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Regardless of your version of true happiness, living a happier, more satisfied life is within reach. A few tweaks to your regular habits like getting more sleep and exercise can help you get there.
Daily habits
The following daily habits may help you achieve more happiness in your life.
1. Smile
You tend to smile when you’re happy. But it’s actually a two-way street.
We smile because we’re happy, and smiling causes the brain to release dopamine, which makes us happier.
While not completely foolproof, researchers have found that the link between smiling and happiness could be attributed to the “facial feedback hypothesis,” where facial expressions may have a modest influence on emotions.
That does not mean you have to go around with a fake smile plastered on your face all the time. But the next time you find yourself feeling low, crack a smile and see what happens. Or try starting each morning by smiling at yourself in the mirror.
2. Exercise
Exercise isn’t just for your body. Regular exercise can help reduce stress, feelings of anxiety, and symptoms of depression while boosting self-esteem and happiness.
Even a small amount of physical activity can make a difference. You don’t have to train for a triathlon or scale a cliff — unless that’s what makes you happy, of course.
The trick is to not overexert yourself. If you suddenly throw yourself into a strenuous routine, you may just end up frustrated (and sore).
Consider these exercise starters:

Take a walk around the block every night after dinner.
Sign up for a beginner’s class in yoga or tai chi.
Start your day with 5 minutes of stretching.

Remind yourself of any fun activities you once enjoyed but that have fallen by the wayside. Or you could consider starting activities you always wanted to try, such as golf, bowling, or dancing.
3. Get plenty of sleep
Most adults need at least 7 hoursTrusted Source of sleep every night. If you find yourself fighting the urge to nap during the day or just generally feel like you’re in a fog, your body may be telling you it needs more rest.
No matter how much our modern society steers us toward less sleep, we know that adequate sleep is vitalTrusted Source to good health, brain function, and emotional well-being. Getting enough sleep also reduces your riskTrusted Source of developing certain chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, depression, and diabetes.
Here are a few tips to help you build a better sleep routine:

Write down how many hours of sleep you get each night and how rested you feel. After a week, you should have a better idea how you’re doing. You can also try using an app to track your sleep.
Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, including on weekends.
Reserve the hour before bed as quiet time. Take a bath, read, or do something relaxing. Avoid heavy eating and drinking.
Keep your bedroom dark, cool, and quiet.
Invest in some good bedding.
If you have to take a nap, try limiting it to 20 minutes.

If you consistently have problems sleeping, consider talking with a doctor. You may have a sleep disorder that requires treatment.
4. Eat with mood in mind
You may already know that your food choices have an impact on your overall physical health. But some foods can also affect your state of mind.Trusted Source
For example:

Carbohydrates release serotonin, a “feel good” hormone. Just keep simple carbs — foods high in sugar and starch — to a minimum because that energy surge is short and you’ll crash. Choosing complex carbs, such as vegetables, beans, and whole grains, can help you avoid a crash while still providing serotonin.
Lean meat, poultry, legumes, and dairy are high in protein. Protein-rich foods release dopamine and norepinephrine, which boost energy and concentration.
Omega-3 fatty acids, such as those found in fatty fish, have been found to have anti-inflammatory effectsTrusted Source that extend to your overall brain health. If you don’t eat fish, you might consider talking with a doctor about possible supplementation.
Highly processed or deep-fried foods tend to leave you feeling down and so will skipping meals.

