Way over in a seldom-updated corner of the internet, you can find the Trampoline History Blog, written by a woman named Dagmar Munn, whose father George Nissen developed the modern trampoline.

George didn’t invent the first ever trampoline, but he popularized trampolines for sports and recreation from the 1950s through the 1980s, and came up with new designs and ways to use them. The stories Dagmar tells on her blog are a fascinating history of something I knew very little about. Many of the stories are told through the words of her husband Ron Munn, who worked with her father in the trampoline business.

The blog is a bit of a rabbit hole, with every click revealing something new and interesting.

Here are some things you’ll find at the Trampoline History Blog:

The Great Pyramid

One of the most incredible stories on the blog tells how George and Ron tried to get a trampoline up to the top of one of the Great Pyramids in Egypt.

At some point in its history, the very top of the Great Pyramid of Khufu was taken off, supposedly by Napoleon if Ridley Scott is to be believed. Whatever happened, it left the top of the pyramid with a surface flat enough to set a trampoline on.

In 1977, since Ron and George were going to be in Egypt for a trampoline event anyway, they wondered if they could get one up to the top of the pyramid. They planned to climb to the top and arranged for a helicopter to lower the trampoline to them. But at the last minute, the pilot felt the weather wasn’t cooperative enough and bailed out.

So instead, they carried a mini-trampoline to the top of the pyramid, where 63 year old George Nissen did flips on the mini-trampoline.

That’s pretty amazing. But that wasn’t the dream. The dream was a full-size trampoline. So over several months they plotted how they could get a trampoline up to the top. Finally, a return trip to Egypt presented an opportunity.

Inspired by how the pyramid had been built one stone at a time, they came up with a way to bring a full size trampoline to the top of the pyramid in pieces, and assemble it there.

The plan worked.

Ron later wrote, “this attempt was certainly the first somersault ever turned on a trampoline atop the Great Pyramid of Khufu!”

You can read the whole story, written by Ron and with all its twists and turns and many great photos, in a five-part series on Dagmar’s blog.

Someone should make that story into a movie.

Trampoline Centers

When I’ve taken my kids to birthday parties at trampoline centers, I’ve actually been kind of jealous because they look so fun. But there was a short time in the 1950s where “Jump Centers” sprang up all over the country. They were so popular that even gas station owners were starting to set up trampolines at their gas stations! I guess that way your kids could get some pent up energy out while you’re filling up on a road trip? They should really bring that back.

Jump Centers were pretty photogenic, so tons of photos exist, and you can find a lot of great pictures on the blog. The craze even made the cover of LIFE magazine!

Vintage Videos

The blog has an associated YouTube channel with lots of vintage videos from trampoline’s emergence in popularity. The oldest one is from 1937 and shows high diver Larry Griswold incorporating a trampoline and a trapeze into his diving routine!

It reminds me a lot of the Triple Lindy.

And this clip from 1949 shows a great 31-bounce routine from a trampoline competition:

Here’s a bit of context from the video’s description:

Prior to 1948, early trampoline competition rules allowed each bouncer a full 2-minutes, which could be used for skills, intermediary bounces, or even dismounting the trampoline to consult with his coach before remounting and completing the time period.

By the time the 1949 NCAA Trampoline Championships were held, the rules changes to limited competitors to a 31-bounce routine.

Edsel “Ed” Buchanan, hailing from Amarillo, Texas, was the first to connect all this skills together in what was called SWINGTIME. Representing the University of Michigan men’s gymnastics team, Ed won the NCAA title on trampoline in 1949, 1950 and 1951.

Company Newsletters

Dagmar has a second blog where she’s archived a history of the Nissen Company’s internal newsletters, the Nissen News, from 1957 to 1980. It’s a quaint bit of ephemera preserved for the world to see, and it makes Nissen look like a fun place to work.

Which reminds me: Congratulations to George in accounting’s son Danny, who won first place in the “Big Wheel” division at the Merchant’s National Bank bike races in 1977 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Dagmar Herself

Dagmar, who runs the blog and its spin-off blogs, was a jumper herself. She and others in her family used to perform as a trampoline act called The Nissens. Today, she writes about how she lives with ALS on the website ALS News Today.

And amazingly, she still jumps! In fact, she uses a trampoline as part of her ALS therapy. She recently posted this on Facebook:

Keep bouncing, Dagmar!

You know, one thing I don’t really talk about here often is my archive. I think of my writing as being primarily for my regular readers and secondarily for someone who discovers Ironic Sans for the first time and goes down a rabbit hole to see what else I’ve written about. So I try to write mostly evergreen content that could be enjoyed any time.

I’m thinking of that today because trampolines have made me think of this website’s “bounce rate” – the percentage of people who come to just one page and then leave. I don’t know what the bounce rate is, but it’s probably pretty high. Or low? Whichever one is worse.

Of course, if you get my newsletter in your Inbox, or follow the RSS feed, bounce rate doesn’t apply since you don’t visit the site to begin with (although you really should browse the archive if you never have). But if you’re new around here and visiting the website, maybe you want to look around. You’re sure to find something you like.

And that’s it for another newsletter! Thanks as always for reading. See you next time!

