More Math for More People
CPM Educational Program is a non-profit publisher of math textbooks for grades 6-12. As part of its mission, CPM provides a multitude of professional learning opportunities for math educators. The More Math for More People podcast is part of that outreach and mission. Published biweekly, the hosts, Joel Miller and Misty Nikula, discuss the CPM curriculum, trends in math education and share strategies to shift instructional practices to create a more inclusive and student-centered classroom. They also highlight upcoming CPM professional learning opportunities and have conversations with math educators about how they do what they do. We hope that you find the podcast informative, engaging and fun. Intro music credit: JuliusH from pixabay.com.
More Math for More People
Episode 5.2: What do you do for the last few days of school?
Testing is over? What do YOU do to fill the last few days of school? We're watching eaglets!
The natural world offers endless fascination when we take time to observe it closely. This week, Joel and Misty share their current obsession with tracking the Big Bear Valley bald eagles through a live nest cam, discovering the remarkable process of how eaglets prepare for their first flight.
Starting with reflections on National Sunscreen Day, the hosts exchange memorable sunburn stories from childhood Disney trips to first date disasters, highlighting our evolving understanding of sun protection. What was once baby oil and reflectors has thankfully given way to proper UV protection, especially important for preserving tattoo art and preventing skin cancer.
The conversation shifts to the eaglets Gizmo and Sunny, whom Joel and Misty have watched transform from helpless gray fuzzy blobs to magnificent juveniles with impressive wingspans. Contrary to what many might assume, eagles don't simply jump off the nest and instinctively know how to fly. The hosts describe watching the eaglets practice by stretching their wings, performing vigorous flapping exercises while holding onto nest materials, and, perhaps, observing other birds in flight - all preparations for that momentous first flight that could happen any day now.
This eagle-watching journey sparked fascinating discussions about avian development, personal eagle encounters across the country, and lesser-known eagle facts (did you know female bald eagles are larger than males, and that these majestic birds make surprisingly squeaky calls?). The hosts share stories of magical eagle sightings from Minnesota to Kansas, reflecting on how eagle populations have made an impressive comeback in recent decades.
Want to join the eagle-watching community? Check the link HERE to access the Big Bear Valley eagle cam and witness this remarkable natural phenomenon for yourself. And don't forget to tune in on June 10th for our National Iced Tea Day episode, where we'll explore the history and preparation of this refreshing summer beverage!
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Speaker 2:Lo and behold, it is May 27th.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:So what is the national day today?
Speaker 1:Or what day of is today? Today is, as a I I'm appreciative because we're getting into a new season, maybe thinking about this sort of thing, but it's national sunscreen day oh, national sunscreen day yes, I do partake in the screen oh yes very much, so yeah, no, I, I am, I'm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too I do tan, but it takes about two or three burns before I really tan. And this time of year. I have not actually tried to become tan in many years now, like many years. So I will inadvertently get some tanning that I can detect, but like I don't actually try to tan anymore, but when I did, this was always the time of the year I would get inadvertently sunburned.
Speaker 1:Because, you're like new to the sun.
Speaker 2:Yes, that and the sun is much more intense right now than I'm going to say, than you expect, than I expected at this time, because I do now, but because it's cooler, it's not quite like it. It doesn't feel as intense as it might in. August but given it's like less right, it's about a month before the solstice, it's as intense as in the middle of July. Yeah, that's, that's, but it doesn't feel as intense because the heat is different. Right, Because everything else around you is cooler.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I try and stay out of the sun myself. I have a variety of colors of sun hoodies, I have a straw hat that I like to wear, but just what you said reminded me of I think I get the most sunburned during the winter because one of the activities I like to do is go up in the mountains and go skiing, and I don't think about it being yeah, cause it's cold and then you're getting the extra like the direct the sun and the reflection of this, the snow, et cetera.
Speaker 2:Well, you and I also have reason to use sunscreen, since we have put a lot of finances into art on our bodies. That's true, that is pretty significantly deteriorated by UV light.
Speaker 1:Yes, I do. I was recently in New York City and somebody said, wow, when did you get that tattoo? And I said, well, it was a while ago. It's holding up really well and I thought well, because I wear sun hoodies.
