Counterintuitive Spring 2023

What is Financial Literacy

Schools are failing our students by neglecting to include an essential life skill like financial literacy in the normal curriculum. Financial education in simple form can defined as the confident grasp of topics such as saving, investing, and debt that translates to a sense of overall financial well-being and self-trust. It seems like a disservice to our children to avoid teaching such a vital life skill.

Financial literacy is crucial to our society because it provides us with the information and skills we need to successfully manage our money. Without it, our financial choices and actions, whether taken or not, lack a firm foundation for success. It was found that nearly 70% of millennials are living paycheck to paycheck, which is more than any other generation. For many Americans, living paycheck to paycheck is an uncomfortable financial reality. Many Americans are dealing with this problem for a variety of reasons, the first of which is that they do not manage their spending. They continue to spend money without knowing where it is going. This may be highly damaging to their finances since expenditures accumulate and by the time they realize it, it is too late and they are in debt. Another issue is that many Americans do not make a budget. Budgeting how much you spend in relation to how much you earn will be very useful in the long term. Finally, and maybe most importantly, address your debt. It was revealed that 77 percent of all households had some form of debt. The more your debt, the more likely you are to live paycheck to paycheck. The easiest way to approach it is to start small and work your way up. Overall, the major reason people live paycheck to paycheck is a lack of financial education. If this could be included into our curriculum, many more folks would be able to escape such significant, long-term, and chronic poverty.

A prime and more recent example of Americas financial issues came during the pandemic. When millions of citizens in the United States and throughout the world went into lockdown, it was unavoidable that the economy would suffer. As important as these efforts were in bringing the coronavirus pandemic under control, there was a downside: large swathes of the economy came to a standstill. Because this epidemic is worldwide, the ramifications have also been felt globally. The epidemic revealed the country’s lack of financial education. Covid was an unlucky but necessary lesson for the county. It taught the country the value of having emergency savings. Many financial gurus recommend that each household keep at least three to six months of cash on hand in case of an emergency. Many people are only one automobile accident or one medical emergency away from going into debt. The only reason some Americans were able to keep afloat was because of government help in the form of stimulas payments. Many people would have gone bankrupt if they hadn’t received such help.

The absence of personal financial education in our country has been disastrous. As a society, we’ve watched millions of Americans struggle with their money on a daily basis due to a general lack of financial preparation, only to end up deep in debt. Every day, millions of Americans struggle with their finances. Many Americans are discovering that they are unable to buy houses, save for retirement, or save for their children’s college funds due to student loan debt, huge vehicle payments, and a lack of financial preparation. People are deeply in debt and hopeless. Many of the financial issues that Americans are today might have been averted if financial literacy had been taught in schools. As a result, we believe that more schools should include financial literacy classes as part of their graduation requirements.

Although the benefits of financial education to American people are evident, it is still not being taught in our schools. It has gotten to the point where it appears like the American system was designed to keep us ignorant of the necessity of financial literacy. Our parents are the only ones who have the financial expertise that we require in our daily lives. Parents who are already facing their own financial hardships. It’s like a never-ending loop of financial illiteracy that continues to infect the next generation. Financial education is necessary in our daily lives, and some would argue that it is crucial to our existence. Students are instead preoccupied with the Pythagorean theorem, which I am sure is more important in our daily lives. Millions of Americans continue to struggle financially, yet the issue is being ignored. Financial literacy has other advantages, such as helping a person to be more flexible, decrease stress, and enhance relationships.Personal finance is as much about psychology as it is about statistics. A solid knowledge of financial literacy will enable you to make better financial decisions, which will ideally enhance your day-to-day life. Living over our means may lead to bankruptcy, divorce, and a great deal of worry. Furthermore, the burden of student loan debt might keep first-time homeowners out of the market, dragging the economy down. Meanwhile, living with low debt and a savings cushion might provide you the comfort and peace of mind that comes with being financially free.As a result, financial literacy is more than simply learning how to manage money in order to purchase more things; it is also about learning how to manage money in order to enhance many various parts of one’s life. As you can see, financial literacy is essential for people of all ages. And starting to teach these principles to youngsters can help them form long-term behaviors.

Overall, we can see how financial education may help each individual student with no question. By bringing this issue into the classroom, we can not only assist the economy, but also each individual student. Long term, the financial knowledge offered to children will benefit them in the future and keep them from making costly mistakes.It will also assist future generations of children, who will learn from their financially educated parents.

References

Fernando, Jason. “What Is Financial Literacy?” Investopedia, Investopedia, 7 Dec. 2021, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/financial-literacy.asp.

Hoffower, Hillary. “60% Of Millennials Earning over $100,000 Say They’re Living Paycheck to Paycheck.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 16 Sept. 2021, https://www.businessinsider.com/high-earning-henry-millennials-six-figure-salaries-feel-broke-2021-6.

