The History of the Holocaust Essay -- World History

Adolf Hitler said â€Å"I believe that I am acting in the accordance with the will of the all Mighty Creator, by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the lord.† This is how he rationalized his malicious acts against the Jewish people in Germany. A horrendous act that would later become known as the Holocaust. The first act toward the holocaust was on January 30th, 1933, when Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Paul Von Hindenberg, the current president of Germany, did his best to keep Hitler out of office, but in the end it wasn’t enough. At that time the Jewish population in Germany was approximately 566,000 people. From that point on things only went down hill for the Jews in Germany. Just a few months after Hitler became chancellor and a mere week after he became the dictator he passed a law ordering a boycott on all Jewish banks, shops, offices, and department stores that would take effect on April 1st, 1933. Then on September 15th, 1935 Hitler passed a series of laws that came to be known as the Nuremberg Laws. The first of these laws was put in place to protect the honor and blood line of the German people. It stated that no Jew would be allowed to marry or participate in marital intercourse with anyone that was not of the same race. The second law robbed the Jewish people of their citizenship. Kristallnacht, also known as the Night of Broken Glass, was a series of attacks on the Jewish people by the Nazi soldiers on the nights of November 9th and 10th, 1938. Nazi soldiers attacked Jewish homes and destroyed their businesses, not to mention the more that 200 synagogues that were burned to the ground. Nearly 100 Jewish people were murdered and approximately 200,000 were sent to concentrat... ...nihilate all the Jews in Germany. Instead Hitler ultimately left us with a lesson to be learned from his narrow minded vision. That lesson is simply this "We are all different; because of that, each of us has something different and special to offer and each and every one of us can make a difference by not being indifferent" Henry Friedman Chairman. Works Cited ïÆ' ¼ N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar 2015. . ïÆ' ¼ N.p., n.d. Web. march 15 2015. . ïÆ' ¼ N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar 2015. . ïÆ' ¼ Hill, Jeff. the holocaust. Print ïÆ' ¼ N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar 2015. . ïÆ' ¼ N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar 2015. . ïÆ' ¼ N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar 2015. .

Essay --

Motivation can be described as a psychological process that causes the excitement, direction and persistence of intended actions that are goal directed (Mitchell, 1982). In other words motivation is the force within an individual that begins, directs and keeps goal oriented behaviours. Morgan (1961) describes the following words as synonyms of motivation and these include wants, strivings, desires, needs, motives, goals, aspiration, drive and aims. Motivation is the wish that helps an individual to do certain things based on the desires and needs. If an individual wants to meet these goals and needs, in that case it requires the person to motivate him or herself in order to make certain moves. Morgan (1961) illustrates that motivation is a behaviour instigated by needs within the individual and directed toward goals that can satisfy the needs. Motivation is the determined power which will assist the employee to work up to their efficient level. It is commonly expected that good motivated employees will work better than that of other employees. As indicated by Ber- elson and Steiner (1991) motivation is the procedure of motivating the workforce to actions in order to achieve the organisation goals. Work motivation is a combination of external and internal power that begins the behaviour connected to work and create its direction, form, duration and intensity (Pinder, 1998). External forces can be identified as the nature of work to be performed and the reward system of the organisation. The internal forces can be described as the motives and needs of the individual on the behaviours linked to work. According to Moorhead and Griffin (1998) to motivate employees with the intention of performing to the greatest of their ability and t... ...t. Looking at the day to day responsibilities of a manager, motivating their employees is the most important and difficult function (Handy, 1944). Content theories seek to describe and categorise the needs that influence behaviours. Perry (2006) explains that content theories are the most influential theories as they analyse the behaviours of individuals. Motivation is the force that helps a person to do certain things based on the desires and needs. Investigating the definition of motivation, content theories such as Maslow hierarchy of needs and Herzberg dual factor theory are the most powerful theories that describe motivation works as motivation is controlled by the desires and needs of the people. Maslow (1943) hierarchal theory of needs suggests that humans strive to reach the highest levels of their capabilities with the aim of satisfying their desires. â€Æ'

Music Teacher