Speaker 2:Yep, exactly Yep. I get the same thing with the one on my arm. Like I can tell the differences between what's on my hand that I don't Like. It gets more sun exposure than what's up on my arm.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I think one of the I don't want to say it was the worst sunburn I ever had, but one of the most surprising sunburns I ever got was over Memorial Day weekend, which has just passed, I went out into the yard and it was a beautiful day, it was probably 60 degrees and it was very nice, and I was wearing a whatever like short sleeve top or tank top or whatever and doing garden work all day and I did not have any sunscreen on. I got fried, yeah, and I learned that. Oh yeah, it is, it's not quote unquote. It's not summer yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which always cracks me up.
Speaker 2:But the sun is just as intense.
Speaker 1:Do you have a worst story?
Speaker 2:A worst story for sunburn. I have a worst story, but it's not well. It's my story, but it's not me being sunburned. The worst story about sunburn that I have is when I was probably like five and we went to disney world. We lived in georgia at the time and went to disney world and we were staying at a hotel that was on the beach wherever we were and I remember we were out in the beach the whole afternoon, whatever my dad was like going out into the waves and like diving and bringing up seashells and all kinds of things. We were having so much fun out on the beach. My mom was sitting on the sand and the next day we went to disney world. Well, my parents both got like second degree burns, at least on their shoulders, like really, really badly burned. I mean, this was back in like 1974 or something too, and there really wasn't sunscreen, even Like.
Speaker 2:The sunscreen was like bandisole, baby oil, whatever. So yeah, they had really really bad sunburns and I remember my mom telling how it was the one time in their marriage that they like purposefully slept apart.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Could not like sleep in the same bed, they could fall over each other, yeah yeah, totally when, when we were at at disney world.
Speaker 2:Of course we're walking around and we're tired and we didn't rent strollers or anything because that would cost money, but we wanted to get up on their shoulders all the time because we were tired. I remember we saw other kids on their shoulders shoulders like no way we were not getting on their shoulders.
Speaker 1:No, that's Absolutely not.
Speaker 2:Absolutely not, yeah. So yeah, it's not really my story, but it is our story. Do you have a worst sunburn story.
Speaker 1:Yes, I actually have a few, but this one, I think, is the worst. So I was on a first date with my partner, amara, and I only got to meet the B-level friends on the first date. I didn't get to go to the A-level. Well, it happened to be a pool party, so we went to this pool party. I didn't know I was going to a pool or anything, but we're sitting out, of course, and people kept walking by like, hey, dude, do you want some sunscreen?
Speaker 2:Oh no, I'm good, were you trying to impress them by using sunscreen? I was trying to be so impressive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't like sunscreen. Who needs sunscreen? Sunscreen what are you talking about? I think I spent the next week peeling sheets of stuff off my chest and it holds water. I hope the listeners right now are not throwing up on their way to work or something like that.
Speaker 2:We need a content warning for this podcast.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh, it was just. It was the that was the worst and it was so painful. And it's so weird because I remember growing up, like my parents we would. We had bronzer in the house, like products to help you absorb sun like that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean I was, when I was a young and we would lay down out on our little little bathing suits and with a little blanket and put on baby oil yeah or use those little like reflector things to reflect at your face and and special sunglasses, so you could actually like get more sun without hurting your eyes yeah, yeah, oh well, ah, they all we've, we've learned, we've learned yes, I, I do.
Speaker 1:If I see some shade, I run to it now like I yeah, it's not good to be in the sun, I think so if it's cool enough.
Speaker 2:I don't mind being in the sun, I'm definitely also. I need sunglasses and a hat person too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I've bought a lot of visors when I've been traveling. Well, it was sunnier than I thought it was going to be.
Speaker 1:And if you see something, say something sort of thing. But a friend of mine had a cancerous mole and so it's from being out in the sun. And so if you notice that for a friend or something like that, I would suggest that too. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2:All right. So it's National Sunscreen Day. You're going to put on sunscreen today.
Speaker 1:All over.
Speaker 2:That's the other thing People don't realize. You have to put a lot more sunscreen on quote unquote than you think. Yes, so you actually have to put quite a bit of sunscreen on and reapply Crying out loud reapply. Yeah, exactly, exactly, all right. Well, the sunscreen companies are going to be happy with us today.
Speaker 1:I was going to say we by no means are making any money off of our national day out today.
Speaker 2:We should have thought of that before we. We should have, we should have made some calls. We've already put it out.
Speaker 1:Indeed, anyway, have a great National Sunscreen.
