Learn why older classmates are more popular; how some invasive species help their ecosystems; and keyboard cleaning tips. Don't be surprised if the oldest kids in your class were also more popular by Kelsey Donk PsychNewsDaily Staff. (2021, May 5). High school popularity: study shows oldest kids in the class also the most popular. PsychNewsDaily. https://www.psychnewsdaily.com/high-school-popularity-study-shows-oldest-kids-in-the-class-also-the-most-popular/ van Aalst, D. A. E., & van Tubergen, F. (2021). More popular because you’re older? Relative age effect on popularity among adolescents in class. PLOS ONE, 16(5), e0249336. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249336 Invasive species aren't always harmful — some help their ecosystems thrive by Cameron Duke Ahmed, I. (2021, April 29). How donkeys digging wells help life thrive in the desert. Phys.org; Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-donkeys-wells-life.html Griffiths, J., & Villablanca, F. (n.d.). Managing monarch butterfly overwintering groves: making room among the eucalyptus. 101(1). Retrieved May 9, 2021, from https://www.monarchjointventure.org/images/uploads/documents/griffiths_and_villablanca_2015.pdf Invasive Species Aren’t Always Unwanted (Published 2016). (2021). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/science/invasive-species.html Lundgren, E. J., Ramp, D., Stromberg, J. C., Wu, J., Nieto, N. C., Sluk, M., Moeller, K. T., & Wallach, A. D. (2021). Equids engineer desert water availability. Science, 372(6541), 491–495. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd6775 SCHLAEPFER, M. A., SAX, D. F., & OLDEN, J. D. (2011a). The Potential Conservation Value of Non-Native Species. Conservation Biology, 25(3), 428–437. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01646.x This Is How Often You Should Clean Your Keyboard originally aired May 14, 2018 https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/types-of-narcissists-don-t-garden-with-coffee-grou Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer — for free!
Learn why older classmates are more popular; how some invasive species help their ecosystems; and keyboard cleaning tips.
Don't be surprised if the oldest kids in your class were also more popular by Kelsey Donk
Invasive species aren't always harmful — some help their ecosystems thrive by Cameron Duke
This Is How Often You Should Clean Your Keyboard originally aired May 14, 2018 https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/types-of-narcissists-don-t-garden-with-coffee-grou
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer — for free!
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/the-oldest-kids-in-class-are-also-the-most-popular
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about why the oldest kids in your class were probably the most popular; how some invasive species actually help their ecosystems; and how often you should clean your keyboard.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Who were the most popular kids in your school? Chances are good that it was the oldest kids in class. According to a new study, high school popularity is linked to how old you were compared to the other kids in kindergarten. So in any given class, the older kids are also most likely to be the popular ones. And that can have pretty significant long-term effects on a kid’s life.
This study is the first of its kind to look into the relationship between age and popularity. Previous research into the effects of a student’s age has looked at things like academic performance, sports skills, and self esteem. But for this study, researchers waded into uncharted and dangerous territory: high school popularity.
Those researchers took data from 13,000 14- and 15-year-olds in the Netherlands, Sweden, and England. The students were asked to list the most popular kids in their classes — a dreaded task, but a very revealing one.
When the researchers analyzed the data, they found that students who were older when they started school were more popular when they got to high school.
That was true of all three countries they looked at. But in the Netherlands, there was an extra effect. There, it’s common for students to skip or repeat grades, which leads some classes to have a wider range of ages. In those classes, kids who had been held back — and were therefore older than the rest of the class — were more popular, regardless of how old they were when they started school. But this wasn’t true in England and Sweden, where it isn’t as common to repeat grades.
But even without skipped or repeated grades, the age differences in a class can be dramatic. In most school systems, children enroll using a cut-off date. Usually, students need to have turned five before September 1 to start kindergarten. So there’s sometimes a whole 11-month spread of ages within a single class. In younger students, that can lead to huge differences in size, strength, sexual maturity, brain development, and social skills.
Even though age differences aren’t as dramatic in higher grades, those early advantages can add up. If a kid is seen as powerful, influential, and self-confident early on, teachers might have higher expectations for them, which could lead to boosts in performance and even greater self confidence.
In the end, the researchers recommend that teachers think more seriously about their students’ relative ages and how that could influence social dynamics in the classroom. But if you’ve ever wondered why the whole cheerleading squad had fall birthdays? There’s a reason.
Invasive species are a fraught topic. They can do real ecological harm: I mean, think about the invasion of cane toads in Australia or kudzu in North America. But that doesn't mean that a relocated species is always bad for an ecosystem. In some cases, they can even help! So let’s talk about how some invasive species help their ecosystems thrive.
Like, take donkeys in the desert southwest of the United States. They’re not native to the area, and typically, ecologists would refer to animals like this as an invasive species. Recent research published in the journal Science found that they tend to dig holes in the ground during the height of summer. That’s to find buried water they can drink. But these watering holes also create desert oases that native species can take advantage of too. By doing this, they are actually playing a very important role in the local ecosystem.
The conventional wisdom is that invasive species are bad. And, well, by and large they are. But as the donkeys demonstrate, it’s not all bad news. [maybe we can cut this line? —Cody]
Eucalyptus trees in California are another example. They’re not native, but they’re able to provide great habitats for wintering monarch butterflies as other wintering sites become scarce. And we all know about how important honeybees are as pollinators in North America. But they’re not native there either.
This idea that some non-native species can benefit their new ecosystems is a controversial one. I mean, it’s the kind of idea that can rouse generally docile, nature-loving ecologists into vicious shouting matches. This isn’t a conflict over whether non-native species can provide benefits, it’s really more about whether those benefits outweigh the potential harm those species might also cause.
Every ecosystem is a complex system with many players that push and pull on everything around them. When a new species is dropped into the mix, it can disturb this balance and potentially do some damage. But these introductions are rarely all bad or all good. Introduced species can be complex characters with legitimate pros and cons. Like with most things in science, the truth is more complex than it seems.
CODY: The pandemic taught us all to get better at washing our hands, but that’s not the only thing you should be cleaning. Here’s a story from 2018 with some hygiene advice that we remastered just for you.
[CODY: Clip 1:50]
Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today
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ASHLEY: Today’s writers were Kelsey Donk and Cameron Duke.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer, who was also a writer on today’s episode.
ASHLEY: Our producer and audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow and the invasive species known as Curiosity Daily will help the ecosystem of your brain thrive! By helping you learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!