Reflective Essay #5 I value everything about music. I believe that it promotes many good things, including creativity and cooperation, and it encourages and helps build friendship. I believe that there is one thing that it does that is most important, however. It helps to build confidence. Confidence is a huge factor in a person’s life, and it usually starts as a child. It helps them to make friends, and to feel good about themselves. Involvement in music helps to start building self-confidence in children gradually and not forcefully.Most of the time, children don’t even know that it’s happening; I didn’t realize it until I started college. Performing in front of an audience gives a person courage that they didn’t even know that they possessed, and they can then go on to use this courage and confidence in other situations in their lives, thus creating a better life for them. Music education is the best teacher of this self-confidence, and I believe that most children wouldn’t have the same confidence if they didn’t have a music class every week.This is a very strong point that I would make as a school board member. I believe that self-confidence is a huge component of life, and that it should be taught or encouraged starting at a young age. Music definitely teaches this, along with other great things such as creativity, cooperation, and friendship, which is why children should have a music class at least once a week, starting in kindergarten. These values would influence my teaching in a couple ways.It would help me to prepare students for concerts, starting to build their confidence before they perform for an audience. I would also prepare them so that they wouldn’t have to add the worry of forgetting their music to the fear of performing. I also get performance anxiety, so I understand how much preparation really helps aid a performance. Self-confidence is a huge part of life, and it is partially taught through music performance.

How and why are American Families changing Essay

Family polishes individuals like in an institution, but the American family is gradually losing the status of an alma mater. The main setback suffered is devaluation and deficient functioning. Devaluation is evident from a decline in its perusal by new generation and deficient functioning due to economic burdens, ethical vacuum and reluctance in offering unsung sacrifices to raise a family. (Benokraitis) Three factors can be ruled out as the primary functionaries in shaping up the current family setup. Firstly, the lack of religious involvement leads to a decline in performance of moral duties. Raising a family is not fun but a responsibility laden task. Without moral pressures, few young minds will take pains to shoulder the burden of acting responsibly. Secondly, devaluation of family as an inspirational medium is also leading the minds to lose interest in it. Economic pressures, social injustices in the first place destabilized families which then gradually lost their own grounds. (Benokraitis) Thirdly a vast, open spouse market does not let many to settle seriously, carry the burdens of family life. Mostly youngsters are falling prey to this. Many with their bad experiences leave the idea of settling ever even before practicing it. (Benokraitis) Thus, we see that even these three factors are intimately interconnected. To revitalize the family institution individuals with their moral, religious, educational, social faults have to be analyzed and corrected. Our parents enjoyed much better coherent family setups. Technologically and educationally they were far behind. However, psychological, emotional development of them was superior to us.

Early Childhood Literacy Proposal Essay

Abstract Research on early childhood literacy pinpoints the early childhood years as the foundational base period for developing the language and literacy skills that are fundamental to a young child’s long term developmental success in reading and writing. This study places theoretical attention on the essential components of literacy that promote and predict the essential emergent literacy development of a child. This efficacious aspect of learning acquisition is critically pertinent for the school readiness of a child in being well read. Findings support and highlight how the acquiring of skills in components of literacy such as phonological awareness, vocabulary and language knowledge, alphabet and sound recognition, print and text comprehension as well as the use of sound instructional practices and strategies among teachers will promote the optimal level of success in early literacy and beyond. Introduction Early childhood literacy is an emphatic, essential, and extensive branch of education that seeks to equip young children with the optimal skills that will cause them to emerge in reading and writing. These foundational skills are critical and predictive of one’s diagnosis of success within these parameters. Research notes that depending on where they start, their experiences in the home, and the curriculum being used in their classroom, many children will leave preschool with early literacy skills that put them on a trajectory to transition successfully to learning to read (Lonigan, Allan, & Lerner, 2011). To signify, the essence of these skills is manifested