“How to Manage Your Money & Be Financially Successful.” Annuity.org, https://www.annuity.org/financial-literacy/.

JeffCoxCNBCcom. “Household Debt Jumps by the Most in 14 Years to Nearly $15 Trillion in the Second Quarter.” CNBC, CNBC, 3 Aug. 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/03/household-debt-jumps-by-the-most-in-14-years-to-nearly-15-trillion-in-the-second-quarter.html.

Thesis to be proved or disproved – For the greatest chance at success coaches must determine the type of muscle fibers an 800-meter runner has prior to calculating the balance between aerobic and anaerobic training.

Term essential for proving this thesis – avoiding overtraining and extra practice

In the summer training season of my senior year of high school, I wanted to do absolutely everything extra that I could to give myself an advantage over the competition in the upcoming track season. Among other things I would go for a second run that was slower and shorter than my first the shakeout my legs. I did this for approximately two months before official practices started, and when it did start, I told my coach about what I had been doing for training over the summer. To my surprise he told me that those extra 2 mile runs I did everyday most likely have little to no effect on my fitness. It turns out my body didn’t actual start to work it aerobic system until 4-5 miles into a run so anything short of that did nothing for me. To define practice, it is repeating something to result in some improvement or increase in efficiency. Since these runs made no difference in my fitness, they weren’t even considered practicing running by definition, it was just running. My coach then advised me to not do these extra runs unless my weekly mileage demanded more then I could handle in a single run. This was to avoid dips in my performance from overtraining.

In the bigger picture, middle distance athletes are supposed to train based off the kind of fibers are most present within their muscles. If an athlete finds themselves on the slower end when it comes to speed then they will train their slow twitch fibers into intermediate, likewise speed-based athletes train their fast twitch into intermediate. Under the previously assumed definition of practice, it is completely pointless for a slower athlete to train their max speed by doing a speed strengthening workout because it wouldn’t help strengthen their slow twitch fibers. So why do these athletes still do these workouts? Taking a deeper look into running, it is not all about staying at a certain speed for a certain time. Many factors such as form, mentality, coordination, and flexibility all contribute to the art of running. Distance strong athletes training at their top speed may not help their aerobic fitness at all, but their sprinting form and flexibility will improve. Similarly, when a sprinter engages in a longer distance run, they aren’t helping their speed whatsoever, but their aerobic system and mentality are improving. These are all considered practice by definition because what they are training is improving despite it not helping their priority event whether that be distance or sprints.

However, if a sprinter decides to run at a pace that’s fast but not quite fast enough to fully engage their fast twitch fibers it won’t have an effect on their anaerobic system. The same goes for the distance not being quite long enough to engage the aerobic system.  These shorter slower “sprints” will have no affect on their goal of getting faster, so at this point its just running; no practice involved. The same goes for a distance runner running half the distance at a slower pace then usual. This run will not engage the aerobic system at all therefore no improvement will result from doing the run. The only reason anybody would decide to do more running is if they are overworking or chasing pain in the hopes to get better. These actions are where it stops fitting the definition of practice and fits more towards the definition of Overtraining Syndrome. Overtraining Syndrome, as stated by Alice Palmer in “Overtraining: Spot the Signs” is a persistent, unexplained dip in performance that continues even after sufficient rest. These extra activities that athletes think will push them ahead of their competition is closer to discontinuance than it is to practicing. It’s more beneficial for athletes to not practice at all then it is to engage in extra running related activity. In fact, the best treatment for overtraining is to take a step back in your original training plan and put more focus on recovering the overworked muscles.

Overtraining usual occurs when an athlete feels so dedicated to their goal or cause that they want to do more than what is assigned to them. They often take things into their own hands and do dangerous amounts of extra training. According to Marci Goolsby in her article “What is overtraining,” chasing pain or overreaching is when the muscle soreness goes above and beyond what you typically endure as result of when you don’t take enough rest between training sessions. When you ignore the signs of overreaching and begin chasing more pain because you believe it will make you a better athlete it becomes a case of overtraining. Then the resulting weakness and dip in performance makes the athlete work want to even harder through the pain in an attempt to get better. This results in serious injury and can take anywhere from weeks to months of time to recover, which given the athlete in this situation wants to work harder, can be very mentally challenging. A complete halt of practice can throw a dedicated athlete down a rabbit hole of mental distress which is why overtraining is just as mentally dangerous as it is physically dangerous.

After being told the extra runs I was doing weren’t benefiting me at all I looked at my training plan with an entirely new perspective, as it had already been made to work me to my fullest despite my brain telling me to do more. I should have been doing more recovery instead of more miles.  Part of practicing anything is taking a break and letting yourself recovery from what it is that you are practicing. For middle distance athletes, since they are by far the most worked and diverse athletes when it comes to training plans, they have to immediately let their coach know if they feel overworked or are having any sort of unnatural pain. Failure to do so can result in months lost of training and competition. Furthermore, if you feel like you can or should be doing more let your coach know and they’ll give you safe options on what else you can be doing.

