Last night before the departure

So here I am... packing.

Today was quite emotional since I turned in the final version of the Environment and Sustainability course. Now, it is time to think about giving it that extra "punch" that students love. What has been included in the course? What type of learning materials? Any interesting videos? Any riveting articles and case studies? The only thing I can reveal is that I regard it as a personal endeavor. It is one of the most significant events in my career as a teacher. This course has the potential to be replicated and evangelized. I would like to consider it as one of those surprise hit movies that you never expected they were THAT good (500 days of summer, Pan's Labyrinth, District 9, The Social Network, and The Matrix come to my mind). They are the kind of films you can't wait to watch them with a person who hasn't seen them. I would like to compare myself to the directors of those films who knew they had something amazing, but were not that sure whether they would mesmerize audiences.

Tomorrow will be dedicated to tying "loose knots" regarding the trip to Shanghai. I have to confess that I barely know what awaits in China. The fact of having almost 30 students under my wing implies a gargantuan responsibility. It is a personal commitment to the trust Prepa Tec has given me.

So, less than 60 hours remain before the experience begins.

Designing the Course of a Lifetime Part 2

It's been a busy week.

I have devoted a significant amount of time developing the Environment and Sustainability course. It seems like it may never end!

I am almost finished with the Sustainability section of the course which considers the main spectrum of the concept. The main guidelines related to the Final Project are almost finished as well.

Back on Thursday and Friday I attended an interesting training course. I received some hints and tips regarding how to provide a significant experience abroad. I also met the two tutors who will be helping me in Shanghai. Everything points towards an outstanding summer :)

I have gathered a myriad of interesting information which will definitely benefit the course. If you are interested on the state of the planet, I recommend you the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment which analyzes the state of the world under social, economical, and environmental perspectives. 1,300 scientists, the UN, and NGOs support it. It is worth a quick glance:

Millenium Ecosystem Assessment

Tomorrow I am having a last meeting with the colleagues who are also helping me. They will be teaching the course in Nice, France.

On the trip side, this week will be devoted to buying my personal belongings. Time is running faster than I expected.

More info later!

Designing the Course of a Lifetime

Next week I am visiting Shanghai to teach a course on Environment and Sustainability at a High School related to Tongji University.

Yes, I'm taking a plane with a group of High School students from Prepa Tec to fly halfway around the world. We will live for a month where I like to consider as the New York of the XXI century.

The most exciting part of planning the trip is not organizing my personal belongings, nor fantasizing about my second visit to Shanghai. The most exciting episode has been developing a course from scratch. It is not an everyday course. It is a course that has the potential to change the course of modern civilization. Why am I certain of such a statement?

The relationship between mankind and the biosphere is an extremely new discipline. Worries about our impact on the environment, and how it underpines social, economical, cultural and political dimensions were born during the 1970s. For a mere 30 years scientists, environmentalists, entrepreneurs, and economists have focused their efforts on tackling global issues under the label of "sustainability". That means, that out of 4 million years of human history, only 30 have been devoted to analyzing the conservation of the planet. Striking isn't it?

Flat fact: Sustainability is an EXTREMELY broad concept that has been vaguely defined. It is difficult to specifically define sustainability since the concept implies thousands of variables related to both human and natural existence. Moreover, this is the first time in the history of mankind where we are able to change our future and that of the planet.

As I'm doing my research, I have encountered a HUGE, TREMENDOUS amount of information regarding sustainability. I have learned that I need to cover topics related to astronomy and cosmology since they analyze how our plane came to be. Then, I need to talk about ecosystems, natural resources, Ecology, social issues, Ethnography, History, Anthropology, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Philosophy, Law, Religion, Economics and Finance to provide a large and significant spectrum to the students for all these disciplines are related to sustainability. After that, we will have to analyze societies that have collapsed due to an unsustainable scheme. Yes, societal collapses have happened throughout history. There are more than 20 cases that exemplify this outcome. Finally, I will need to share my knowledge regarding Design, Architecture, Mathematics, Production, Demographics, Computer Science, Statistics, Ergonomics, and Marketing. It may seem daunting and ambitious, but the fate of human existence strongly depends on sustainability. As Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-Price author of Guns, Germs and Steel (one of my favorite books) declares "There is no single cause for the collapse of a society. It is an intricate and complex process with at least a dozen causes".

My efforts on teaching the best course I could have my hands on will not only impact students to promote a change. It will need to trigger a revolution that will guarantee the future of mankind as a whole.

I recommend the following article in order to grasp the complexities of sustainability:

http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/iucn_future_of_sustanability.pdf

Tomorrow, I'm having a meeting to build the course's Final Project.

More info coming soon ;)

Another Semester Goes By...