early in one’s life and is the predecessor of one’s future achievement in literacy. The developmental stage for the actual acquiring of these precursor skills begins in infancy and extends to the primary years. However, it is important to note that for the purpose of this study, early literacy skills will be based on those skills that occur at the preschool ages of 3-4. Then too, within this digest, it is important to note that effective preschool programs are the panels of early education that promote, support, and contribute to the child’s future reading and writing readiness. These factors characterize the role of early childhood programs in promoting children’s early literacy development for later achievement in reading. The acquisition of children’s reading skills was once thought to originate with the start of reading instruction in elementary school, but research now supports the idea that learning to read is a continuous developmental process that emerges early in life (Wilson & Longman, 2009). For this purpose, a study has been proposed to increase the focus on the early years of education as the precursor for later success in literacy and to discover those early literacy skills that foster success in literacy and inform of the assessments and strategies that are the best practices for providing this evidence. The following research question and hypotheses were made declarative or stated as a guide for this proposal: Research question: Does the acquisition of early literacy skills foster future success in literacy? Hypotheses: The acquisition of early literacy skills fosters future success in literacy. Subsequent Hypotheses: 1) Literacy rich environments or settings contribute to a child’s future success in reading. 2) Effective teaching strategies support a child’s development of literacy. These modes and mechanisms form the basis for providing children with an effective curriculum, strategies, techniques, and activities that will empower their knowledge and give them a sound foundation of emergent literacy. The very term emergent literacy is a relatively new one that evolved in response to evidence that literacy development occurs along a continuum that begins long before children actually start formal schooling and long before they acquire conventional literacy skills such as decoding, oral reading, reading comprehension, spelling and writing (Invernizzi, Landrum, Teichman, & Townsend, 2010). To note, the learning phase of literacy for children begins at birth and extends to the preschool phase and beyond. Infants begin to grasp books and take them to caregivers of parents to read. Around the age of two, children begin to recognize favorite books by cover and can memorize and restate some of the words. Between the ages of three and four, children are able to picture read and retell stories as well as manipulate letters and print. At the ages of five and six, children then begin to understand that words have meaning. The emergent skills and abilities that are strong predictors of future progression and succession in later reading and writing outcomes include the following: 1) Phonological Sensitivity- Children begin to hear and understand various sounds and patterns of spoken language. More specifically, these skills begin with listening to sounds and then noticing and discriminating rhyme and alliteration. Afterwards children begin to determine syllables in words by examining onset and rime. Phonological awareness skills generally graduate to advanced phonemic awareness skills and later lay the foundation for the gaining of phonics. They are further progressed and promoted as children sing songs; hear stories, and finger plays or rhymes (Heroman & Jones, 2010). Research has found phonological awareness skills in preschool to be one of the most robust predictors of early reading success in a child’s first few years of formal schooling† (Callaghan & Madelaine, 2012). 2) Print Knowledge- Children’s ability to organize and convey meaning of words through sounds, words, or sentences. The conventions of print that are modeled by teachers and learned by children and that eventually help to bring awareness to the functions of print include providing print rich environments, interacting during story times, watching adults write and read books. 3) Alphabet Knowledge-Children begin to recognize letters and their sounds to printed letters. A child’s knowledge of the alphabet is the single best predictor of first-year reading success (Elliot & Olliff, 2008). Children who are exposed to alphabetic activities and experiences such as reading books that display the alphabet, manipulating magnetic or textured alphabets, playing games that reference the alphabet, as well as singing and saying the alphabet have increased letter knowledge that will eventually promote reading and writing achievement. It was found that knowledge of letter names prior to kindergarten was predictive of reading ability in fifth and tenth grade (Wilson & Lonigan, 2008). 