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Lush forests and crisp mountain air have drawn people to New Yorks Adirondack Mountains for centuries. In the late 1800s, these forests were a haven for tuberculosis patients seeking the cool, fresh air. Today, the region is still a sanctuary where families vacation and hikers roam pristine trails. However, hidden health dangers have been accumulating in these mountains since industrialization began. Tiny metal particulates released into the air from factories, power plants and vehicles across the Midwest and Canada can travel thousands of miles on the wind and fall with rain. Among them are microscopic pollutants such as lead and cadmium, known for their toxic effects on human health and wildlife. For decades, factories released this pollution without controls. By the 1960s and 1970s, their pollution was causing acid rain that killed trees in forests across the eastern U.S., while airborne metals were accumulating in even the most remote lakes in the Adirondacks. In the early 1900s, sanatoriums such as the New York State Hospital at Ray Brook, near Saranac Lake, were built to house tuberculosis patients. The crisp mountain air was believed to help their recovery. [Photo: Detroit Publishing Company Photograph Collection/Library of Congress] As paleolimnologists, we study the history of the environment using sediment cores from lake bottoms, where layers of mud, leaves, and pollen pile up over time, documenting environmental and chemical changes. In a recent study, we looked at two big questions: Have lakes in the Northeast U.S. recovered from the era of industrial metal pollution, and did the Clean Air Act, written to help stop the pollution, work? Digging up time capsules On multiple summer trips between 2021 and 2024, we hiked into the Adirondacks backcountry with 60-pound inflatable boats, a GPS and piles of long, heavy metal tubes in tow. We focused on four pondsRat, Challis, Black and Little Hope. In each, we dropped cylindrical tubes that plunge into the darkness of the lake bottom. The tubes suction up the mud in a way that preserves the accumulated layers like a history book. Back in the lab, we sliced these cores millimeter by millimeter, extracting metals such as lead, zinc and arsenic to analyze the concentrations over time. An illustration of the authors shows how lake sediment cores capture the history of the region going back thousands of years. [Image: Sky Hooler] The changes in the levels of metals we found in different layers of the cores paint a dramatic picture of the pristine nature of these lakes before European settlers arrived in the area, and what happened as factories began going up across the country. A century plagued by contamination Starting in the early 1900s, coal burning in power plants and factories, smelting and the growing use of leaded gasoline began releasing pollutants that blew into the region. We found that manganese, arsenic, iron, zinc, lead, cadmium, nickel, chromium, copper, and cobalt began to appear in greater concentrations in the lakes and rose rapidly. At the same time, acid rain, formed from sulfur and nitrogen oxides from coal and gasoline, acted like chemical shovels, freeing more metals naturally held in the bedrock and forest soils. Acid rain damaged trees in several states over the decades, leaving ghostly patches in forests. [Photo: Will & Deni McIntyre/Getty Images] The result was a cascade of metal pollution that washed down the slopes with the rain, winding through creeks and seeping into lakes. All of this is captured in the lake sediment cores. As extensive logging and massive fires stripped away vegetation and topsoil, the exposed landscapes created express lanes for metals to wash downhill. When acidification met these disturbed lands, the result was extraordinary: Metal levels didnt just increase, they skyrocketed. In some cases, we found that lead levels in the sediment reached 328 parts per million, 109 times higher than natural preindustrial levels. That lead would have first been in the air, where people were exposed, and then in the wildlife and fish that people consume. These particles are so small that they can enter a persons lungs and bloodstream, infiltrate food webs, and accumulate in ecosystems. A wind map shows how pollution moves from the Midwest, reaching the Adirondacks. The colors show the average wind speed, in meters per second, and arrows show the wind direction about 3,000 meters above ground from 1948 to 2023. Average calculated using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data. [Image: Sky Hooler] Then, suddenly, the increase stopped. A public outcry over acid rain, which was stripping needles from trees and poisoning fish, led to major environmental legislation, including the initiation of the Clean Air Act in 1963. The law and subsequent amendments in the following decades began reducing sulfur dioxide emissions and other toxic pollutants. To comply, industries installed scrubbers to remove pollutants at the smokestack rather than releasing them into the air. Catalytic converters reduced vehicle exhaust, and lead was removed from gasoline. The air grew cleaner, the rain became less acidic, and our sediment cores show that the lakes began to heal through natural biogeochemical processes, although slowly. By 1996, atmospheric lead levels measured at Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks had declined by 90%. National levels were