Mar 2011 - Michigan South Asian

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Michigan South Asian MARCH 2011 Page 6 Indian Inventor Claims To Have London, Feb 14 An Indian inventor, A.K. Vishwanath, has claimed that he has made a flying car with the help of India’’s first small car, Maruti. Made out of a seemingly ordinary 800cc Maruti car, it has rotor blades affixed to the roof with extended wheelarches creating a “vacuum section”, and has been one of the star Made ‘Flying Car’ attractions at the Aero India 2011 air show in Bangalore. Maruti, built in the 1980s by Suzuki, and has formed the basis of inventor Vishwanath’’s dream. The 52-year-old has spent 16 years working on the “flying Maruti”, and claims it has vertical lift-off and he has tested a scale version tested in a wind tunnel, reports the Daily Mail. North South Foundation – Encouraging Excellence In Education By Srinivas Gudeti May last week, Indian American kid champion for the last three years, Samir Mishra, Kavya Shivashankar, Anamkika Veeramani. These name are most familiar to South Asian Americans. Common things among these, all three were Scripss Speling bee champions from 2008 to 2010 respectively but also they got basics and exposure of spelling bee contests from North South Foundation. NSF kids got top positions in Scripps spelling bee, National geography bee and Math Counts over so many years. North South Foundation was started in 1989 by Dr Ratnam chitturi to promote academic excellence among Indian American youth and also help needy and meritorious students in India by giving scholarships. North South Foundation is volunteer driven non-profit organization with zero overhead costs. Foundation raises money for the scholarships through registration fees of educational contests. There are 16 chapters in India for North South Foundation to seek and process the applications from the poor and merit students who are applying for colleges. Amount of $250 scholarship per year is given to the qualified applicants to complete their education. Past recipients of college scholarships in India and now helping the foundation in USA is a big testimony of its good work. North South Foundation has got about 80 chapters in USA and five in Michigan. To promote learning and excellence among Indian American youth, regional educational contests are conducted during March to April over three weekends in the entire country. Spelling bee, Math, Vocabulary, Geography, Science, Public speaking and essay writing are the contests conducted in Junior, Intermediate and Senior categories. Based on national cut off score, top 100 kids in each contest are being invited for National finals usually conducted in August, September. National finals are held in a selected city every year. This year national finals will be conducted in San Jose. It is planned to host 2012 national finals in University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In regional contests, all the participants are appreciated with ribbons and medals on the stage to keep their self esteem and for their efforts of learning. The foundation emphasizes and promotes the joy of learning and competing on one’s own abilities to excel with hard work. For Spelling and vocabulary bee contests, preparation of the given 1000 words itself is an education and learning process for the participants. (Continued On Page 7) So far, he has garnered 40 patents, and told reporters his inspiration came from many sources, including the flying ability of bees. Other engineers are also working on the project. He told reporters that the car is powered initially by an electrical generator, after which its engine pumps out so-called ‘’energy flows’’ which provide lift-off and cruising. The car was developed by Vishwanath’’s company, B’’Lorean, named after his home of Bangalore and the winged DeLorean sports car of the 1980s, famously used as a time machine in Hollywood’’ flick ‘Back To The Future’ series of films. How Women Fend Off Washington, Feb 16 Domestic Violence A woman’’s arsenal of defences for resisting violence critically depends on her position within the family and community, according to a new study. “Women’’s resistance is often conceptualised only as exit, which is problematic,” said study author Stephanie Paterson, a professor in the Concordia University Department of Political Science and member of the Centre for Research in Human Development. “We know that violence increases upon separation. Focusing on exit obscures the experiences of women who are unwilling and/ or unable to leave,” she added. Contrary to popular belief, the new study found that wealth was not a guaranteed escape from an abusive relationship. It’’s just one of many factors that can help a woman resist violence. ‘’Moby-Dick’’ Discovered London, Feb 12: Marine archaeologists have discovered a 19thcentury shipwrecked whaling ship ‘Two Brothers’ — which went down in 1823 – from the Hawaiian waters. Slammed into coral reef about 600 miles northwest of Honolulu, the vessel was skippered by Captain George Pollard Jr. Two years earlier, Pollard commanded another ship that was rammed by a whale and sank in the South Pacific. Many know that as the inspiration for Herman Melville’’s writing the 1851 novel ‘’Moby Dick’’. Iron and ceramic scraps from the Nantucket whaling ship ‘Two Brothers’ were located in shallow waters nearly 600 miles from Honolulu in the remote chain of islands and atolls that make up the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, reports the Telegraph. According to expedition leader Kelly Gleason, a marine archeologist, the area protected by the U.S. government as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, was key in helping to preserve the site. The discovery was unveiled on Friday by researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which led the initial 2008 expedition to the wreck and subsequent explorations of the site during the past two years. This is the first discovery of a sunken whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts, birthplace of a U.S. whaling industry that played a key role in America’’s economic and political expansion into the Pacific, according to NOAA. Those factors can be tangible, such as access to a caring personal network. They can be intangible, such as her partner’’s perception of her resources, and his perception of her role within the family. If a partner perceives a woman as being in a strong position to resist, he’’s more likely to reconsider being violent towards her. Paterson’’s study examines the different options faced by battered women – from placating an abuser to threatening to exit – and how these options can influence subsequent violence. The notion that women have some bargaining power in cases of domestic abuse forces society to reconsider the dynamics of violence and expands the options for victims of such abuse. For women’’s negotiation tactics to be effective, however, much has to change in society at both the household and public policy levels. “Not only must we provide women with adequate material resources, but we must also address and challenge the origins of authority within families,” said Paterson. “Enabling resistance is not about making women accountable, but rather challenging the state to create systems in which effective resistance is possible. Only then will violence against women cease,” she added. The study is published in the journal Review of Radical Political Economics.