If you want to eat with your mood in mind, consider starting with making one food choice for your mood each day.
For example, swap a big, sweet breakfast pastry for some Greek yogurt with fruit. You’ll still satisfy your sweet tooth, and the protein will help you avoid a midmorning energy crash. Consider adding in a new food swap each week.
5. Practice gratitude
Simply being grateful can give your mood a big boost, among other benefits. For example, a two-part study found that practicing gratitude can have a significant impact on feelings of hope and happiness.
You might try starting each day by acknowledging one thing you’re grateful for. You can do this while you’re brushing your teeth or just waiting for that snoozed alarm to go off.
As you go about your day, consider keeping an eye out for pleasant things in your life. They can be big things, such as knowing that someone loves you or getting a well-deserved promotion.
But they can also be little things, such as a co-worker who offered you a cup of coffee or the neighbor who waved to you. Maybe it could even just be the warmth of the sun on your skin.
With a little practice, you may even become more aware of all the positive things around you.
6. Give a compliment
Research shows that performing acts of kindness may also help promote your overall well-being.
Giving a sincere compliment is a quick, easy way to brighten someone’s day while giving your own happiness a boost.
Catch the person’s eye and say it with a smile so they know you mean it. You might be surprised by how good it makes you feel.
If you want to offer someone a compliment on their physical appearance, make sure to do it in a respectful way.
7. Breathe deeply
You’re tense, your shoulders are tight, and you feel as though you just might “lose it.” We all know that feeling.
Instinct may tell you to take a long, deep breath to calm yourself down.
Turns out, that instinct is a good one. ResearchTrusted Source supports the fact that slow breathing and deep breathing exercises can help reduce stress.
The next time you feel stressed or are at your wit’s end, work through these steps:

Close your eyes. Try to envision a happy memory or beautiful place.
Take a slow, deep breath in through your nose.
Slowly breathe out through your mouth or nose.
Repeat this process several times until you start to feel yourself calm down.

If you’re having a hard time taking slow, deliberate breaths, try counting to 5 in your head with each inhale and exhale.
8. Acknowledge the unhappy moments
A positive attitude is generally a good thing, but bad things happen to everyone. It’s just part of life.
If you get some bad news, make a mistake, or just feel like you’re in a funk, don’t try to pretend you’re happy.
Acknowledge the feeling of unhappiness, letting yourself experience it for a moment. Then shift your focus toward what made you feel this way and what it might take to recover.
Would a deep breathing exercise help? A long walk outside? Talking it over with someone?
Let the moment pass and take care of yourself. Remember, no one’s happy all the time.
9. Keep a journal
A journal is a good way to organize your thoughts, analyze your feelings, and make plans. And you don’t have to be a literary genius or write volumes to benefit.
It can be as simple as jotting down a few thoughts before you go to bed. If putting certain things in writing makes you nervous, you can always shred it when you’ve finished. It’s the process that counts.
Not sure what to do with all the feelings that end up on the page? Our guide to organizing your feelings may help.
10. Face stress head-on
Life is full of stressors, and it’s impossible to avoid all of them.
There’s no need to. Stress isn’t always harmful, and we can even change our attitudes about stress. Sometimes, there’s an upside to stress.
For those stressors you can’t avoid, remind yourself that everyone has stress — there’s no reason to think it’s all on you. And chances are, you’re stronger than you might think you are.
Instead of letting yourself get overwhelmed, try to address the stressor head-on. This might mean initiating an uncomfortable conversation or putting in some extra work, but the sooner you confront it, the sooner the pit in your stomach may start to shrink.
 
Testing.....

http://www.scielo.br/revistas/gmb/iaboutj.htm#001
https://venturit.atlassian.net/browse/IT-1478  




Genetics and Molecular Biology is abstracted or indexed in:

PubMed
Science Citacion Index Expanded
Current Contents/Life Sciences
ISI Web of Science
Biotechnology Citation Index
Biological Abstracts
Excerpta Medica
Genetics Abstracts
Animal Breeding Abstracts
Plant Breeding Abstracts
Chemical Abstracts
Referativnyi Zhurnal (Abstracts Journal, Russia)
Periódica (UNAM-Mexico)
Lilacs

The classic egg drop experiment gets reinvented as a driving question for physics students to explore a real-world problem.

By Suzie Boss
July 26, 2018
When a teenager climbs atop his desk and drops an object to the floor, teacher Johnny Devine doesn’t object. Far from it—he’s as eager as the rest of the class to see what happens next.