4) Comprehension-Children make meaning of text by being able to process stories they have heard read aloud. They are also provided with language rich activities, directions, and instructions as a way to understand and communicate knowledge. Teachers can promote listening and story comprehension skills by doing the following: * Talk with children frequently throughout the day * Use language that is easy for children to understand * Help children understand language by rephrasing it when necessary * Play listening games * Help children learn to follow and give directions * Read aloud to small groups of children * Prepare children for a reading by taking a â€Å"picture walk† * Show children the pictures as you read. * When reading to children, encourage them to ask questions, make predictions, talk about the story, and connect new ideas with what they already know * Facilitate story retellings (Heroman & Jones, 2010). Review of Related Literature A review of the research literature reveals how early childhood literacy and learning governs the academic research among young children. The use of early literacy assessments as evidence of directly measuring student’s knowledge is examined as the way to understand children’s development in literacy and ascertaining what counts as student learning. The early literacy instruction take the form of isolated activities and skills that could be easily documented, measured, quantified or qualified as the condition for evaluating the prerequisite skills for eventual success in formal reading and writing. Children are assessed on how many alphabets they know; how many sight words they can recognize; how they distinguish individual sounds or phonemes in spoken language; how they make connections between letters and sounds; and how they use language to tell stories and share information as the way to individualize or compare a student’s performance (Casbergue, 2010). Children who are at risk for later reading problems have weaker emergent literacy skills than children not at risk for later reading problems. Several studies examining the predictive validity between emergent literacy skills and later reading skills have found that emergent literacy skills are good indicators of whether a child will have trouble with reading in the early elementary grades. Therefore, it is helpful for teachers to be able to measure accurately those emergent skills to determine who is most at risk for later reading problems and implement  interventions geared toward improving emergent literacy skills with at risk children (Wilson & Lonigan, 2009). Research suggests several programs or assessments that will help teachers in identifying, guiding, and implementing those skills that will cause students to gain early responsiveness in literacy. The article, â€Å"Increased Implementation of Emergent Literacy Screening in Pre-Kindergarten focuses on the findings that emphasize how prekindergarten programs are prevalent for ensuring academic success in literacy. The findings suggest that children who attend a good Pre-K program will more than likely not have reading difficulties in later years. The use of emergent literacy assessments by teachers helps in discussing the specific information about literacy development that will assist the teacher in making informed decisions for meeting instructional goals and objectives. These assessments help the teachers to learn what the student knows or what they need to learn while also addressing the teacher’s instructional methods and modes. It was found that these assessments help in identifying a student’s strengths and targets their weaknesses for advanced instructional literacy needs. PALS-PreK which focuses on the alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, print concepts, and writing skills of students is the tool that measures the progress of students and helps teachers to assess the knowledge and mastery level of the students. This assessment was used to assess the emergent literacy skills of more than 21,000 students prior to Kindergarten as the way to target their performance. It is an easy to use system that is administered to children individually by the classroom teacher and does not rely on an allotted time for completing the assessment (Invernizzi, Landrum, Teichman, & Townsend, 2010). The Creative Curriculum is an ongoing assessment tool that assesses children using specific objective indicators and predictors of standards that pertain to school readiness and the success of children within the field of literacy. This tool requires that teachers write observations or records of children during naturalistic situations in the classroom or during group time as the most accurate way for measuring the literate success of the child. Children will be required to demonstrate phonological awareness, knowledge of the alphabet and sounds, knowledge of print and emerging writing skills as well as respond to books and other text and will be assessed and placed within a color coded mastery level and will  be assessed throughout the school year (Heroman & Jones, 2010). The article Assessment of Preschool Early Literacy Skills: Linking Children’s Educational Needs with Empirically Supported Instructional Activities, Longman, Allan, & Lerner describe preschool as the critical predictive phase of learning wherein children’s early literacy skills are detected, developed, and directed towards them becoming skilled readers and writers. Longman et al provide a research study that supports the crucial role of teachers in