【推荐1】Recently, the artificial intelligence app ChatGPT has been making headlines in the higher education media and beyond. Some have taken an alarmist approach, such as a recent Atlantic piece titled “The College Essay Is Dead.” Others have been more optimistic, examining the limitations of the app as well as offering suggestions for how it can inform student learning and writing. Below is an FAQ about ChatGPT.

Q: How can I design assignments to discourage use of ChatGPT?

A: One important strategy for preventing use of ChatGPT or other similar technologies is to create assignments that require students to show stages of their work (outlines, rough drafts, etc.).

Ask students to refer to course materials and discussions, which would be impossible for ChatGPT to access and would also promote valuable integration skills.

Ask students to engage in and submit a reflection about what they have learned from completing the assignment. Sample tips include: a) Discuss the most challenging and most rewarding aspects of your project. b) What was the most surprising thing you learned in the course of this project? c) If you had the chance to do it again, what one thing would you have done differently on this project?

Teach citation skills and research skills, including expression of original thought.

It is worth considering why you assign writing in your classes and discussing that clearly with students. For most professors, writing represents a form of thinking. But for some students, writing is simply a product, a collection of words repeated back to the teacher. According to John Warner, a blogger and author of two books on writing, “If you can create an atmosphere where students are invested in learning, they are not going to copy, and they are not going to dodge the work. But the work has to be worth doing on some level, beyond getting the grade.”

Q: How can I use ChatGPT in the writing process?

A: These types of apps are not going away and will no doubt rise sharply in the future, so encouraging students to use them productively could be seen as an important contribution to information competence.

【推荐2】On December 14, 1972, three NASA astronauts (宇航员) left the moon. Two had just completed their stay there for NASA’s Apollo 17 mission (任务）. During that time, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt walked across the lunar (月球的) surface. Meanwhile, astronaut Ronald Evans kept control of the command module. When the astronauts returned to Earth, they became the last humans to visit the moon.

Now, about 50 years later, astronauts are getting ready to go back. But this time will be different. On November 16, 2022, NASA launched (发射) its Artemis 1. The agency’s new Space Launch System rocket lifted off in Florida and began its first voyage toward the moon. No one was on board. But the mission tested new technologies that eventually will bring astronauts back to the moon, including the first woman.

Jose Hurtado, an expert at the University of Texas at El Paso, said, “It was a great launch. What I love is about space exploration, so it was really stirring.” He found it an inspirational view, hoping everybody watching it got that inspiration.

NASA’s Apollo program took place in the 1960s and 1970s.Its crewed missions to the moon ran from 1968 to 1972. In July 1969, the Apollo 11 mission landed the first astronaut on the moon. Over the next few years, five more flights brought 10 more American men to the sky.

Once Apollo ended, NASA shifted its focus to space stations as preparation for longer human spaceflights. America’s first space station, Skylab, launched in May 1973, hosted four crews of astronauts that year and the next. But Skylab was meant to be only a temporary station. Within several years, it broke apart in the atmosphere.

NASA astronauts won’t be the only people exploring the lunar surface. China aims to land its own astronauts at the moon’s south pole within the next decade.

【推荐3】The traditional working day doesn't benefit night owls(夜猫子),with people who prefer to stay up late twice as likely to underperform at work as early birds ;a new study from Finland has6uggested.

Early risers tend to work better early in the morning, while evening types are the opposite. The researchers asked 5,881 individuals born in 1966 in northern Finland about their working life and health and questioned them about their sleep patterns in 2012 when they were 46 years old. The study participants were monitored over a period of four years.

Ten percent of the men and 12% of the women were "evening types", 72% of whom worked in day jobs,the researchers found. A quarter of people classified as evening types rated their own performance at work as poor. This was a significantly higher proportion(比例) than among early birds.

"If evening types have to work in the early morning, they won't rate their work ability as high as morning types. The opposite would be true as well. If normal business hours were 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., the early morning types would feel worse than evening types," said Kristen Knutson, an associate professor at Northwestern University.

Suzanne Hood, an associate professor at Bishop's University in Qucbec, Canada, said that night owls shouldn't be alarmed by the findings.

"Rating job performance doesn't necessarily tell you about the quality of the work in real terms," noted Hood. "Also, the study was observational—it doesn't mean that being a night owl makes you less able to work."

"For example, the employee who seems like a slow starter in the morning might be the person who's most able to work effectively into the evening to meet an important deadline," said Hood. "If there is some opportunity for flexibility in scheduling, allowing employees some control over what time of day they complete their work may help to optimize(优化) performance and productivity."