Reading Lacrosse’s Terms and Conditions

“The Creator’s Game,” natively known as Baggataway or stickball, is now known as lacrosse. Originally designed by the natives across North America it was slowly adapted throughout the centuries leading to the lacrosse we know today. “From the seventeenth century, when the game was played exclusively by Native Americans, to the early decades of the twentieth century… While the game was first developed by Native Americans well before contact with Europeans, lacrosse became standardized by a group of Canadians led by George Beers in 1867, and has continued to develop into the twenty-first century,” Jeff Carey states in his thesis New directions of play: Native american origins of modern lacrosse. 

Lacrosse in basic terms is a team sport, the objective is to get the ball into the opponents goal using a stick with a triangular net piece known as a crosse. Each team has ten to twelve players on the field at a time, depending on men’s or women’s lacrosse. Regardless of gender both men’s and women’s have a defense, mid field, attack and a goalie on field at all times.

Women’s and men’s lacrosse have one leading difference that shapes how each game is played, contact. Similar to popular sports like football, men’s lacrosse can be more physical with their opponents than in women’s. While men’s lacrosse is able to hit and body check with some restrictions, women’s lacrosse highly restricts physical contact between players. Women are allowed to have minimal contact while defending and chasing the ball, there are rules against getting too close to the face and body. Despite these differences the game’s objective and tactics remain fairly similar, yet men’s lacrosse is more mainstream than women’s, which generates the idea that it is the superior twin.  

The most popular sports today have some form of contact, football and hockey being at the top while sports like soccer, basketball and baseball lean towards the bottom. Despite this, lacrosse is still a very popular sport that is streamed for the public, yet men’s is regarded higher and viewed more. Women’s sports in general suffer from mainstream media not displaying or advertising enough to encourage viewers. One of the reasons men’s lacrosse does better is due to “the level of contact and physicality determines the amount of fans that come… the more contact there is, the more spectators we will draw to our games,” as opinionated by Ithaca’s former attackman Connor Hulme in Cal Dymowski’s Lacrosse has different rules for men and women. Men’s lacrosse is perceived better due to the lack of regulation that allows for the game to flow better than women’s. In Jane Claydon’s Origin & History, a girl writing for the student magazine at St. Leonards School, in St Andrews, Scotland reported that “after our crosses having undergone a severe inspection i.e. our referee holding them up one by one and squinting with one eye to see if that which ought to be plane surface was not a curved one.” Even before the game starts, the equipment worn by the players are inspected to prevent any harm or cheating from occurring. While this may indicate that the rules in women’s lacrosse should be revised in order to allow for better flowing gameplay, it can show how much harder the girls have to work compared to men. Women have to jump more hurdles in order to play, it in turn forces the players to come up with more creative plays in order to score.

References

Carey, J. (2012). New directions of play: Native American origins of modern lacrosse (Order No. 1518272). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1039261901). Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rowan.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fdissertations-theses%2Fnew-directions-play-native-american-origins%2Fdocview%2F1039261901%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D13605

Dymowski, C. (2016, April 20). Lacrosse has different rules for men and women. The Ithacan. https://theithacan.org/sports/lacrosse-has-different-rules-for-men-and-women/

Claydon, J. (Ed.). (2021). Origin of Men’s Lacrosse. World Lacrosse. https://worldlacrosse.sport/about-world-lacrosse/origin-history/

Title depending

During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2019-present, spotted lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula) have invaded several areas in the northeast region of the U.S. These invasive insects are discovered to have successfully transported larvae and nymphs on firewood trading shipments from China. This has resulted in the devastation of fruit trees and grape vineyards depleting nutients and decreasing the chances of survival by causing trunk wounds and tree mold to develop. This has the potential to devastate agricultural chains and disrupt ecosystems. The primary food source for these lanternflies in their native habitat is Ailanthus altissima, also known as the “Tree of Heaven” in China; however, this plant species is also an invasive species worldwide. The lanternfliescan also eat a variety of other fruit trees from orchards in rural areas in America. Proposals for managing these invasive insects including capturing and returning them to their source, or eliminating them on sight near agricultural areas, as well as monitoring any lanternflies in the area. Spotted Lanternflies have a distinct pattern, a red body with black spots on brownish-grey wings being apart of a category of plant hopper from the eastern continents of China, India and South Korea respectively. The introduction of invasive species has opened up the topic of previous invasive species migrated mistakenly from their natural habitats to new one disrupting the natural order of nature.