providing children with a strong literacy enriched foundational base wherein there is a rich curriculum that includes the necessary activities that will promote their proficiency in literacy. Substantial evidence points to children’s acquired skills in alphabet knowledge, print, phonology, and oral language attributes to the outgrowth and successful achievement levels in their evolving literacy skills. This article further discussed three methods for determining and evaluating the skills of preschool children. Primary forms of assessment which included informal assessments, screening/progress monitoring, and diagnostic assessments were further investigated as it related to the measurement of children’s developmental goals and gains in correlation to the effectiveness of the teacher’s guided instructions and activities. One valid and reliable assessment that is of particular focus is that of diagnostics assessments. Diagnostic assessments are reliable and valid in that they will identify a child’s strengths within a specific set of skills or discipline and expose mastery of it. Then too, these assessments will measure exactly what they are intended to measure. Longman et al contend, â€Å"The key advantage of diagnostic assessments include in depth examination of specific skill areas, generally high reliability, established validity of the measure, and the ability to compare a specific child’s performance with a known reference group† ( Lonigan, Allan, & Lerner, 2011). The authors provide accurate evidence of children’s progress wherein the tests within the above mentioned literacy areas provided high levels of internal consistency and test retest ability wherein the tests were error free and provided accurate scores. The tests also yielded multiple items within the measure that would further index the child’s developmental level within literacy. A further quasi-experimental research was conducted as to how teachers enhance the early literacy skills of preschool children. The research was conducted during the span of two years and across 20 Head start sites. 750 teachers were selected to participate as 370 classrooms conducted pre and posttest assessments. Student performances were examined in comparison of being taught by teachers with either 1 or 2 years of training and instructional experience. It was found that teachers who were more educated were more effective to the student’s overall achievement of early literacy skills (Landry, Swank, Smith, Assel, & Gunnwig). Even further within the research literature on early childhood literacy is the importance of preschool early intervention in literacy. Researchers have examined phonological awareness skills as being robust skills for later conventional literacy skills. The National Center for Family Literacy (NELP) conducted a meta-analysis of more than 299 studies on children between the ages of birth and five years and recognized phonological awareness as one of the most important determinants of early reading success (Callaghan & Madelaine, 2012). Then too, researchers detail the importance of phonological skills being initially taught in preschool due to the phonological sensitivity of children during this age period. It is estimated that preschool children who have a sound foundation of phonological skills will achieve reading skills during later years. Longitudinal studies have traced the performance early literacy skills of preschoolers and subsequent later grades and determined positive literacy outcomes. Research also places a significant amount of focus on the instructions and strategies that will influence the literacy development of preschoolers. Researchers suggested that preschoolers benefited more from shorter periods of intensive literacy instruction during small group settings within a play based curriculum as opposed to longer periods of instruction. The following chart lists the actual activities or skills that teachers use to promote literacy within the classroom. It lists the frequency of the skills as a way to inform the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the strategies. Language and Literacy Activities in Center-Based Early Childhood Settings (N = 180) | Variable| % Reporting Often or Always| % Reporting Sometimes| % Reporting Seldom or Never| M| SD| Language and Literacy Promotion Scale (23-items)| -| -| -| 4. 17| 0. 64| 1. Read aloud to children in a group setting. | 78. 3| 16. 7| 5. 0| 4. 24| 0. 90| 2. Read aloud to children individually. | 50. 0| 30. 6| 19. 4| 3. 44| 1. 07| 3. Set aside special time each day to read to children. | 75. 0| 19. 4| 5. 6| 4. 13| 0. 97| 4. Read aloud a variety of books. | 85. 6| 9. 4| 5. 0| 4. 34| 0. 87| 5. Reread favorite books. | 82. 8| 12. 8| 4. 4| 4. 28| 0. 90| 6. Talk about books read together. | 68. 9| 20. 6| 10. 6| 3. 95| 1. 11| 7. Ask children questions about the books. | 74. 4| 17. 8| 7. 8| 4. 10| 1. 06| 8. Provide opportunities for children to look at books and other printed materials on own. | 82. 2| 13. 3| 4. 4| 4. 31| 0. 90| 9. Teach children features of a book. | 58. 3| 21. 1| 20. 6| 3. 65| 1. 25| 10. Teach children that printed letters and words run from left to right and from top to bottom. | 63. 3| 19. 4| 17. 2| 3. 74| 1. 21| 11. Practice saying alphabet with the children. | 93. 