Cool Stuffs

I’ve written hundreds of posts for Unfinished Man over the years, and with each and every one of them, I try and share something interesting with you… something that I’ve wrapped my head around, and that I thought was cool enough to grace your computer screen. Today, I’ve got something extremely cool, but I’m not exactly sure how to describe it.

You see, as you begin to watch the video, you’re going to notice a wide range of freakish, terrifying robots roving around what appears to be some sort of arena. They’re loud, they shoot sparks… they look like they’re capable of sawing people into pieces, and yes… they’re pretty damn cool. If you’ve never heard of Survival Research Labs (SRL) before, then you’re about to get your first introduction.

This is what happens when you study science and engineering. You get to create incredible, bad-ass robots that spew fire and have saws for hands and eyelids. It’s kind of like the Talbotics robots, but you know… more violent and flame spewing.

I’m just going to paraphrase here – lest I simply copy from the official website – but basically a fellow named Mark Pauline founded Survival Research Labs back in 1978 to allow creative technicians to come up with cool shit and present their work to a like minded crowd of enthusiasts. Mark, I apologize if I messed that up, and feel free to correct me. In any case, I think it’s a great idea, and in a way, this actually reminds me of the monster truck shows that my parents took me to as a child. Big, loud… scratching metal, totally awesome.

I would love to see a Survival Research labs presentation for myself, but given that I live outside the United States, well… it seems I’m shit out of luck, which is all the more reason for you to go see one in my stead.

You can see a full event schedule on this page, and find our more about the machines themselves and the organization there as well.

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Google is the primary way teenagers conduct research in today’s digital world, according to new Pew research. Teachers say teens are most likely to first turn to Google or another search engine as their main research tool 94 percent of the time.

Google is more popular than Wikipedia or other online encyclopedia sites, YouTube or other social media sites, major news sites like The New York Times and CNN, and “traditional” sources of information (e.g., textbooks, print books, online databases, and research librarians), according to The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project’s new study on “How Teens Do Research in the Digital World”.  

Pew gathered the research via three teacher focus groups, two student focus groups, and an online survey completed partially by 2,462 teachers. According to the study:

Ultimately, some teachers say, for students today, “research = Googling.” Specifically asked how their students would define the term “research,” most teachers felt that students would define the process as independently gathering information by "looking it up" or "Googling.” And when asked how middle and high school students today “do research,” the first response in every focus group, teachers and students, was “Google.”

Pew noted that 99 percent of the teachers surveyed either “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” with the idea that “search engines have conditioned students to expect to be able to find information quickly and easily.” However, the teachers surveyed fear search engines may lead to unreliable sources.

When asked how much of the information teachers find using search engines is accurate or trustworthy, only 5 percent of teacher answered “all or almost all”, while 55 percent said “most” and 40 percent said “some”.

For teachers, the challenge is to convince students to go beyond checking the first result on Google when conducting research and using multiple research tools.

Pew reports that 57 percent of teachers “spend class time helping students improve search terms and queries, yet just [35 percent] devote class time to helping students understand how search engines work and how search results are actually generated and ranked.” Another 29 percent give students assignments that don't allow students to use search engines.

How do teachers rate the search skill-level of their students? Sixty-two percent were “excellent,” “very good,” or “good” at using appropriate and effective search terms and queries when researching, while 52 percent of students understood how search results are generated. However, Pew noted there’s a lot of work to be done among students when it comes to using multiple sources to support their arguments, assessing the quality and accuracy of online information, taking time to find hard-to-find information, and recognizing bias.

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