In a split second, the student and his teammates get positive feedback for the object they have cobbled together by hand. A small parachute made of plastic and held in place with duct tape opens as planned, slowing the descent and easing the cargo to a safe landing. Students exchange quick smiles of satisfaction as they record data. Their mission isn’t accomplished yet, but today’s test run brings them one step closer to success as aspiring aerospace engineers.



To boost engagement in challenging science content, Devine has his students tackle the same problems that professional scientists and engineers wrestle with. “Right away, they know that what they are learning can be applied to an actual career,” Devine says. “Students are motivated because it’s a real task.”

From the start of Mission to Mars, students know that expert engineers from local aerospace companies will evaluate their final working models of Mars landing devices. Their models will have to reflect the students’ best thinking about how to get a payload from orbit onto the surface of the Red Planet without damaging the goods inside. While real Mars landings involve multimillion-dollar equipment, students’ launchers will carry four fragile eggs.

THE ROAD MAP

Although the project gives students considerable freedom, it unfolds through a series of carefully designed stages, each focused on specific learning goals. Having a detailed project plan “creates a roadmap,” Devine explains, “for the students to really track their progress and see how what they’re learning connects back to the guiding question: How can we successfully land a rover on Mars?”

©George Lucas Educational Foundation

Before introducing technical content, Devine wants students to visualize what space scientists actually do. By watching videos of engineers who design entry, descent, and landing systems for spacecraft, students start getting into character for the work ahead.

Devine introduces a series of hands-on activities as the project unfolds to help students put physics concepts into action. They learn about air resistance, for instance, by experimenting with parachute designs and wrestling with a real challenge: How will they slow their landers to a reasonable speed for entry into the thin Martian atmosphere?

To apply the concept of change in momentum, students design airbag systems to go on the bottom of their landers—a location aptly called the crumple zone. They experiment with bubble wrap and other materials as potential cushioners for their cargo.

As the grand finale approaches, students keep using what they learn to test, analyze, and modify their designs. “You have to repeat the equations with different trials,” one student explains. “Being able to use that math over and over again helps it stick.”

Much of the hands-on learning in this PBL classroom “might look like a traditional physics lab,” Devine acknowledges, with students learning concepts through inquiry investigations. What’s different is the teacher’s ongoing reminder “to make sure students stay in character” as systems engineers. Each lab investigation relates back to their driving question and creates more opportunities for Devine to ask probing questions and formatively assess his students’ understanding. “We do a lot of framing in and framing out after each of those lessons so students have the chance to reflect and connect it back,” the teacher explains.

EXPERT CONVERSATIONS

When it is finally time for students to launch their precious cargo off a second-story landing, engineers from local aerospace companies are standing by to assess results. How many eggs in each lander will survive the fall?

Even more important than the test data are the discussions between experts and students. One engineer, for instance, asks to see earlier versions of a team’s design and hear about the tests that led to modifications. A student named Elizabeth perks up when she hears engineers using the same technical vocabulary that she and her classmates have learned. “It was kind of a connection—this is actually a thing that goes on,” she says.

“They had really deep, meaningful conversations so that students could practice communicating their justification for their designs,” Devine says. Hearing them use academic language and apply physics concepts tells the teacher that students deeply understand the science behind their designs. “At the end of the day, that’s what I’m most concerned about,” he says.

https://youtu.be/bKc2shFqLao


 

Practice self-forgiveness: For starters, don’t beat yourself up too hard. Self-forgiveness can help you feel better about yourself. In fact, it lowers the likelihood of future procrastination.


Reward yourself: If you manage to complete your tasks on time, treat yourself to a nice meal at a restaurant or something similar.
Turn off your phone: This one may sound redundant, yet if you delve deeper and look at the University of Chicago's study on cellphones, which shows that even the mere presence of a wireless device badly impacts our cognitive capacity, you might want to reconsider.
Day-to-day organizing, task prioritizing, and planning ahead are primary time management skills essential for using your time wisely. You should be able to assign levels of importance to different tasks, devise solid plans for their accomplishment, and stick to the strict schedules you set for yourself.