Speaker 2:Day Indeed. Please wear sunscreen. Yes, please, all right, so this is one of those times where we didn't really have a guest lined up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, testing is done.
Speaker 2:It's almost the end of the school year, oh, here we go yeah, that's exactly it, it's the end of the school year and we're just going to fill it in with some interesting things. So today is Joel and Misty just talk about stuff.
Speaker 1:And we have been talking. I'm glad we're recording this because we do have interesting conversations, just if anybody's wondering.
Speaker 2:I like how you're trying to convince people. We do have interesting conversations, by the way, but we have been talking. They don't always get recorded on this podcast, but we do have interesting conversations, we do.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm just saying but yeah, we've been talking a lot about these big bear, bald eagles.
Speaker 2:Yes, indeed, in fact, we've been watching their eagle nest cam Right, that's what I say. Eagle nest cam, yeah, and they were born in like early March, right, yeah, I feel like mid-March, I think that's right. And now so they're like two months old. So I've learned a lot about baby eagles.
Speaker 1:They fledge, they fledge yeah.
Speaker 2:Right Between 10 and 14 weeks. Wow. So they grow for 10 weeks and then boom, they can fly.
Speaker 1:We're still waiting, though.
Speaker 2:We are still waiting, but it's only been like so the 13th, I think, was the first day, so it's only been like a week.
Speaker 1:All right, maybe like. So the 13th, I think, was the first day, so it's only been like a week.
Speaker 2:All right, maybe right so they're just not so. They're in that like 11 week radio, yeah, but you know, so I I I have this eagle cam open in one of my tabs and everyone's like, oh yeah, what's happening with the eagles? And I go back and I'm I know that there's going to be a time. I'm going to go over there like, oh no, so I want till now, I mean, but I'll also be sad, right because you want to see it happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. But here's an interesting thing, like this last week or so when I've been tuning in and looking. I mean one or both of them, but one of them has been doing a lot. Of their names are Gizmo and Sunny right.
Speaker 1:I think that's right. I think that's right.
Speaker 2:I think that's right too. So one of them I don't know which one has been doing a lot of standing on the edge of the nets and then stretching their wings out and doing some big floppy, flap, flaps.
Speaker 1:And they're really big wings too, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, their wings are already like I don't know three, four feet, whatever I mean they're big and they're kind of like flapping. Oh, there's a little teeny chickadee, do you see it?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Oh, there's a tiny chickadee in the nest. Are they going to get him?
Speaker 1:Are you on camera one or camera two?
Speaker 2:I'm on camera one.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm on camera two. Let me switch to camera one Go back to camera two.
Speaker 2:There's a little chickadee over there, anyways, so they make these big flaps. It's been interesting to see the one that's been doing it a lot, because I think it's the same one. Oh, there it is. Yeah, they stand around on the nest. I'm going to say he, I don't know. I don't know if it's Gizmo or Sunny.
Speaker 1:We don't know their sexes either. We don't know genders or anything. Yeah, they're just guessing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they're flapping, but they're holding on to one of the big sticks and flapping like they're almost like strengthened, like if I could pick up this stick then I can fly, you know it's. It's been interesting to see. I always thought so. This is where this is interesting in my. I had never examined this thought before. Okay, but I think if you'd ask me like, hey, when a bird starts to fly, what happens? I'd be like, oh well, it just like walks over the edge of the nest and it just goes it flies off Right, right.
Speaker 2:Well, clearly, that's not what's happening.
Speaker 1:No, it's not happening that way, stretching, and they're practicing and they have to be watching their parents, like they're watching this chickadee right now, like flying and jumping, and they're like what, the what, the heck, I, how, how did you do that? Yeah?
Speaker 2:I know, yeah, they're learning by watching a little bit of I do.
Speaker 1:Oh, he's looking at the camera right now.
Speaker 2:He just flew away. I can't believe how he did that. Yeah, so it's. It's been really interesting watching them practice over time doing this before they're going to get ready, Cause I thought that was the most amazing thing to me to think about.
Speaker 1:Like just one day, you just decide, I can fly that is way up there. They're like two stories in the air I wonder how they learn because, like we talk about, even in in a learning situation, like it's okay to fail or it's okay to like try again, this seems pretty substantial that if you were to just jump off the edge of the nest that wouldn't feel that good and you couldn't get back up.
