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If my students feel a strong sense of agency, then I have taken actions to give them opportunities to reflect on their abilities and make choices that help them guide their thinking.

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If my students have a strong sense of agency, then they will be able to explain how they problem solved a difficulty they encountered while reading a text.

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3 Surface and Deep Structure Systems of Reading (notecatcher).docx

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Emma Cott, Elliot deBruyn and Jonathan CorumApril 28, 2021

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How Pfizer Makes Its Covid-19 Vaccine (Published 2021)

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Behind the scenes from starter cells to a finished vaccine.

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Snakes slither, sidewind and have even been known to launch themselves from one tree to another. Now scientists have discovered another, rather startling form of serpentine movement: brown tree snakes on the island of Guam were observed tying their bodies into the shape of a lasso-and hitching themselves up smooth metal poles.

This "lasso locomotion" is a slow, strenuous process. But researchers say it probably allows snakes to climb wider, smoother trees than they would otherwise be able to scale and to snag prey that might otherwise be out of reach.

Snakes typically climb trees either by tensing their belly muscles to grip tiny projections of bark and then slithering straight up or by a hold-and-release movement called "concertina locomotion." The latter resembles how a human might climb a rope: The snake grips two spots on a tree with S-shaped bends in its body. It pulls itself up between the two bends, then shifts its hold to ascend higher. The thickness of the tree a snake can climb is limited by the size of the reptile's body because it needs enough length to grip the tree in two places.

Lasso locomotion is very different, and it works with wider diameters. The snake forms a single loop around a pole (or probably a tree trunk), securing itself by hooking or knotting its tail around its body. It squeezes tight, makes small bends in its body and uses them to creep its way upward, rising like a slow and sinuous elevator. "This lasso locomotion is just from outer space, compared to all of the other variations" in snake movement, says Bruce Jayne, a biologist at the University of Cincinnati and co-author of a new paper reporting this climbing behavior, which was published on Monday in Current Biology.

Brown tree snakes are a well-studied species, in part because they have devastated local bird populations on Guam after being unintentionally introduced there about 70 years ago. Micronesian starlings ( Aplonis opaca) are a favorite meal of brown tree snakes. Julie Savidge of Colorado State University and her colleagues were recently on the island to test barriers, called baffles, for protecting the birds' nesting boxes. In a recent experiment boxes were set atop narrow poles, which the researchers shielded with wide, slick metal cylinders. But the snakes shocked the scientists by looping themselves into lassos and defeating the barriers. "I've been studying the locomotion of snakes on and off for more than 40 years," Jayne says, "and I was just absolutely stunned."

"It's an extraordinary behavioral adaptation," says David Cundall, a functional morphologist at Lehigh University, who was not involved in the research. It is unclear whether other snake species would be able to pull off the same maneuver, he says. They would most likely have to be long, graceful tree-climbers like the brown tree snakes.

Because the snakes need only one body loop to grip the cylinder in lasso locomotion, as opposed to two for concertina locomotion, they can use the technique to scale cylinders twice as wide. (On Guam, the reptiles themselves are typically three to four feet long, though they can reach up to 10 feet.) Brown tree snakes' tropical range is populated by many smooth-barked trees, Savidge says, so the snakes may have developed this ability to reach bird nests that are otherwise out of reach. Brown tree snakes outside of Guam have not been observed lassoing their way up trees yet. But, Jayne says, it is likely they can.

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Brown Tree Snakes Twist Themselves into ‘Lassos’ to Climb

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Snakes slither, sidewind and have even been known to launch themselves from one tree to another. Now scientists have discovered another, rather startling form of serpentine movement: brown tree snakes on the island of Guam were observed tying their bodies into the shape of a lasso-and hitching themselves up smooth metal poles.

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Graffiti of Juventus President Andrea Agnelli one of the driving forces behind the the new European ... [+]
AFP via Getty Images

On Sunday April 18 th Europe's richest soccer clubs announced their intention to form a new Super League. While they planned to stay in the national leagues, the cartel-like league would draw away lucrative broadcasting money.

The beautiful game was in for some serious off-pitch drama. Fans took to the streets. Former and current players revolted. Managers were deadly opposed. And even politicians weighed in. Within 48 hours the league was history.

Countless commentators with far superior knowledge of the game have taken us through the hours of reckoning. In this article I want to focus on the lessons to be learned for strategists more general. The fiasco highlights that the old world of closed-door deliberations of a selected few and little more than PR-type considerations for other stakeholders is likely to end in tears. Executives who don't realize this are stuck in 20 th century thinking not fit for our times.
Lesson #1: The old shareholder value module has run its course
It has been almost two years since the Business Round Table, an association of America's leading companies, redefined the purpose of a corporation. The laser sharp focus on shareholder value was replaced by a broader consideration for all stakeholders.

As Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan and Chairman of Business Roundtable put it: "Major employers are investing in their workers and communities because they know it is the only way to be successful over the long term. These modernized principles reflect the business community's unwavering commitment to continue to push for an economy that serves all Americans."

Apparently not all of JP Morgan's clients got the memo. At least not those running Europe's richest clubs. From their perspective the Super League seemed like a great opportunity for guaranteed income. No risk of failing to qualify for games that come with lucrative broadcasting deals. What's not to like?

For other stakeholders, however, the initiative violated the very fundamentals of the game. "This is a decision of greed to line the pockets of those at the top and it has been made with no consideration for the loyal supporters, our history, our future and the future of football in this country," the Chelsea Supporters' Trust announced in a statement.

The clubs' players agreed. "Dreams can't be bought," Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes wrote. So did the excluded clubs, FIFA, UEFA, politicians including French President Manuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Even Prince William weighed in.

The lesson is clear here: ignore your stakeholders and you will suffer! For owners of Arsenal and the other Premier clubs the repercussions go beyond missing out on the spoils the Super League promised. The UK's government has brought forward the proposal of a fan-based review that is likely to curb their powers.
Lesson #2: Be careful which ideas you pick from elsewhere
Where should you look for new business ideas? One of the most fruitful avenues is a peek into adjacent fields. For starters, fresh ideas are more likely to come from outside your own industry. But even more importantly 'neighboring' industries are more likely to provide ideas that work in your competitive setting as well.

With that in mind, the founders of Super League seemed to be on to something. "The plan for the European Super League was, in fact, made in America." James Montague wrote in a New York Times OpEd. Liverpool's John Henry, Arsenal's Stan Kroenke, and Manchester United's Glazer family wanted to copy an N.F.L.-style cartel that avoids the risk of relegation. The problem: They picked the wrong lesson.

The threat of relegation has a long historic tradition in Europe. It keeps everyone on the edge of their seat. Substantial revenue sharing across teams-another aspect of American sports leagues-would have been a more welcome idea. It ensures a more even playing field and thereby increases the pool of potential winners. That increases the excitement. Without removing the threat of relegation, of course, it is less appealing an idea for owners.

When picking up an idea from elsewhere it is crucial to understand cause-and-effect relationships. European soccer fans show up because the game is so unpredictable. The Super League tried to take this away.
Lesson #3: Secrecy is overrated
"By discovering the enemy's dispositions and remaining invisible ourselves we can keep our forces concentrated, while the enemy's must be divided." Sun Tzu writes in the ancient Chinese manual The Art of War.

The architects of the European Super League-like many executives-took this lesson to heart. For months they drew up the plans in great secrecy. As the rumors intensified Aleksander Ceferin, the president of UEFA called his close friend Andrea Agnelli, the president of the Italian league champion Juventus. According to the New York Times he was assured that there was nothing to worry about and the two men started to work on a joint statement. This happened just hours before the Super League was announced.

Ceferin was not the only one kept in the dark. Not even the coaches of the Super League teams were in the loop. "We were not involved in any processes, not the players, not me. We didn't know about it," Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp said.

Executives who think that keeping a strategy secret as long as possible will enable them to surprise everyone are right. But a surprise in this context has drawbacks as it makes execution more challenging. That is a big drawback considering that Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, and Charles Burck explain in a best-selling book that "strategies most often fail because they aren't well executed." And people who are not consulted during the development of a new strategy often don't take kindly to it-particularly when it amounts to radical changes. In other words they will resist new strategic initiatives.

For the Super League it is therefore hardly a surprise that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola's response was swift and brutal: "It is not fair when one team fight, fight, fight, arrive at the top and cannot qualify because success is already guaranteed just for a few teams. It is not sport if you can't lose."

If the main stumbling block for new strategies is execution, executives need to be more open while they develop fresh ideas.
A new era in strategy
The strategy pursued by the owners of Europe's richest clubs was deeply rooted in the old way of thinking. A statement by Liverpool's owner John Henry suggests that they realized this: "It's something I won't forget. And shows the power the fans have today and will rightly continue to have."

Whether this was a PR exercise or a true understanding of how successful strategists operate today is less clear. Many organizations have used more open and transparent approaches in the marketing and product development domain. And some of them have realized that this is also needed in the strategy domain.

A "fan-based review" may not be what the owners want, but in the long run it is likely to secure football's world domination. Surely, the owners will sign up to this.

... Read More

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3 Strategy Lessons From The European Super League Fiasco

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On Sunday April 18 th Europe's richest soccer clubs announced their intention to form a new Super League. While they planned to stay in the national leagues, the cartel-like league would draw away lucrative broadcasting money. The beautiful game was in for some serious off-pitch drama. Fans took to the streets.