Seemingly unrelated parts of your life, such as regular exercise, eating healthy and getting enough sleep, directly impact your overall efficiency and hence your ability to manage your time. These can be called secondary time management skills.
Effective time management helps you organize your daily activities around your priorities. So, before you start working on improving your time management skills, take some time to identify your key and secondary priorities.
When you're clear on what is most important to you, you can start discovering your preferred method for organizing your time. One effective method you could use is the Eisenhower Matrix.
A variety of time management software exists to help you out in organizing tasks and tracking your overall productivity. Two very helpful tools are Rescuetime and Toggle Track.
To make the best use of your time, you should focus on both core and secondary skills that we've discussed (including your overall health and stress levels).
When you master effective time management, you shall enjoy more time for yourself, reduced stress, enhanced work-life balance, and more stamina to start achieving your dreams!
Effective time management helps you organize your daily activities around your priorities. So, before you start working on improving your time management skills, take some time to identify your key and secondary priorities.
 

Achieving Your Goals
Goals

If you're used to procrastinating, you probably struggle with organizing your day and you constantly postpone your deadlines and goals. This not only consumes all of your time but may also keep you from achieving your dreams. 
According to researcher Piers Steel, 95% of people procrastinate at least to some degree. While knowing you're not alone can be comforting, it's also sad to discover how much procrastination can hold you back.
Start by following these simple strategies to overcome your procrastination habits:
Practice self-forgiveness: For starters, don’t beat yourself up too hard. Self-forgiveness can help you feel better about yourself. In fact, it lowers the likelihood of future procrastination.
Reward yourself: If you manage to complete your tasks on time, treat yourself to a nice meal at a restaurant or something similar.
Turn off your phone: This one may sound redundant, yet if you delve deeper and look at the University of Chicago's study on cellphones, which shows that even the mere presence of a wireless device badly impacts our cognitive capacity, you might want to reconsider.
 

What if I told you about this magical teaching practice that, done even once, produces large improvements in student final exam scores[1], helps narrow the grade gap between poorly prepped and highly prepped first year college students[2], and might even result in more positive course reviews[3],[4]? What if I also told you this magical teaching practice is something you already know how to do? What if I told you, the secret to increasing your students’ success and  overall satisfaction is……more TESTS!?
Okay…well to be fair, it’s a little more nuanced than that. While adding just one test to a class does indeed improve final exam scores, it turns out that more frequent, graded exercises in general improve learning outcomes for students [2],[5]. Even better – if these exercises are low stakes, they can improve learning outcomes without increasing student anxiety [4],[6].
We often view testing as an unpleasant but necessary way to assess student performance. It may be time for us to instead view testing as a useful teaching tool and to implement an assessment system that maximizes the potential learning benefits. In this post I will discuss the important known benefits of frequent, low stakes assessments as well as some practical tips for how to maximize these benefits without adding undue stress to your life or the lives of your students.

Benefit #1: “Thinking about thinking”
Testing can improve a student’s metacognition, or their ability to “think about thinking.” A good metacognitive thinker understands how their thought processes work and can pay attention to and change these processes [7]. A student with strong metacognitive skills can therefore more successfully monitor, evaluate, and improve their learning compared to students lacking these skills. Unfortunately, many students struggle with metacognition and must contend with “illusions of mastery” (or thinking they understand a subject better than they actually do).  Self-testing is a good way to prevent illusions of mastery, but many students do not incorporate self-testing into their studying, instead electing more passive modes of exam preparation such as rereading texts[8]. Incorporating more testing into the curriculum forces students into the position of making mistakes and receiving feedback, allowing them to frequently measure their learning in relation to expectations and adjust accordingly. Again, note that providing feedback is an essential part of this process.