3| 5. 0| 1. 7| 4. 60| 0. 68| 12. Teach children to recognize letters of alphabet. | 90. 0| 7. 8| 2. 2| 4. 54| 0. 80| 13. Teach children to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters. | 69. 4| 20. 6| 10. 0| 3. 98| 1. 19| 14. Help children learn the sounds each letter can represent. | 78. 9| 12. 2| 8. 9| 4. 23| 1. 09| 15. Teach children to write letters of alphabet. | 71. 7| 17. 2| 11. 1| 4. 05| 1. 15| 16. Help children to write their names. | 74. 4| 16. 1| 9. 4| 4. 10| 1. 13| 17. Help children identify different colors, shapes, and sizes. | 88. 3| 8. 3| 3. 3| 4. 57| 0. 80| 18. Help children learn opposites. | 81. 1| 16. 1| 2. 8| 4. 29| 0. 89| 19. Help children recognize numbers. | 87. 2| 8. 9| 3. 9| 4. 46| 0. 83| 20. Practice counting with the children. | 88. 9| 9. 4| 1. 7| 4. 57| 0. 75| 21. Choose books to read aloud that focus on sounds, rhyming, and alliteration. | 77. 2| 16. 7| 6. 1| 4. 16| 0. 93| 22. Have children sing or say a familiar nursery rhyme or song. | 85. 6| 12. 8| 1. 7| 4. 42| 0. 78| 23. Encourage children to make up new verses of familiar songs or rhymes by changing beginning sounds or words. (Green & Peterson, 2006). | 63. 9| 20. 6| 15. 6| 3. 85| 1. 17| Methodology The writer begins by selecting the type of research which will be conducted which is an evaluation research. Two emergent literacy screening tools for preschool age children are used as measureable tools for identifying the acquisition of children’s emergent literacy skills are the Get Ready to Read Tool (GRTR) and the Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDI). The GRTR test has 20 activities that strictly measure phonological and print skills. The children are shown a page with four pictures and asked a question that responds to one of the pictures. At the end of the test the scores are tallied for a final comprehensive score. Children master IGDI test by selecting picture cards that respond to questions about Alliteration and Rhyming, Picture Naming, and Phonological awareness skills. Children are given a flashcard within one of the domains and asked a question and prompted to point to the correct answer. The scores consist of the number of correct answers that were completed within a specified amount of time. Both of these tests were administered in July and October with the consent of the parents of the preschool age children and lasted about 40 minutes (Wilson & Lonigan, 2009). Participants For this study, 21 preschools in Florida participated. The children’s ages ranged from 42 to 55 months. There was an equal distribution of boys and girls. 70% of the children were Caucasian, 19% were African American and 11% were of another ethnicity. Conclusion/Recommendation The IGDI performance test scores were worse than those of the GRTR in terms of concurrent validity and reliability due to some of the children being unable to complete the tests. It was determined that the tests were difficult for the age group and therefore were unreliable. The GRTR was more reliable in that it was geared towards the age of the children. The results of the study were clear in that this screener was better for measuring the emergent literacy skills of preschool children as the evidence for later performance in reading. Researchers, educators, and policy makers are concerned with the quality of literacy programs, the effectiveness of literacy instruction, and the achievement of students with the field of literacy. Finding from this study support how early childhood programs promote language and literacy skills for future success in reading and literacy. References Bright From the Start: Georgia’s Department of Early Care and Learning. http://decal. ga. gov/documents/attachments/content_standards_full. pdf Callaghan, G. , & Madelaine, A. (2012). Leveling the Playing Field for Kindergarten entry: Research Implications for Preschool Early Literacy Instruction. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 37, 13-23. Casbergue, R. M. (2010). Assessment and Instruction in Early Childhood Education: Early Literacy as a Microcosm of Shifting Perspectives. 13-20 Elliot, E. M. , & Oliff, C. B. (2008). Developmentally Appropriate Emergent Literacy Activities for Young Children: Adapting the Early Literacy and Learning Model. Early Childhood Education Journal, 35, 551-556. Green, S. D. , & Peterson, R. (2006). Language and Literacy Promotion in Early Childhood Setting: A Survey of Center Based Practices. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 14 (1) Heroman, C. , & Jones, C. (2010). The Creative Curriculum for Preschool: Literacy. Vol. 35, 537-567. Invernizzi, M. , Landrum, T. L. , Teichman, A. , & Townsend, M. (2010). Increased Implementation of Emergent Literacy Screening in Pre-Kindergarten. Early Childhood Education Journal, 37, 437-446. Landry, S. Swank, P. R. , Smith, K. E. , & Assel, M. A. (2006). Enhancing Early Literacy Skills for Preschool Children: Bringing a Professional Development Model to Scale. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39, 306-324. Longman, C. J. , Allan, N. P. , & Lerner, M. D. (2011). Assessment of Preschool Early Literacy Skills: Linking Children’s Educational Needs with Empirically Supported Instructional Activities. Psychology in the Schools, 48, 488-501.

