Hope and Inspiration from Mars
On Thursday, February 18, NASA’s rover Perseverance landed on Mars and tweeted, "An open horizon, with so much to explore. Can't wait to get going,"
Another tweet read, "I love rocks. Look at these right next to my wheel. Are they volcanic or sedimentary? What story do they tell? Can't wait to find out." - details here
In the midst of “all of things” of 2020-2021, this little gem of brilliance lands in the news. We have a rover on Mars tweeting images, and information, offering us hope and inspiration!
Of course, it is not actually the rover, but rather the NASA scientists who are driving this genius. Let’s take some time to celebrate this accomplishment, and consider the message for all of our students.
Below is a tweet from one of the scientist, Ben Cichy:
Thank you, Ben. Even though he tweeted this back in 2019, the resurfacing of his tweet could not have come at a better time for all of us. We are at the one year mark of living with COVID19. The impact this has had on our lives is immeasurable and far reaching. And we are weary. And while actively working to navigate this current year, I am hearing worry about next year. Learning loss. COVID slide. Gap filling. And of course those conversations need to happen, and I do have thoughts and plans for that, but it is February. We’ve still got several months of learning and supporting of our students. We will turn our attention to the work of welcoming everyone back to a more normal year soon enough, but for now, let’s embrace the messages of this accomplishment.
“Grades ultimately aren’t what matters. Curiosity and persistence matter.” Let’s begin there.
Curiosity
I wrote about curiosity in my blog from 2019 sharing the following: Gruber explains that intellectual curiosity predicts success in school as it leads to greater learning and retention. In his recent study, Gruber and colleagues found that “Curiosity may put the brain in a state that allows it to learn and retain any kind of information, like a vortex that sucks in what you are motivated to learn, and also everything around it … the team discovered that when curiosity motivated learning, there was increased activity in the hippocampus, a brain region that is important for forming new memories, as well as increased interactions between the hippocampus and the reward circuit. So curiosity recruits the reward system, and interactions between the reward system and the hippocampus seem to put the brain in a state in which you are more likely to learn and retain information.”
Knowing this, we can intentionally plan for opportunities in the math classroom where curiosity takes center stage. As math educators, we do this through the use of questions, problem solving, puzzles and rich tasks. My favorite websites to build curiosity are all generously shared for free and can be found here.
Persistence
If we consider all of the things our students are learning right now, persistence and perseverance rise to the top. Our students are persisting and persevering through a pandemic. If you think about the experience of children, it is remarkable that they are enduring. They need us to acknowledge this and cheer them on. This came through loud and clear in this facebook post from a writer and parent Christine Derengowski,
“My seven year old and I were in the midst of our usual asynchronous day battle ... He was on the brink of tears but didn’t know why. And it hit me. Instead of getting frustrated and pushing the assignment, I sat down with him at his desk in his superhero bedroom. I said you won’t get in trouble and you can’t fail first grade. In fact, you’re kind of a superhero yourself. He sat up in his chair just a little and looked at me with disbelief. I said, Do you know that no kids in the history of kids have ever had to do what you’re doing right now? No kids in the history of kids have ever had to do school at home, sitting in their bedroom, watching their teacher on a computer. You and your friends are making history.
A visible weight lifted from his seven year old shoulders.
I told him I haven’t given him nearly enough credit for rolling with the punches. I told him how proud I am of him and his friends. That kids this year are doing the impossible and they’re doing a really great job. I apologized for not saying it sooner and more often. A little tear fell down his cheek.
We’ve thanked everyone from healthcare workers to grocery store employees but we haven’t thanked the kids enough for bearing the burden of what we’ve put on their shoulders this year. We’ve said kids are resilient, and they are. But they are the real superheroes in this whole scenario for having ZERO say in their lives but doing their best to adjust every day.”