David

One thing that often surprises my friends and family is how tech-avoidant I am. I don't have the latest gadget, I talk about dumb TVs, and Siri isn't activated on my iPhone. The only thing left is to go to the kitchen, take a sheet of tin foil, and mold it into a hat.

To put it simply, I avoid tech when I can.

The main reason for my skepticism is that I don't like tracking technology. I can't stop it, I can't avoid it entirely, but I will try as much as I can.

Take electric cars, for example. I get excited to see new models rolling out. But over-the-air updates freak me out. Why? Because I'm not the one in control of them.

Modern cars now receive software updates wirelessly, similar to smartphones. These over-the-air updates can modify everything from infotainment systems to critical driving functions like powertrain systems, brakes, and advanced driver assistance systems. While this technology offers convenience, it also introduces security concerns, hackers could potentially gain remote access to vehicle systems. The possibility for a hostile take over went from 0 to 1.

I buy things from Amazon. It's extremely convenient. But I don't feel comfortable having a microphone constantly listening. They may say that they don't listen to conversations, but you can't respond to a command without listening. It does use some trigger words to activate, but they still occasionally accidentally activate and start recording.

Amazon acknowledges that it employs thousands of people worldwide to listen to Alexa voice recordings and transcribe them to improve the AI's capabilities. In 2023, the FTC fined Amazon $31 million for violating children's privacy laws by keeping kids' Alexa voice recordings indefinitely and undermining parents' deletion requests.

The same thing with Siri. Apple likes to brag about their privacy features, but they still paid $95 million in a Siri eavesdropping settlement.

Vizio TVs take screenshots from 11 million smart TVs and sell viewing data to third parties without users' knowledge or consent. The data is bundled with personal information including sex, age, income, marital status, household size, education level, and home value, then sold to advertisers. The FTC fined Vizio $2.2 million in 2017, but by then the damage was done.

This technology isn't limited to Vizio. Most smart TV manufacturers use similar tracking. ACR can analyze exactly what's on your screen regardless of source, meaning your TV knows when you're playing video games, watching Blu-rays, or even casting home movies from your phone.

In 2023, Tesla faced a class action lawsuit after reports revealed that employees shared private photos and videos from customer vehicle cameras between 2019 and 2022. The content included private footage from inside customers' garages. One video that circulated among employees showed a Tesla hitting a child on a bike.

Tesla's privacy notice states that "camera recordings remain anonymous and are not linked to you or your vehicle," yet employees clearly had access to identify and share specific footage.

Amazon links every Alexa interaction to your account and uses the data to profile you for targeted advertising. While Vizio was ordered to delete the data it collected, the court couldn't force third parties who purchased the data to delete it. Once your data is out there, you've lost control of it forever.

For me, a technological device that I own should belong to me, and me only. But for some reason, as soon as we add the internet to any device, it stops belonging to us.

The promise of smart technology is convenience and innovation. The reality is surveillance and monetization. Our viewing habits, conversations, and driving patterns are products being sold without our meaningful consent. I love tech, and I love solving problems. But as long as I don't have control of the devices I use, I'll remain a tech skeptic. One who works from the inside, hoping to build better solutions.

The industry needs people who question these practices, who push back against normalized surveillance, and who remember that technology should serve users, not exploit them. Until then, I'll keep my TV dumb, my Siri disabled, and be the annoying family member who won't join your facebook group.

I'm worried that they put co-pilot in Excel because Excel is the beast that drives our entire economy and do you know who has tamed that beast?

Brenda.

Who is Brenda?

She is a mid-level employee in every finance department, in every business across this stupid nation and the Excel goddess herself descended from the heavens, kissed Brenda on her forehead and the sweat from Brenda's brow is what allows us to do capitalism. [...]

She's gonna birth that formula for a financial report and then she's gonna send that financial report to a higher up and he's gonna need to make a change to the report and normally he would have sent it back to Brenda but he's like oh I have AI and AI is probably like smarter than Brenda and then the AI is gonna fuck it up real bad and he won't be able to recognize it because he doesn't understand Excel because AI hallucinates.

You know who's not hallucinating?

Brenda.

— @belligerentbarbies, on TikTok

Tags: generative-ai, ai, excel, hallucinations, llms, tiktok

How do students know if they know what they should know?

This question was posed to me by an implementation coach that visited my classroom a few years ago and it has stuck with me. Her question came as we were discussing the day’s warm-up. The problems were essentially a quick check for understanding of the previous day’s lesson. This process helps me, and my students know if they know what they should know. I have always believed that this warm-up process is helpful for my students, but that day it struck me why, it helps them assess their knowledge. The end of the lesson is another time that I help students assess their knowledge. I talked about this in my article The Power of Consolidating a Lesson.

During lessons, I circulate my classroom and see students having rich discussions as they solve problems and know that they have achieved the goal of the lesson. The problem is that from the student’s perspective they just solved problems and found answers. They are unsure that they know the information that is important to the lesson. That is why it is important to make sure students know that they know what they should know by consolidating their knowledge at the end of the lesson.