Speaker 2:I think that's why they need to do some like mini bits right. Some like practice in where it is safer to fail, like just, I'm going to just like hop, fly from one side of the nest to the other.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I wonder if they hover, like just like hover, over the nest. They have to flap pretty hard to do that.
Speaker 2:I don't know they might. But everything worked because he was like he was flapping, he was flapping and then like, jumping a little bit and like flippity-flap-flap-flap, flippity-flap-flap-flap, flippity-flap-flap-flap, just like that. I like when you said the other day, but it was just a little itty bitty fish, it wasn't maybe that's how they, the parents, get them out.
Speaker 1:They're just like oh yeah, you'll get hungry enough, you'll go fly. Come check us out over here. Tired, I'm tired of you fishes. It just jumped up to 41 000 people are watching currently while we're play by playing this thing play by playing the eagles. We will not stop broadcasting until these Eagles fly. No, I think, I don't think that would be a good idea.
Speaker 2:Also, it wouldn't be very useful because by the time people see it here, it would be like five days later they're like what? Oh, I could go look right now.
Speaker 1:Oh, they left five days ago, dang.
Speaker 2:Oh, anyway, anyway, yeah, no, it's been really interesting watching the eagles get bigger, like from little. I think I have only been watching them for like a couple months. Well, no, like, no, it hasn't been that long, clearly, maybe a month or so, yeah, but they were like little gray, fuzzy blobs.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, they couldn't move Barely out of the egg.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they are crazy Little blob. They could look like worms, kind of like couldn't do anything.
Speaker 1:Now look at them. Try and stand and fall over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a big deal when they could start standing. I remember too, there were a couple of days of springtime, but like the snow would come back in and they'd have to hunker down and stay warm. Yeah well, they're up in the elevation up there. They're down. What up above LA?
Speaker 1:in the elevation up there, they're down what up above LA in the hills up there Near San Bernardino.
Speaker 2:Yeah, indeed, shout out. Yeah, oh man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so watching these eagles has been pretty cool.
Speaker 2:It is pretty cool Someday. Someday they're going to fly. I'm pretty sure of it.
Speaker 1:Somebody's can't wait to see who fledges first.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh, I think that's. The big thing is like who's going to do it first? We don't know which one's which.
Speaker 1:but I know Sunny or Gizmo, one of the two. Yeah, I know it's going to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what else are we going to talk about?
Speaker 1:Well, that was our main thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, talking about the Eagles.
Speaker 1:So San Bernardino is a district that has adopted the CPM curriculum. And I was there recently and they told me that there on Fridays they would let their students watch a little bit of the video. I'm sure the students are watching anyway on their own, but it's easily accessible for anybody. It's not hidden content or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no, we'll put a link in the podcast.
Speaker 1:But it was cool because I was at the school that their mascot was the Eagles, so they had some pride around what's happening in this area. Kind of cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Eagles is a pretty common mascot.
Speaker 1:Yeah For Washkey also the Eagles, mm-hmm kind of cool. Yeah, eagles is a pretty common mascot yeah, fort Washakie, also the Eagles. Salt Lake too, we have some Eagle areas.
Speaker 2:I think we could probably find just about any. Any school district, not any school district If there were four or five schools in it. I bet one of them was Eagles.
Speaker 1:I did see an Eagle in Minnesota one time too, an actual bald Eagle, bald eagle. Yeah, they were actually two bald eagles were. I thought they were fighting for a nest. Maybe they were mating, maybe they were doing something but I was just mentioning that I've seen eagles everywhere thank you, you've seen eagles? Have you seen?
Speaker 2:I mean, you've seen eagles other than that, haven't you?
Speaker 1:yeah, oh uh. Magical time for me was when I first moved out west here. I had taken a trip to Jackson Hole and I remember I was in charge of the driving, so I was driving right next to the Snake River and everybody else was sleeping.
Speaker 2:So I was just In your car.
Speaker 2:It was very personal to me that an eagle just soared right next to me for about a good mile or so we just had a little moment, yeah, like up the river yeah, nice, yeah, it was awesome I feel like when I was a kid and we're, you know, we're a similar age when I was a kid I feel like seeing a bald eagle is just oh my gosh. It was so amazing to see bald eagles up toward Alaska and Canada and stuff come down in winter there and in the Skagit River, because there's lots of fish and the salmon come up and eat all the fish and there'll be like hundreds of eagles, like people will do like raft trips down the river and stuff, just to bald eagle watch and you'll just.