Page 7 MARCH 2011 Michigan South Asian How Video Games Can Reveal A Child’s Core Competencies Washington, Feb 16 A researcher from Florida State University has presented an approach wherein a learning experience can be made more enjoyable by creating video games into which educational content and assessment tools have been surreptitiously added — and to incorporate such games into school curricula. Valerie J. Shute believes that this would not only remain a pleasant diversion for kids, parents would be reassured that their child is acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to excel in an increasingly competitive world. “The concept is known as ‘’stealth assessment’. Essentially what we try to do is disguise educational content in such a way that kids aren’’t even aware that they’’re being assessed while they’’re engrossed in gameplay,” said Shute. How students react to new challenges and put evidence together can reveal a great deal about creative problem-solving skills. “Based on a student’’s responses to various situations that come up during the course of playing a video game, the game itself can be programmed to assess where that student might be especially strong or weak in core competencies,” Shute said. “The game can then adapt its content so that the student is exposed to more or less information in that area. And it continues to assess the student’’s progress to determine how well he or she is learning the embedded concepts and skills. “So in theory, not only can these stealth-assessment games measure a student’’s current level of knowledge in a given area, they can also determine areas where that student needs to improve and then help him or her to make those Now Children Are Cooking Their First Meal 5-yrs Earlier Than Their Parents Did London, Feb 16 A survey has shown that children are taking to the stove and cooking their first meal five-years earlier than their parents’ generation did. The Lloyds TSB Home Insurance poll of 2,000 parents found that on average, children of 7 years of age are showing more interest in cooking, thanks to celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. But the research also showed a downside, as one in seven meals cooked by children ends in some form of disaster, the Daily Mail reported. Of those, smashed plates and crockery are the most frequent mishaps, reported by 41 percent of parents, while just under a third say the food is inedible. Research showed pasta and sauce was the favourite dish for under-16s to prepare, popular with 37 percent, with cake, pizza, chips and fish fingers following close behind. A fifth of parents said it was TV cooking shows that were inspiring their children to head for the kitchen. improvements, using feedback, maybe easier problems, and so on,” Shute said. There are other important features of such games: They can be used to assess a student’’s knowledge on a specific topic both at the beginning and at the end of the game, thus providing numerical data that illustrate how much the student has learned. They can be easily customized to meet the educational strengths and weaknesses of individual students. In this manner, each student can learn at his or her own speed and be appropriately challenged. “Essentially, the patent is for a computer algorithm that we developed,” she said. MEN CAN COOK! Email your recipe with your photos and see yourself in print “The algorithm applies ‘’weights’’ to a student’’s responses to specific tasks within a game, then uses those weights to measure proficiency levels. With that information, the game knows whether to assign additional tasks to the student in a particular area or move on to another area.” “It’’s important that we change the way education thinks about what competencies are important to support in students (that we’’re not currently doing) to yield excellent global citizens. We also need to develop new kinds of assessments to capture and make sense of this new information. “Stealth assessment within engaging learning and gaming environments might be one of the key tools we can use to improve the way we teach our children and the way they learn,” she said. North South Foundation – Encouraging Excellence In Education (Continued From Page 6) All the preparation resources, syllabus with sample questions for the contests is available in the web site. Detroit chapter is one of the biggest chapters in the country with large number of contest participants for the last five years. Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo are other chapters in Michigan which conducts educational bee contests. Regional chapters also conduct workshops to give learning exposure to the participants. South east Michigan chapters are conducting Spelling bee workshop on Saturday March 12th in Farmington Hills library auditorium. Mr Shivashankar Mirle from Kansas City will be conducting the workshop. He is coach and dad of Kavya Shivashnkar, 2009 Scripps Spelling bee champion. Pre-registration is needed for attending the workshop. Regional contests are scheduled to be conducted on Apr 9th,10th,30th and May 1st for Detroit, Ann Arbor and Lansing chapters. Registration for the workshop and registrations is through the web site www.northsouth.org. Info@Michigansouthasian.com
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