Students also need a chance to evaluate their knowledge at the end of each unit as well. By the end of the unit, students have worked on many types of problems, and it is time for them to take the test, but how do they know if they are ready for the test? In the book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Peter Liljedahl writes about interviewing students about the subtopics in a unit before a test. Lilijedahl states that about 15% of the students could describe the subtopics of the unit and that these students generally scored 90% or higher on the assessment. Another 15% of students were able to list some subtopics, but they struggled to distinguish between them or provide detailed explanations. These students usually scored between 75% to 90% on the assessment. The rest of students couldn’t name subtopics and generally scored below a 75% on the test. This scenario bears evidence to the fact that if students don’t know if they know what they should know, they won’t score very well on the assessment.

So how do we help our students prepare to show their knowledge? Last year, I decided to research this topic. I wanted a method for students to consolidate their knowledge of topics in a unit and decided to try having students create mind maps on whiteboards. I chose mind maps because students can do a brain dump in an organized way. By dumping ideas on the whiteboards, teams can discuss and organize their thoughts. Students can define the subtopics and see the similarities and differences between the topics, which deepens their understanding and helps them retain the information. I often hear students talking about whether they know the information their team mates are writing on the whiteboard. As Liljedahl observed, students will perform better on assessments when they can describe the subtopics of a unit.

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I introduced mind maps to my students using this video. I have fairly large whiteboards around my room that two teams usually share. I decided to have students work in teams of four instead of three so they would not have to share a whiteboard and have more room to make their mind map. I also let students use more than one marker and different colors since a mind map is meant to be colorful. At first, I let students use their notes to help them, but then I noticed that they were just copying their notes onto the whiteboards. This led to the decision that students can only use the textbook as a guide until the last 10 minutes of class when they can use their notes to check if they missed any information.

At first, students complained about not being able to use their notes, but then they realized that they did remember the information and that by not looking at their notes they could better evaluate what they knew. As the year went on, the students became better at making mind maps. They started writing examples of problems for different topics. When students asked me if they were finished, I would ask them, “would it help you to include…?” or tell them to look around the room to see what other groups had including on their mind maps.

Having students make mind maps on the whiteboard works well because they can easily erase and start over. They can also look at each other’s board for ideas. The problem with whiteboards is non-permanence. To make the mind map more useful for the students, I take pictures of each mind map and print a copy for each student. Students are allowed refer to their mind map during the assessment. I find this helps motivate students to make great mind maps. The day after completing their mind maps, students review for the test, updating them with any missing information.

Students have told me that creating a mind map helps them reflect on what they know and don’t know, allowing them to focus on the types of problems they need more practice with during test review. The article 3 Ways Concepts Maps Help You Learn talks about a study where 7th grade students who made a concept map while reading a passage were much better at predicting their grade on an assessment compared to students who were given a concept map or just read the passage twice. The students didn’t score higher, they just had a better understanding of what they knew. Meaning, giving students a chance to practice during the review day is important. After making mind maps students should know which topics they should focus on in order to prepare for the assessment.

I asked my students about making mind maps and most students think that making mind maps helps them prepare for the assessment.

Lately, I noticed that students were starting to list topics instead of thinking about how topics are related to each other, so I decided that we would create the first set of subtopics together as a class.

Giving subtopics forced students to have better conversations about how to make the mind map and where topics and examples should be placed. I believe these discussions helped students make connections between the topics which increased their knowledge.

Having the subtopics also gave my Algebra 1 students a place to start, helping them see the big ideas. Here is an example from the unit on linear relationships. The class, with my nudging, chose the subtopics; graphs, tables, situations, and other, allowing students to focus on explaining how to find the slope, y-intercept, and equation for each representation.

This mind map was made by my Algebra 2 students on Sequences. As a class, they decided the subtopics should be Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences.

Last year, I had students make mind maps before the final exam. Students had more information to organize so they ended up creating their own example problems, checking answers, and explaining to each other how to solve the problems.

Finally, I’ll leave you with some tips for having students create mind maps.

• The first mind maps will be rough and may not include all of the information, but students will get better at making them.

• Don’t micro manage, students need to be the ones to make the mind maps.

• Teams that waste time and don’t finish will learn from having an incomplete mind map on test day.

• Assign different teams for each mind mapping session.

• Talk about how understanding subtopics will help your students on the assessment.

• Don’t forget to take pictures!

• It is easy to add pictures from your phone to a google doc.

Note: This research was part of my work with the CPM Teacher Research Community. CPM Educational Program funds CPM teachers to work together on research topics that will help make classrooms a better place to learn.

AI companies know that children are the future - of their business model. The industry doesn't hide their attempts to hook the youth on their products through well-timed promotional offers, discounts, and referral programs. "Here to help you through finals," OpenAI said during a giveaway of ChatGPT Plus to college students. Students get free yearlong access to Google's and Perplexity's pricey AI products. Perplexity even pays referrers $20 for each US student that it gets to download its AI browser Comet.

Popularity of AI tools among teens is astronomical. Once the product makes its way through the education system, it's the teachers and s …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Unmesh Joshi finds LLMs to be a useful tool, but explains why their help becomes illusory if we use them to shortcut the learning loop that's an essential part of our professional practice.

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