Speaker 2:they're just, they're just. Quote, unquote, everywhere so just just amazing to me. Yeah, so like it became really commonplace to see them.
Speaker 1:I've seen some even here in portland I still feel like it's special when I see one like I don't ever feel like it's commonplace. One time I was driving from utah to Utah to Minneapolis and. I was with Wendell, my dog, and we were camping along the way and we made a stop at Pony Lake, which is in Kansas, and I remember it was a recommendation from the DNR. Is that the right acronym for the Department of Natural Resources?
Speaker 2:Yes, it is, yes, it would be.
Speaker 1:And so he suggested I just go up the road a little bit. And I pulled up and it was just me on Pony Lake, and Pony Lake was named after it was on the Northern Railroad. So there was a cave there where they used to hide ponies to help the slaves go from the south to the north. No-transcript. I was like, okay, I'm done.
Speaker 2:Good thing Wendell was next to you oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:I had a witness, number one but two. It was just like I better pinch myself go to bed. I don't know, this seems too perfect a little bit.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh. No, that's pretty, that's magical, magical, that's pretty amazing. Yeah, yeah, no, I think they're still pretty impressive to see. They're just, they're so big. Their white heads are clearly so like majestic seeming at the same time. Yeah, they're definitely. They're definitely pretty cool birds what if?
Speaker 1:was it benjamin franklin? He said he wanted the wild turkey to be our national turkeys are pretty cool too all right well, they're what they're way.
Speaker 2:They're way cooler than domestic turkeys domestic fair.
Speaker 1:I agree with that, you know, I would concur, are they've.
Speaker 2:We have not bred brains into them right so wild turkeys are actually pretty darn cool. Have you seen it? I mean mean, you've seen wild turkeys?
Speaker 1:I have. Yeah, there's some around here that are not in Portland but outside of Portland. I was in. South Dakota home of our director, and I was close to her house, actually, and I had to stop the car because these wild turkeys were just running across the road.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's super cool, crazy, super cool. Yeah, yeah, I think that it is, and there's a couple of funny things about bald eagles that I was just thinking of. So you've heard the noise they make, right? Their sound Like there's just these big, huge majestic birds and they make this little squeaky noise.
Speaker 1:I can't mimic it very well. That's pretty good. It just sounds like a squeaky gate.
Speaker 2:This is a little squeaky sound. The female bald eagles are bigger than the male bald eagles.
Speaker 1:Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, there's a lot to learn about eagles. There is a lot to learn about eagles, for me anyway.
Speaker 2:There's probably a lot more to anybody you don't know, what you don't know oh yeah, well, we can gauge, we can guess at the scope of it, that's true that's about it.
Speaker 1:We can try and make sense of the world. And how do you do that with mathematics?
Speaker 2:no, I'm we're talking about eagles well, you can okay with mathematics too, but it's just a part of it. It's a part of it.
Speaker 1:It's important, it's true, that is true, and that's why we're all here more math for more people, exactly all right. Well, that's our, that's our. We're all here Exactly More math for more people, exactly, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, that's our filling in the day with our stories about eagles and watching.
Speaker 1:They still haven't flown away. I'm going to keep watching. I hope one of us gets to see the.
Speaker 2:I hope so too.
Speaker 1:I bet there'll be a recording as well. There probably will be.
Speaker 2:Well, the camera holds the last 24 hours or 12 hours.
Speaker 1:I think it'll be spectacular.
Speaker 2:And I don't think they'll fly away at night, mm-hmm. So it's just whether or not we can get it at the time. Yeah, all right. Well, the link will be in the description. If you want to go watch the Big Bear Valley bald eagle, you can.
Speaker 1:Enjoy.
Speaker 2:So that is all we have time for on this episode of the More Math for More People podcast. If you are interested in connecting with us on social media, find our links in the podcast description, and the music for the podcast was created by Julius H. It can be found on pixabaycom. So thank you very much, julius. Join us in two weeks for the next episode of More Math for More People. What day will that be, joel?
Speaker 1:It'll be June 10th, national Iced Tea Day, so it'll be fun to hear about how maybe we make our iced tea, the history of iced tea, ice in general. Really, I know tea goes way back. I like to brew my iced tea or I do like a little iced tea with lemonade, otherwise known as the Arnold Palmer. So on National Iced Tea Day we'll hear some great recipe ideas, some history behind the day, and look forward to seeing you then on Nationalized Tea Day. Thank you.