to start a sequence of events that turn on a particular gene and allow it to express itself by forming a chemical response ( – like moisture, temperature, or light -).

All this taking place in the simple appearing little ferns in my back yard!

Broad leaf fern - the frond is never divided into leaflets

Spore cases on underside of Broad Leaf fern

Fight entropy!

A clean room over time tends to drift into a "messed up" state.  Leave my dog Rusty alone with a roll of  paper towels and he will fill the room with paper shreds.   When a log is burned it releases energy and produce ash with a low level of organization.  These are examples of entropy at work.  Entropy is the tendency for any organized system to become unorganized.  To prevent entropy requires the addition of a constant supply of energy.  

A Universal Problem!

A plant takes in sunlight, collects enough energy to oppose entropy, and it forms new tissues ... to ‘grow’.  A dead plant quickly decays back to simple soil and air again.

My body can’t take in sunlight energy directly so I must take energy from the bodies of plants or animals that I consume.  When I eat a hamburger I am adding greatly to the entropy of the cow that produced the meat, also to the wheat plants that produced the bread... but I acquire much of their energy to oppose entropy in my own body. 

Decay continues

The principal of entropy can be applied to any mechanical system.  The conversion of some mechanical energy to heat during friction is an example of increasing entropy and the loss of organization. Only about 15 percent of the energy from the fuel you put in your tank gets used to move your car down the road or run useful accessories, such as air conditioning.  http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/transportation/consumer_tips/vehicle_energy_losses.html The other 85% contributes to the entropy of the gasoline’s stored energy.  It goes out the tail pile as heat.

Even mountain systems undergo entropy

Taking non renewable resources out of the ground ( oil and coal ), burning them, and increasing the CO2 in the atmosphere, contributes each mile we drive to the increased disorder of the earth.  Entropy happens with very small and very large systems.

When a mouse gains energy from the grass seeds it eats only about 10% of the sunlight energy taken by the sun to form those seeds is passed on to the mouse.  When a snake eats the mouse to maintain its body, only about 10% of the mouse energy is passed on to the snake. In each case the excess energy is given off as heat and lost into the atmosphere.  Both exhibit entropy at work!

Do you ever have this feeling?

Even our sun undergoes entropy as it converts hydrogen into helium and radiates energy out into space... it will one day take on the low energy state of a burned out hulk with no more energy to release...the ultimate state of high entropy (disorder)  for a star of our size.

How many people let entropy sneak up on them after a certain age. if I dont eat healthily , don't exercise, take the course of least resistance... it is a perfect formula for increasing entropy.  The only way to oppose entropy is to put consistent energy back into my life!

Desert ghost town slowly disappearing

Ask any teacher about entropy in the classroom!  To maintain a well functioning class requires a constant vigilance and expenditure of energy, on the part of the teacher, to plan meaningful activities and effective class management.  If the teacher feels sick or had a late night the function of the class declines and to fight the student entropy takes even more energy.

Sudden entropy - SanFrancisco earthquake 1906

Look at our government.  To maintain the high ideals of our founding fathers requires the commitment and energy of each elected official.  It is system is allowed to coast, entropy  (disorder and dysfunction) takes over.  If politicians try to use the system for personal agendas the entire system falters.  If politicians are more concerned about getting reelected and filling their election “war-chests” than meeting the needs of all the people entropy if gaining.  Hard work and commitment are required to oppose the slide to disorder.

Governmental systems are subject to entropic drift

There are similarities between the entropy of a plant and that of  government... both system have and continue to evolve.  As plants have evolved from simple algae to more advanced forms – the principal of entropy has been a constant for all forms. The nation that the writers of our constitution visualized had a small population of mostly small towns and independent farmers, many living a frontier life... And we have evolved into a complex multicultural population, with issues of poverty, unemployment, health care, immigration, and education for all -  that would astonish our founding fathers.  It takes real energy to adapt and grow our national system to avoid the entropy of trying to apply the “same old – same old” solutions to new problems.

Education is one way to fight personal entropy - UC Berkeley.

One of my favorite bumper stickers was was seen recently at the University of California in Berkeley... it said “Entropy isn’t what it used to be...” If you can explain that – you understand entropy...

Clouds represent masses of warm up lifted air - that slowly lose their heat concentration... entropy at work