down 94%. But in the lakes, lead had decreased only by about half. Only in the past five years, since about 2020, have we seen metal concentrations within the lakes fall to less than 10% of their levels at the height of pollution in the region. Our study is the first documented case of a full recovery in Northeast U.S. lakes that reflects the recovery seen in the atmosphere. Its a powerful success story and proof that environmental policy works. Looking forward But the Adirondacks arent entirely in the clear. Legacy pollution lingers in the soils, ready to be remobilized by future disturbances from land development or logging. And there are new concerns. We are now tracking the rise of microplastics and the growing pressures of climate change on lake ecosystems. Recovery is not a finish line; its an ongoing process. The Clean Air Act and water monitoring are still important for keeping the regions air and water clean. Though our findings come from just a few lakes, the implications extend across the entire Northeast U.S. Many studies from past decades documented declining metal deposition in lakes, and research has confirmed continued reductions in metal pollutants in both soils and rivers. In the layers of lake mud, we see not only a record of damage but also a testament to natures resilience, a reminder that with good legislation and timely intervention, recovery is possible. Sky Hooler is a PhD student in environmental science at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Aubrey Hillman is an associate professor of environmental sciences at the University at Albany, State University of New York. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Generative AI platforms have sent shock waves through the K-12 education sector since the public release of ChatGPT nearly three years ago. The technology is taking hold under the belief that students and teachers need to be proficient in these powerful tools, even though many concerns remain around equity, privacy, bias, and degradation of critical thinking among students. As a professor who teaches future educators and is part of an AI-focused working group, I have observed the potential for artificial intelligence to transform teaching and learning practices in K-12 schools. The trends I am seeingand that I encourageare for K-12 educators to use AI to shift from memorization and rote learning to instead emphasize critical thinking and creativity. Jumping in the deep end After the public release of ChatGPT in late 2022, some large school districts initially banned the use of AI due to concerns about cheating. Surveys also reflected worries about chatbots fabricating information, such as references for school papers, in addition to concerns about misinformation and biases existing in AI responses to prompts. Students, on the other hand, tended to jump into the deep end of the AI pool. Common Sense Media, which offers recommendations on childrens media consumption, published a report in 2024 showing that students were using AI-supported search and chatbots for homework and to stave off boredom as well as other personal reasons, including creating content as a joke, planning activities, and seeking health advice. Most of the teachers and parents of the students in the study were unaware that students were using the technology. In my work at Drexel University teaching graduate students who are aspiring school principals or superintendents, I found that in 2023, K-12 students were afraid of using AI due to the policies implemented in their districts banning it. However, it quickly became apparent that students were able to mask their use of AI by instructing AI to insert some mistakes into their assignments. Meanwhile, despite teachers initial concerns about AI, approximately 60% of K-12 teachers now admit to using AI to plan lessons, communicate with parents, and assist with grading. Concerns over students cheating still exist, but time-strapped teachers are finding that using AI can save them time while improving their teaching. A recent Walton Foundation and Gallup study revealed that teachers who used AI tools weekly saved an average of 5.9 hours per week, which they reallocated to providing students more nuanced feedback, creating individualized lessons, writing emails, and getting home to their families in a more reasonable time. Opening up new ways of teaching I recommend that my graduate students use AI because I think ignoring emerging trends in education is not wise. I believe the benefits outweigh the negatives if students are taught ethical use of the technology and guardrails are put in place, such as requiring that AI be cited as a source if students use it in coursework. Advocates say AI is changing teaching for the better, since it forces teachers to identify additional ways for students to demonstrate their understanding of content. Some strategies for students who rely too heavily on AI include oral presentations, project-based learning, and building portfolios of a students best work. One practice could involve students showing evidence of something they created, implemented, or developed to address a challenge. Evidence could include constructing a small bridge to demonstrate how forces act on structures, pictures, or a video of students using a water sampling device to check for pollution, or students designing and planting a community garden. AI might produce the steps needed to construct the project, but students would