Benefit #2: Practice Remembering
Testing can improve a student’s long term memory of information presented in class by forcing students to recall what they’ve learned through a cognitive process called active retrieval. Active retrieval strengthens neural pathways important for retrieving memories, allowing these memories to be more easily accessed in the future.
While any sort of retrieval practice is useful, it is most beneficial when it is effortful, spaced, and interleaved.  An example of effortful retrieval practice includes testing which forces students to provide the answers (i.e. Short answer and fill in the blank questions as opposed to multiple choice). More effortful retrieval also occurs with spaced and interleaved practice.
Spaced practice is testing that occurs after enough time has elapsed for some (but not complete) forgetting to occur (i.e. Present the information and then wait a couple months, days, or even just until the end of class to test students on it). Interleaved practice incorporates different but related topics and problem types, as opposed to having students practice and master one type at a time (e.g. cumulative testing where you mix problems from different units together). Interleaved practice can help students learn to focus on the underlying principles of problems and to discriminate between problem types, leading to more complex mental models and a deeper understanding of the relationships between ideas[6].

How to Implement More Assessments (Without Losing Your Mind)
So, all you have to do now is come up with a ton of quiz and test questions and free up a bunch of class time for assessments! Don’t forget you also need to grade all of these! After all, feedback is an important part of the process, and frequent (even low stakes) grading has the added benefits of enhancing student motivation, attentiveness, and attendance.I know what you busy teachers (ie. all of you) out there are thinking….“Your ”magical” teaching practice is starting to sound like a hugely effective pain in my butt.”
Don’t give up on me now though! There are some fairly simple ways to add more assessments to your curriculum. Furthermore, you should be able to do this sans student rebellion because these assessments are low-stakes. Frequent, low-stake assessments as opposed to infrequent, high-stakes assessments actually decrease student anxiety overall because no single test is a make it or break it event. In fact, several teachers have reported a large increase in positive student evaluations after restructuring their classes in this way[3],[4],[6]!

Below I lay out some tips for getting the most out of shifting your assessment practices while maintaining both your own and your students’ sanity:

1) Know that “effortful” testing is not always necessary
While effortful testing is best for retrieval practice, even basic, easily graded recognition tests such multiple choice questions still offer benefits, such as helping students remember basic (but important!) information[6],[9].

2) Create different assessment questions
You can also make assessments more effortful by creating questions that engage higher cognitive processes. Now you can sit back, relax, and indulge in one of my personal favorite pastimes (watching student brains explode) without the stressful grading!

3) Make use of educational technologies to ease your grading
For instance, clicker tests are a quick way to test students and allow you to provide feedback for the class all at once.

4) Make assessments into games
If your students need a morale boost, make a quiz into a trivia game and give winning groups candy. Some good old competition and Pavlovian conditioning may make students reassess their view of testing.

5) Assess participation
Doing something as simple as a participation grade will still provide students with incentive without overburdening them or yourself. For instance, this type of grading would work in conjunction with #3.

6) Keep graded assessments predictable
Making assessments predictable as opposed to utilizing pop quizzes helps students feel at ease.6 Furthermore, if they students KNOW an assessment is coming, they are more likely to study and pay attention.

7) Find ways to revisit old material in your assessments
Making assessments cumulative is an effective way to space out your review of material and has the added benefit of making problems interleaved and effortful, all of which maximize retrieval practice[6].

8) Have students reflect on mistakes
You can help students develop metacognitive skills by giving them opportunities to reflect upon and correct their mistakes on assessments. For instance, have students take a quiz and then discuss their answers/thinking with their classmates before receiving feedback. You can also give students opportunities to create keys to short answer questions and grade their own and several (anonymous) classmates’ answers. This will allow them to think through what makes an answer complete and effective.

9) Break large assessments into small ones
Instead of creating new assessments, break up large ones into multiple, lower-stakes assessments. For example, consider replacing big tests with several quizzes. Consider scaffolding large projects such as independent research projects and term papers. Ask for outlines, lists of references, graphs, etc. along the course of the semester before the final project is due. This might cause more work for you in the short term but can help prevent complete disasters at the end of the semester, which can be time consuming.

