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Could the Game of Chess Help Create Smarter STEM Students?
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | March 18, 2022 | John Mac Ghlionn

Posted on 03/18/2022 7:45:25 AM PDT by karpov

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To: karpov
Chess is associated with STEM only by people not in STEM, on the outside trying to look in. I'm not saying I haven't played chess, I have. As have many of my fellow programmers. It's just not our main thing.

In my experience as a software engineer with a computer science degree, most older programmers (say 50 or older) can often be identified with how they use their analytical skills in productive ways in their personal lives (i.e. studying God and the Bible, investing based on metrics, researching tax strategies and estate planning, etc.).

Most younger programmers or soon-to-be programmers can be found in video games. To hear them talk, they gravitate towards the video games that require a combination of strategy and quick thinking. Even if it's an action game it requires changes in tactics (to hear them talk about it LOL) "to beat the Koreans". LOL

21 posted on 03/18/2022 9:03:54 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: karpov

Better Stem use: Play Blackjack, Bridge, Chess, and reading books on a regular basis, today being a Kindle user/reader.

A good goal for Blackjack players, is to not be allowed to play in casinos, because you can account for a full deck most of the time when playing with 3 or more people and the dealer. That is called card counting and is not allowed in most casinos.

With Bridge, numbers/points are used in bidding. You don’t get to see your partners hand until you win a bid. When playing a hand not bid by you or your partner, your goal is setting the bidder.

If your opponents win the bid, you need to keep track of your opponents’s dummy’s 13 cards layed down, face up, besides yours and your partners unseen hand. The difficulty is you can’t see their hands before/during and after bidding. If your opponents win the bid, you still can’t see your partner’s cards nor the winning bidders hand.

If you win the bid, you get to see your partner’s hand, so do your opponents. So, you can only guess and plot your strategy based on your hand and your partner’s hand after he lays it down, when you win the bid.

You never get to see your opponents’ cards until they are played one card at a time to the end of the game following a winning bid for your side. The opponents get to see your partner’s hand after he/she lays it down if you win the bid or your hand if your partner wins the bid.

Add daily crossword puzzles for the non math exercises.


22 posted on 03/18/2022 9:19:16 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Encourage and fund our liberals & Antifa to move to Canada. Conservative Canadians can move here!)
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To: Wilderness Conservative

lol


23 posted on 03/18/2022 9:19:21 AM PDT by BEJ
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To: karpov
laying chess from an early age is strongly associated with greater cognitive flexibility, enhanced coping and problem-solving skills, and even socio-emotional enrichment.

Such as Bobby Fisher?

24 posted on 03/18/2022 9:26:20 AM PDT by The Truth Will Make You Free
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To: karpov

From the exhibit at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, learning to play a musical instrument might be more helpful. From brainscans, almost all aspects of the brain are lit up when playing an instrument.


25 posted on 03/18/2022 1:08:58 PM PDT by bravo whiskey (Annie Savoy : The world is made for people who aren't cursed with self awareness. )
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To: karpov

I bet none of the STEM programs at Chinese Universties teach social justice math.


26 posted on 03/18/2022 7:00:15 PM PDT by Maine Mariner
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To: Tell It Right
I agree. Non technical people have somehow made the association with technical degrees in science and engineering with chess.

Also the article uses university enrollment numbers as a measure of success. He needs to be asking why China sends students to US programs if their in country universities are better.

27 posted on 03/18/2022 7:10:52 PM PDT by HonkyTonkMan ( )
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To: karpov

Texas Hold’em.


28 posted on 03/18/2022 7:12:57 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: HonkyTonkMan
Every time I hear that the Chinese are smarter than Americans I try to point out what everybody always knows but don't think about:

1) China has literally 4 to 5 times as many brains as we have, and
2) China still can't invent their own intellectual property -- they have to steal 1/4 to 1/2 trillion $'s of our IP every year.

29 posted on 03/18/2022 9:31:04 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: karpov

It’s funny—my college freshman son (majoring in Computer Science) has ADHD and struggled in high school in most classes that he wasn’t interested in (he only liked coding and engineering) but is really good at chess and plays it all the time and now writes chess programs. He’s good at programming, chess, and self-taught excellent ragtime piano. Even when he was a little boy he really could master what I call “pattern recognition” but it’s something much deeper than that—he “sees” things others can’t see. . .but also literally doesn’t know the months of the year in order. The classic chess obsessed”absent minded” professor type.


30 posted on 03/19/2022 8:20:27 AM PDT by olivia3boys
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