actually have to do the work. Teachers can also use AI to create lessons tailored to students interests, quickly translate text to multiple languages, and recognize speech for students with hearing difficulties. AI can be used as a tutor to individualize instruction, provide immediate feedback and identify gaps in students learning. When I was a school superintendent, I always asked applicants for teaching positions how they connected their classroom lessons to the real world. Most of them struggled to come up with concrete examples. On the other hand, I have found AI is helpful in this regard, providing answers to students perennial question of why they need to learn what is being taught. Thought partner Teachers in K-12 schools are using AI to help students develop their empathetic skills. One example is prompting an AI to redesign the first-day experience for a relocated student entering a new middle school. AI created the action steps and the essential questions necessary for refining students initial solutions. In my own classroom, Ive used AI to boost my graduate students critical thinking skills. I had my students imagine that they were college presidents facing the loss of essential federal funding unless they implemented policies limiting public criticism of federal agencies on campus. This proposed restriction, framed as a requirement to maintain institutional neutrality, requires students to develop a plan of action based on their knowledge of systems and design thinking. After each team developed their solution, I used AI to create questions and counterpoints to their proposed solution. In this way, AI becomes a critical thought partner to probe intended and unintended outcomes, gaps in students thinking, and potential solutions that might have been overlooked. AI researcher Ethan Mollick encourages educators to use AI as a springboard, similar to jazz msicians improvising, as a way to unleash new possibilities. Mollick advises people to partner with AI as co-intelligence, be the human in the loop, treat AI as a coworker, albeit one that needs to be prodded for evidence, and to learn to use it well. I concur. Changing perspectives on AI Some early studies on the effects of using AI in education have raised concerns that the convenience of generative AI will degrade students learning and erode their critical thinking skills. I think that further studies are needed, but I have found in my own work and in the work of my graduate students that AI can enhance human-produced work. For example, AI-powered teaching assistants, like Khanmigo or Beghetto Bots, use AI to help students solve problems and come up with innovative solutions without giving away the answers. My experiences with other educators on the front lines show me that they are beginning to change their perspectives toward students using AI, particularly as teachers realize the benefit of AI in their own work. For example, one of my graduate students said his district is employing a committee of educators, students and outside experts to explore how AI can be used ethically and in a way that wont erode students critical thinking skills. Educators are starting to realize that AI isnt going away anytime soonand that its better to teach their students how to use it, rather than leave them to their own devices. Michael G. Kozak is an associate clinical professor of educational administration and leadership at Drexel University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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People become leaders by first becoming effective managers. They create cohesion and consensus among their team. They maintain an atmosphere of predictability so everybody knows what to expect and focus on executing a plan with excellence. Thats how you consistently deliver value to customers, partners, and other stakeholders. Yet when you are pursuing change, none of those things will help you. When something is new, untried, and untested, you cant expect an immediate consensus to form around it. You cant expect predictability either, but need to embrace uncertainty. Instead of focusing on execution, you need to explore and find new answers through some trial and error. Thats one of the things that makes transformation so hard for so many leaders. You need to mode shift away from whats made you successful up to this point and do things differently. That requires you not only to change actions, but to adopt new mindsetsfrom persuasion to empowerment, differentiating values to shared values, and from a heros journey to strategic conflict. 1. From persuasion to empowerment Tony Soprano, the ruthless mafia boss from the iconic TV show, was a master of coercion. Yet sensing that he could benefit by exploring alternative strategies, he often sought the advice of Dr. Jennifer Melfi, who encouraged him to take a more collaborative approach. Tony thought about it for a minute and asked, Then how do I get people to do what I want? As much as we might not like to admit it, every manager faces some version of this dilemma. We want to motivate employees, to inspire them to actualize their potential and achieve great things. But at the end of the day, we have goals we need to reach, plans to get there, and we really just want the people who work for us to do what we ask them to. Yet in a transformational initiative, you need to operate in an atmosphere of uncertainty and, almost by definition, you dont really know what the final solution will look like. You have to experiment, try things out, see what works, what doesnt, and iterate your way to designing a new model. There are no hard and fast rules. So instead of trying to get people to do what you want, identify people who want what you want and empower them to succeed. Work with them to design an initial Keystone Change and, when you find one that works, arm them with resources they can co-opt so that they can empower others, who can bring in others still. 