The average size is 1 inch in length with a life span of one year. They are to lay around 30-50 eggs during the fall and winter season. Adult Lanternflies use upwinds to fly up 40 meters and are able to land on fruit tree orchards using their frontal wingspan and with an average airspeed of about 4.64 m/s. Anemotactic measurements are used to chart the movements of an object or thing in relation to the direction of the wind, allowing anyone to learn about their behavioral patterns. Using these measurements, researchers are able to figure out how the lanternflies use short flights to save small amounts of energy before their angled flight to the food source without exhausting themselves. Such strategy allows Lanternflies to anticipate their direction without falling to the ground, which most Lanternflies have tried and failed to do. This gives rise to the idea of how lanternflies easily migrated across the North American continent, flying from tree to tree and populating their kind to become an unstoppable force. Their average ground speed is 2.65 m/s as they take off at the 10 second mark in their bout towards the upwind by 4.64 m/s from the adult Spotted Lanternflies.

Fruit trees, such as apples, oranges, and peaches as well as grape vineyard orchards provide essential nutrients for spotted lanternflies as well as nesting grounds for their offspring, which has serious consequences for American farmers who have infestations of lanternflies and other orchard feeding bugs eating their hard-earned orchard trees, harming the economy and stores across the continent. Fruits have been treated with insecticides to keep their fresh look from being eaten away by lanternflies and other insects in the wild. Although the effects on the adult spotted lanternfly would be effective, the other issue would be the reproduction cycle of the spotted Lanternfly’s eggs and nymphs, which could be solved by using Chlorpyrifo to completely kill all the eggs from their hiding place. Another insecticide idea is to use Thiamethoxam and Bifenthrin, which are from a subcategory of insecticides that can be used to controlling insects for up to fourteen days and can be used directly on spotted lanternflies by approximately half of the population, which leaves the other half unharmed calmly. The cost of these insecticides to humans, however, would be their toxic hazard for everyone’s health, including taste and smell, if eaten by herbivore or omnivore animals, resulting in a double-edged sword for orchard protection that can eventually harm other lifeforms.

The alternative method for preventing the spread of Spotted Lanternflies in the area is to use lures and traps to capture them using their habitats such as covering tree trunks with sticky bands being the Bug Barrier or web cote tree bands with the use of methyl salicylate as the insect attractant lure from where the lanternfly might climb up, whether it’s a fruit orchard tree or a host tree, which stops them in their tracks, which was used on lanternflies that have already hatched from their eggs. The Pecan Weevil trap is also known as the Circle trunk trap because it is latched around the tree trunk by a velcro strip that’s been stapled and glued onto the jar with the insecticide strips to kill the lanternflies as well as a zipper bag that will collect them after two weeks of eliminating lanternflies in their late nymph and adult stages. The Intercept panel  creates a slip-slide effect with fluon solution and traps lanternflies in a jar with propylene glycol, which are  dumped from a paper cone strainer into a plastic bag to be sorted. Tall prism traps are similar to the sticky tree band traps, but they have an internal plastic prism supported by cables and pipes and painted brown to attract lanternflies in addition to the sticky bands around the surfaces. These traps have the greatest effect on lanternflies because the bugbarrier bands have a higher chance of capturing Lanternflies in the sticky tree bands. Regrettably, there are some disadvantages such as other insects becoming entangled in the traps and most lanternflies avoiding contact with the traps. The traps, on the other hand, have statistical value in terms of which life stage of the lanternfly prefers the attraction that surrounds the traps.

Lanternfly nymphs and adults have used their antennal sensory function to develop behavioral patterns that match their environment from their organs. The sensilla placodea and plate organ sensory have increased in size from 33 to 125 times during the nymphal instar cycle. The sexual dimorphism of adult Lanternflies sensilla placodea, which is related to mating behavior between males and females.

Reference sheet

Myrick, A.J., Baker, T.C. Analysis of Anemotactic Flight Tendencies of the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) during the 2017 Mass Dispersal Flights in Pennsylvania. J Insect Behav 32, 11–23 (2019). https://doi-org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/10.1007/s10905-019-09708-x 

Leach, Heather, et al. “Evaluation of Insecticides for Control of the Spotted Lanternfly, Lycorma Delicatula, (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae), a New Pest of Fruit in the Northeastern U.S.” Crop Protection, Elsevier, 30 May 2019, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261219419301735?casa_token=HS980H8VqHgAAAAA%3APjvS6LajEnAFNPSA3w7969WkMkbulGC1Sce3EXLJQn4uFPLcL9LqPUeh_AplpbBD5Umt8a0LDw. 

Francese, Joseph A, et al. “Developing Traps for the Spotted Lanternfly, Lycorma Delicatula (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae).” Validate User, Environmental Entomology, Volume 49, Issue 2, April 2020, Pages 269–276, 28 Jan. 2020, https://academic.oup.com/ee/article/49/2/269/5716627.