Readable, teachable news.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
The former director of Canada’s largest school board is being investigated for cheating on an important document he wrote during his university days, according to The Globe and Mail newspaper.
Chris Spence quit his job as head of the Toronto District School Board in January 2013 after some people accused him of having “plagiarized.” Plagiarism is when you write down someone’s else’s words as though they were your own.
Just 20 minutes of walking a day can help people improve their mental health.
That’s according to researcher George Mammen, at the University of Toronto (U of T).
He recently co-authored a study of more than 26 years’ worth of research reports.
He says the reports show that someone who is physically active is less likely to become depressed later in their life.
Most scientists agree that regular exercise is important for people’s physical health. It can help prevent diseases like stroke, heart disease and cancer.
And previous studies have shown that exercise can help to treat depression.
Many young Canadians play hockey. They dream of one day playing in the NHL on a professional team.
Last week, that dream came true for University of Toronto goalie Brett Willows.
One minute he was about to eat dinner with his friends at a restaurant called Noodle Bowl on Spadina Ave. in Toronto. The next, he was suited up as a Toronto Maple Leaf goalie, waiting to go in and play in a professional game.
Willows never got to play in the game, but for a little while, he was a Leaf.
When the Leafs’ goalie, James Reimer, got injured, they put in their other goalie, Jonathan Bernier.
But Bernier would need a backup, and that backup was Brett Willows.
So they called him. Willows ditched the Montreal Canadiens cap he was wearing, threw a $20 bill on the table to pay for the few bites of soup he’d eaten, and ran to gather his goalie gear.
Then he raced to the Air Canada Centre.
Ninety-nine percent of children living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) don’t get enough exercise, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Toronto and Dalhousie University tracked the physical activity of 856 grade five and six students in the GTA for one week.
The students wore accelerometers – tiny devices that are similar to pedometers, but which measure all types of motion – for about 16 and a half hours a day.
The information recorded by the devices showed that, on average, boys got about 35 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. Girls got about 24 minutes of activity per day.
Experts* recommend that children aged five to 17 should get 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity each day.
Want to be a great doctor or scientist? Make sure you play video games.
New research shows that certain video games can help people “find things” better and faster.
For instance, if a doctor is looking for something on an x-ray, or if a scientist is looking at a satellite image—they may be able to do it better if they’ve “trained” by playing video games.
Certain video games, like driving games, can improve a person’s “visual search skills.” That’s the ability to see something that’s hidden in the middle of a confusing field of things. Like finding “Waldo.”
Researchers at the University of Toronto studied three groups of people: 20 people who played a shooting game called Medal of Honor, 20 people who played the driving game Need for Speed, and 20 people who played a puzzle game called Ballance.