Management and Society Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Management and Society - Assignment Example Undoubtedly, yes. As Croston states, â€Å"The green business revolution is changing how we live and work to strike a balance between living well today and allowing for future generations to live well tomorrow† (2). The essence of this statement is not a mere promise or a false hope, as the technologies, resources and expertise that we command today have progressed beyond traditional and often ill-informed perceptions to live up to the pledge of safeguarding the planet. Expanding on the critical role that technological advancements and ‘green’ innovations can play in transforming plastic bag usage, I am pleased to put forth the contemporary perspectives in plastic biodegradation. These advancements are not only revolutionizing and modernizing our operations at Big Bags but are also transforming the way the plastics industry can address environmental concerns posed by the factors associated with the degradability of plastic products. Research shows that while the most commonly used plastics such as polyethylene are highly durable, biodegradation of plastic waste by means of specific microbial strains has come into view as a practical and feasible solution (Sivan 422). When discussing the adverse impact of plastic bag usage on the environment and the ecosystems, the foremost stance that has emerged is that of either banning or levying taxes on plastic bags. Furthermore, these proposals are attached with recommendations of replacing plastic bags with paper bags, the latter of which are advertised on the basis of their reusability which acts as a unique selling point to attract customers. Unfortunately, paper bags do not provide a viable and environmentally friendly alternative to plastic bags, Marc Gunther at GreenBiz.com notes that the findings of several recent researches and studies have uncovered that plastic bags are more environmentally preferable than paper bags. This view stems from the fact

Business Profile on Bre Pettis Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business Profile on Bre Pettis - Coursework Example In 2007 in Vienna he was also an artist-in-residence at Museum-Quartier of the art group named Monochrome. He has also been prominently featured in a documentary film named â€Å"Print the Legend† (Welch). Bre Pettis moved to Seattle at the age of 13. Before Seattle, he lived in Ithaca, New York. He graduated later from the Bellevue High School. He studied mythology, psychology and performing arts at Evergreen State College and was graduated from there in the year 1995. After college, he worked for a brief time as a floor runner and also as a camera assistant on films that were being featured in Prague. Bre Pettis also worked as an assistant for the Creature Shop of Jin Henson in London. He later studied at the Pacific Oak College from where he graduated with a teaching certificate and started working as an art teacher in Seattle Public School from the year 1999 to 2006. Pettis married Koi Stark and they have a daughter together named Nika Stark, who was born on July 8, 2011 (Dale). Pettis started thinking about creating something when he moved to New York in the year 2007. He used to play Frisbee each weekend with 20 people belonging to the technology industry in New York. This is how he met Zach and created NYC Resistor, a famous hackerspace. Zach and Pettis shared tools and they also invested collectively in a laser cutter worth $25,000. It was then that they started talking about creating 3D-printers; they had been hearing about them but never saw any as they were only available to the design firms. They later got involved with a community whose focus was to make 3D printers; a community that had the ability to make their own copies in order to build the foundation of a world without money. It was then that they began making prototypes. Even after working for two years they did not have any 3D-printer that actually worked (Kate). In January 2009 both Zach and  Pettis locked themselves in hackerspace and in a few months created an actual 3D printer.