10) Utilize short daily or weekly quizzes
If you don’t want to adjust a big project/test or lose class time by adding time-consuming assessments, consider adding short daily or weekly quizzes. These grades can add up to equal one test grade. One could consider dropping the lowest score(s) but allowing no make ups to reduce logistical issues.
These are only a few of the many strategies one can use to transition to a frequent, low-stakes assessment system. What are your experiences with low stakes assessments? Have you made use of any which seem particularly effective in enhancing student learning?

Related Reading:
Much of the information about the benefits of testing is from:
Brown, P.C., Roediger III, H.L., McDaniel, M.A. (2014). Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Careers for iGen'ers - You Need Either Skills or Education
If you are iGen and looking for a career, please pick a major in fields where there will be plenty of jobs and avoid fields where the jobs are limited. Unless of course you are so different and truly one of a kind like: Michael Jordan, Prince, The Beatles, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian (just kidding).
You have two choices - pick a trade or get the right college education. Low skilled jobs will continue to disappear and you can not raise a family on the income from a low skilled job. You either need skills or education.
Healthcare and high tech are the booming fields now and that will continue for decades.
Thus careers in science, engineering, software, and medicine are a good choice.
There won't be many jobs for people who major in English, history, philosophy etc. Sorry.
If you want help choosing a new career, or making those big career decisions, check out my career counseling services.
Electrical Engineering and Software Engineering look really good. As does nursing, and being a family doctor.
Civil Engineering offers very few jobs since we are not building a lot of bridges and buildings. So avoid that.
Automotive engineering is tough. Not many US jobs except in the electric car field.
Jobs that must be done in person such as plumbers, electricians, barbers, beauticians, should still be in demand, although lower paying than jobs requiring a college education. The trades are more stable than many other careers.
Sales jobs will continue to shrink. Retails sales jobs are disappearing as shopping malls close and as Amazon takes over the world. Sales people are usually just middlemen. Who needs them? Sorry... However, sales people that do business development and find new customers are a different story. But the days of being a shoe salesman in a mall store are gone.
Business development and marketing are still good fields, but will see some unexpected changes.
The auto mechanic field is going to go through interesting changes with the growth of electric vehicles and self driving vehicles. EV's have less moving parts and fewer fluids to replace, but they still need tire changes.
Taxi driver jobs and truck driver jobs will start to experience less demand as automated vehicles take over. However, as of 2018, the demand for truck drivers is booming.
As automated electric vehicles take over, the need for individuals to own a car will be reduced. It will become more simple, less expensive, and more efficient to just walk outside, call up an app, have a driver-less Uber pick you up and take you to wherever you want to go. As long as a car can show up in 5 minutes or so, that will be the way to go. Owning your own car is not efficient, nor a good investment. Cars sit around doing nothing for 98% of their existence. They take up space, they consume your money on insurance and repairs even while they are just sitting doing nothing. How this will affect jobs, careers and the workplace will be interesting, and iGen'ers will be the first to experience this.
Space flight related jobs will pick up as we focus on getting people to the moon, Mars, and space stations.
Geology jobs, especially related to finding minerals on other planets should see a rise in demand.
Virtual Reality related jobs (whatever those are?) will pick up as VR technology becomes ubiquitous. Probably creating VR experiences will be popular.
The generation after the iGen'ers will be the ones who grow up thinking virtual reality is normal.
 
 

Why a Scientific Format?
The scientific format may seem confusing for the beginning science writer due to its rigid structurewhich is so different from writing in the humanities.
One reason for using this format is that it is ameans of efficiently communicating scientific findings to the broad community of scientists in a uniform manner. Another reason, perhaps more important than the first, is that this format allows the paper to be read at several different levels.
For example, many people skim Titles to find out what information is available on a subject. Others may read only titles and Abstracts. Those wanting to go deeper may look at the Tables and Figures in the Results, and so on. The take home point here is that the scientific format helps to insure that at whatever level a person reads your paper (beyondtitle skimming), they will likely get the key results and conclusions.