I know it has been a while since my last update. For a month I became focused on finishing my first Master's Degree course, preparing my educational trip to Shanghai, and closing up this January/May semester. Sorry about the lack of updates, but here I am, back again with more time to reflect on Math, Education, and Life.

When a semester ends, a chapter is closed. It is always a bittersweet sensation; especially at Prepa Tec since teachers are rotated depending on the programmed subjects for the following semesters. Moreover, students reach their next level, and one is left expecting the next batch of people to work with. I guess nostalgia is a quientessential feature of every formative experience.

This semester's closure struck me for a particular reason. It has been the semester where I had the largest amount of failures in my 3-year career as a teacher. Every profession has its "horrific confession". Medics have to confess whenever cancer is detected, CEOs and Boards must declare a bankruptcy, a bank representative has to announce a foreclosure, and a boss has to directly fire someone due to budget restrictions. In education, this "confession" takes form in telling someone he or she has failed the course. It is especially striking with a person who struggled throughout the semester, but did not quite "make it".

To all those students who have experienced this situation I daresay--do not lose hope. If you tried hard, try harder now, and never get intimidated by the success of others. It is in YOUR hands, and SOLELY IN YOUR HANDS to achieve whatever you want to pursue. As teachers we commit endless hours to provide you with all the necessary tools you need, now it is time to act responsibly. Persist. Persist, and do not get desperate in dire times. Consider Math as an opportunity, and never as a threat. I will NEVER get tired of saying--NO ONE SUCKS AT MATH. Pardon the informality of the statement, but it is true. Keep on trying, do not settle. Eventually, you will master the topics that may not appear later as equations and integrals. The analytical process you developed will help you take better decisions in life. Even emotional ones ;)

Remember this quote whenever your hands get dirty when approaching a Math or Life problem:

“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”
--Gandhi

"Globa", the Global State

An extremely interesting and highly debatable article regarding the exponential growth of the Internet, communications, and its effects on society.

It considers English as the dominant language (instead of Mandarin Chinese), the conflict between multicultured vs. monocultured individuals, economic blocks, and
interesting concepts such as "the artilect", "terrans" and "cyborgists".

Comments are always welcome!

http://www.kurzweilai.net/globa-global-state-by-2050

Maybe It's OUR Fault

I want to post this video for it reminds us that we have to keep on moving...

Spanish Subtitles

It is all about spheres: Atmosphere, Ethnosphere, Oosphere, Biosphere, Planisphere…

My Low-Res pic... Blame the IPod!!!


Today, Al Gore was in front of me. You know; VP of the United States, Harvard Graduate, the guy behind the Internet, Tommy Lee Jones’ Roomie, Nobel Prize Winner, Atari Democrat, Príncipe de Asturias winner, Oscar Winner, Ecological Activist, Vietnam veteran. You get the idea, Al Gore.

In an unprecedented visit to Tec de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara (where I teach) he presented a truly interesting and updated version of his famous documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”. Some of the astonishing facts were—The hottest days in recorded history have happened during the last decade; temperatures in Asia rose to 53.5° during last year; a 7% increase in atmospheric vapor yields more downpours followed by long periods of drought; floods appear in territories where downpours did not happen; warmer oceans produce stronger storms; 22 climate models conclude that Earth will experience a drastic change in climate; 90 million tons of Carbon Dioxide are sent to the atmosphere daily; 4 wars have happened in the Middle East in the last 20 years; a 5 meter increase of the sea level displaces 300 million people, while a 6 meter increase displaces more than 400 million people; the acidity of oceans is changing due to the presence of Carbonic Acid… Those are the ones that I remember. You may Google tons of other facts at your discretion.

Mathematics continuously reminds us that we place our confidence in numbers. The previous statistics show that Earth is being affected by our actions. Without receding into the “another eco-friendly speech”, I just want to say that contemporary education is meaningless if we as teachers do not provide a hands-on-experience on the responsibility to our planet. There is NO NEED to fill the whiteboard with equations, or being solely focused on whether our students make a mistake or not. The main objective must be to inspire our students by presenting mathematical models and cases that can be solved through imagination, engineering and social sciences. Let’s get rid of XIX century methods of teaching Mathematics which just produce University Doctors. It is time for our students to know how to use Mathematics in order to tackle environmental (and general sustainability) problems, which may generate thousands of new jobs and opportunities for generations to come. Trust me, your Math classes will be far more interesting. I URGE Students all over the world to DEMAND from your teachers a considerable insight about these issues.

Finally, I haven’t informed you that I am studying a FANTASTIC Master Program taught by Framingham State College. The course that I am attending is related to Language and Communication (I will write about this particular topic later on). What does it have to do with Global Warming? That climate changes and overproduction do not only threaten the biosphere, but also the Ethnosphere.

Check this outstanding TED Talk for more information.
Conclusions? Always welcome!!!