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    Cool! cool DS15 used to be a speedcuber too. His 3x3x3 PB was sub10 when he was 13. One handed 3x3x3 was his favourite competition event (PB is sub18). Finger dexterity from years of speedcubing now serve him well for playing musical instruments. The other types of puzzles (pyraminx, gear cube, mirror cube) likely also helped to develop 3D geometry problem solving abilities.

    I recall a cute anecdote related to speedcubing - in upper primary, DS’s three best friends also became interested in speedcubing so when they started high school together, they all carried their 3x3x3 cubes around everywhere. His now best friend came from a different primary school and really wanted to join this group of friends - he apparently announced he was going to save his pocket money to buy a Rubik’s cube so that he could be one of their group. At the time I hadn’t met this child, but what he said seemed so cute, I bought a speed cube and asked DS to give it to him.

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    I never heard of speed cubing.

    Wuestion for those with students in college, how are they doing labs? I heard from a friend whose son is in Physics at Georgetown and they are just watching the professors do the labs and then write them up. DD has to do digital labs. I walked in once and it was really cool. It is like an animation but you have to choose the steps, the amount. It is a good simulation for this environment.

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    DD is taking two science classes, but neither has a lab. This was intentional on her part- (the shutdown happened sort of during their course signup period), The college also adjusted the course offerings, so some (?many) lab classes were just not offered this term. This is now becoming more of a problem as they sign up for summer and possibly fall classes online- but presumably the college has been working to adapt in the interim. I haven’t heard of any virtual labs, but we may just be unaware. There was a rumor that they might allow a small number of kids back on campus for limited periods of time to do a concentrated period of required lab work, for example a week at a time, but this may just be rumor.

    Everyone DD knows has had plans majorly disrupted because of this- classes not currently offered/available, from labs to engineering to music, to travel, fieldwork, research and foreign study programs, which often have big impacts on the courses needed for major/minors. Everyone is trying hard to be flexible, but it’s very frustrating; lots of compromising. Lots of discussions about taking terms or a year off, but filling that time with something productive, depending on where one lives, will be a challenge as well. DD has been relatively lucky that her plans have not been completely derailed- and she has even landed a research position that can be done (at least for now) remotely. But there is tremendous uncertainty.

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    My DC has also been fortunate in the impact on labs. The term just finishing had a lab course which would have had to switch to virtual labs (there are a few websites out there with menus of virtual labs, mostly in chem and phys), but DC was in an invited section of the lab, where they were doing a small research project, and fortuitously had just completed all of their data collection when the school switched to distance learning, so the remainder of the term was spent on analysis and writing up their virtual poster presentation.

    Similarly, DC also has a research position for the summer, almost all of which can be done remotely.

    DC's study plans mostly can be accommodated in a remote learning setting, but clearly many classmates are going to be struggling--anyone in performing arts (especially ensemble), fine arts (requires studio equipment and tons of time in the studio), health services, etc.


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    Just listening to CNN and this is probably going to continue through the end of the year, into 2021. I would think digital labs are going to be developed and refined. This means that online university offerings are going to get really good.

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    In a very nonselective websearch, this site came up, with some clearly university-level virtual 3D labs in it. Cool!
    https://praxilabs.com/en/virtual-labs

    I agree, this will likely push the level of online instruction up rapidly.


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    Originally Posted by greenlotus
    Well, DD pulled me aside last night to share that she had figured out what percentage of Medusa's weight was her snakes. She had done some research on local Greek snakes, women's body mass......

    Please, I hope that this leads to a good job some day.

    Fantastic!

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    Speed cubing is essentially solving Rubik's cubes and similar types of puzzles very fast. The world record for the 3x3x3 cube is 3.47 seconds. The WR for the 2x2x2 is less than one second (0.49 seconds!).

    Competiors do get 10 seconds to pick up & examine the cube. Then they place it down & put their hands on a pressure sensor and have up to 30 seconds to mentally plan their solve strategy. The moment their hands leave the sensor, the clock starts counting until they press the sensor again. It's also desirable to use puzzles which move really easily (the original Rubik's cubes which were first sold in the 80's are too slow to achieve sub 10 second solves).

    Felix Zemdegs, a young Australian, held multiple cubing world records for a long time & kept breaking his own records - quite amazing to watch, from just a couple of metres away, a teen casually break a world record as if it's just an every day event.

    I feel a bit sheepish posting this reply because this thread has gotten into a serious discussion about whether/how Unis are able to provide pracs for students, but speedcubing might be a 'random' activity worth trying by anyone who is 8+ in age & bored (ETA: or even much younger - China apparently has 3-4 yr old speedcubers which IMHO is extraordinary).

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    So sorry- we didn’t mean to derail this thread... the reason I posted on it in the first place was the delightful wackiness of it. Just wistful nothing so fun is happening here at the moment.

    Carry on, as you are entertaining us all, and if there is more discussion of virtual lab stuff, we should begin a different thread.

    One of our teachers, an English teacher, actually, just posted a virtual speed cubing challenge to the high schoolers via their broadcast journalism news broadcast- they usually do a contest in a big math assembly for Pi day, but not this year🙁.

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    Ditto...this is not supposed to be a serious thread! Sorry. smile

    ...our very small contribution to the main topic: overheard younger DC FTing friend while working on a GoogleDoc story together...apparently their respective characters/alter egos are a cookie and a glass of milk?


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