2. From differentiating values to shared values Everybody is taught in Marketing 101 that the first rule of selling is to differentiate your product with a unique value proposition to cut through the noise. After all, if you are no different than the competition, why would customers choose you? An undifferentiated product is, by definition, a commodity and commodities dont command high margins. So it makes sense that managers preparing to launch a change initiative want to focus on what differentiates the idea, because thats what makes them passionate about it. They often use adjectives like disruptive, innovative, and revolutionary to create excitement. Yet what might seem exciting to some, might feel threatening to others. The problem is that large-scale transformation in an organization usually involves collective action, which makes getting traction very different than marketing a product like, say, a car or a bag of chips. Consumers can choose among competing products, but organizational change requires collective buy-inand resistance is inevitable. Differentiating values invite backlash. Thats why you want to create a sense of safety around the change by focusing on shared values. For example, when people come back to the office after Agile training, they often tout the Agile Manifesto and are surprised to find that they dont get much traction. A much better strategy would be to focus on things everybody already believes in, such as better products, done faster and cheaper. Focusing on shared values doesnt mean watering down your visionit means framing it in a way that resonates with what people already care about. You have to meet people where they are, not try to force your passions on them. 3. From a heros journey to a strategic conflict Leaders often see change as if it were a heros journey in which there is some alternative future state. They believe that if they are good enough, do all the right things, and if their cause is righteous, they will eventually get to that place. Much like Luke Skywalker, who had to face himself before he could face Darth Vader, their struggle is largely internal. Yet just like Star Wars, thats mostly a fantasy. The true story of change is that of strategic conflict between a future vision and the status quo. There are sources of power keeping the status quo in place, and those sources of power have an institutional basis. If you are ever going to bring about genuine transformation, thats what you need to influence. Once you understand this story, you can begin to build an effective strategy. Power is embedded in institutions, and real change requires mapping out which ones reinforce the status quo, which align with your vision, and which could go either way. Those institutional targets will determine how you develop tactics. One of the most powerful moments in our Transformation and Change Workshops is when we identify these sources of power and map them on a power matrix. Thats when the leaders we work with can begin to see a path forward and shift from seeing change as an abstract goal to a concrete, strategic processone where power dynamics can be mapped and influenced. Adopting a changemaker mindset Leaders are trained to operate with a manager mindset because consensus and predictability are essential to execute complex operations. Everyone needs to know their role to carry out their responsibilities and be able to trust that everyone else will do the same. Thats how you deliver for customers, partners, employees, and other stakeholders. When you need to change course, however, you need to discard the manager mindset and embrace a changemaker mindset, and that means that the usual best practices wont work. Change isnt predictable, but uncertain. You cant expect a consensus, so you need to identify a coalition thats willing to believe in the change vision and explore possibilities. What makes that so difficult is that adopting a changemaker mindset requires leaders to abandon what made them successful in the first place. Persuading people that you have the right vision is unlikely to succeed, so you need to identify people who are already enthusiastic about it. Instead of emphasizing how the change is different, you need to focus on values that are already widely shared. Whats perhaps most challengingand humbling for leaders to understand is that transformation is not a journey in which they get to play the hero, but a strategic conflict with the status quo in their own organization, which is supported by sources of power that have had yearsand sometimes decadesto take hold. Effective leaders need to master both the manager mindset and the changemaker mindset and learn to effectively switch off between the two. Just because you need to pursue change doesnt mean you can just ignore everyday operations. On the other hand, if you try to pursue change with a manager mindset, you are almost guaranteed to fail.
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