Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 28

Research Paper Example Ms. Skeeter’s has brought up by black women all her childhood. She yearns to find out where her beloved maiden, Constantine- a black maiden, went. Later on, Ms. Skitter learns of what became of Constantine. Her maiden gave birth out of wedlock, to Lulabelle whose skin color was indistinguishable from the whites although both parents were of Black origin. Because of this, neither the white nor the black community would readily accept Lulabelle. To avoid a lot of dual segregation, Constantine gave up her child for adoption when she was four years old. When she grows up, she is reunited with her mother. (AmySharps 15). While Skeeter’s was in college, Lulabelle visited her along with her mother in Jackson. Later on, she came for the party being held at Skeeter’s house. However, soon Charlotte Phelan fired Constantine after discovering who Lulabelle was to her. Having nowhere to turn to, Constantine moved to Chicago. This is the last time Skeeter’s saw Constantine. The Help refers to a community of black people who spent their lives caring for children of the upper class white households (Council and others 2012 pg. 5). The children of these black people were in the custody of other people who are not even their relatives; they were isolated at an early age to pave way for their parents to serve the white families. The help spent most of their time dressing, feeding and playing with white children. However, these children grew up not better than their parents did; they assumed the oppressive role just like their folks oppressing the blacks, the very people who raised them up. Aibileen spends her lifetime taking care of Mae Mobley, Miss Elizabeth Leefolt’s child. Aibileen lost her son and it is ironical that she spends time caring for a child who is not her own, she takes time to heal the wound and accept the gap created by the demise of her only child while serving Leefolt’s family (AmySharps 21). The conditions here

In what ways do cognitive biases affect decision-making Assignment

In what ways do cognitive biases affect decision-making - Assignment Example Cognitive biases affect decision-making when one wants to simplify complex decision situations (Das & Teng, 1999, pg. 760). Severe and systematic errors in decision-making result from the applications of ‘rule of thumb’ and adoption of heuristics. The contemporary ever-changing society does not allow long-term strategies, and in most cases, a quick decision saves company resources and determines their success in the business environment. There is often a need to evolve with the changing times and at times one has to make short-term and quick decision to address immediate needs. Cognitive biases result in temporal orientations in which one uses past happenings to predict the future impact of a decision. ‘Availability’ is a major heuristic that triggers cognitive biases, which eventually affect decision-making. It provides the bias of imagining in which decisions are about recent experiences. Decision makers often use their beliefs and previous experiences in current decision-making situations. This is common in organizations that focus on selected targets rather than broad-minded solutions. In such cases, cognitive biases arise because one may overlook important evidence and worthwhile objectives that may produce a different solution (Das & Teng, 1999, pg. 762). Cognitive biases limit a person to a limited number of objectives that can attain a goal. A small number of options if often favorable for most people and businesses because it saves time, energy, and money that could go to waste in brainstorming meetings. In the end, they have a list of alternative ideas that do not encompass fresh outlooks into a problem (Das & Teng, 1999, pg. 762). The assumption that ‘what has, will always be’, is dangerous, because it hinders appropriate decision-making. They serve as a as an impediment in the recognition of scientific non-intuitive knowledge. Cognitive bias develops an illusion of manageability in which a possibility of success higher than the

Effects of Plagiarism to the Students Essay Example for Free

Effects of Plagiarism to the Students Essay In life especially in any learning institutions, it is inevitable to engage oneself with other people’s ideas, stories and researches. Most of people’s knowledge is acquired from previous knowledge that is written and said. But people can also create their own idea from others’ works or through experiences. However, owning one’s thought is another story, it is considered stealing or corruption. Stealing a person is called kidnapping or abduction but stealing a person’s ideas or writing is called plagiarism. Idea is like a property, someone owns it. Plagiarism is against the law not only because it is a form of stealing but because its effects are very destructive to the morality of those who practice it and to the society as a whole. In academic world, plagiarism is a serious offense. Plagiarism is not only a personal matter between a student and a teacher but ultimately it is an issue of violating the moral code of learning, reversing the meaning of education itself (White, 1999). The continuous growth of Information Technology makes it easier for the students to copy and plagiarize. Plagiarism not only threatens the very foundation and purpose of academic system but plagiarism is a destructive activity that terrorizes the students’ sense of morality and values. Education is not only for the purpose of acquiring knowledge and information but education also allows students to discover their skills and intellectual capabilities. Education also trains and gives students opportunity to develop one’s character to become productive members of the society in the future. Committing plagiarism however is a missed opportunity for students’ self discovery, development and academic learning. Moreover, it threatens the sense of integrity and fair play to those who practiced it. When students became accustomed to plagiarism and stealing, it will soon become a way of life until it eventually becomes their comfort zone. There is a big possibility that after graduation, they will stay in that comfort zone. Acting plagiarism also hinders the teachers to truly monitor the learning development of a student, to know their ideas and to asses the things that they still have to work upon. When discovered, an atmosphere of distrust will be established between the class and the teacher. The teacher with skepticism will be having a difficulty identifying which is real and which is plagiarized, doubting student’s skill in writing, which may result to bias assessment. When students commit plagiarism, they reject the chance to learn something new, to widen their horizon in the world of knowledge and they hinder themselves to develop their own opinions, to give alternate perspective and analysis. These things may also affect the communication skills of the students. Since plagiarism hinders them to acquire more wisdom and information, they won’t be able to talk confidently in front of many people because of their limited knowledge. Act of plagiarism also threatens the concept of receiving grades. At the end, there is no sense of satisfaction. Those who practiced plagiarism eventually put their self worth in jeopardy. These effects of plagiarism in the students will affect their lives. Reference: Buranen, Lise. Roy, Alice Myers (1999). â€Å"Student Plagiarism as an Institutional and Social Issue by Edward M. White†. NewYork US. SUNY Press

Essay --

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction This chapter introduces the definition and importance of customer attitude toward health advertisement and followed by how determinants of health advertisement affect the customer attitude toward advertisement. This chapter also discusses the theoretical framework for the four independent variables such as credibility, informative, pleasure and good for economy that influences the customer attitude toward health advertisement. 2.1 Health Advertisement According to the American Marketing association stated that â€Å"advertising refer to any paid from of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and service by an identified sponsor†. The advertisement is directed toward increasing the sales of the business. The one of the trait of the advertising is for communication, information and persuasion. Advertisement is non-personal communication that use mass media. Buyer can get information from the advertisement about the particular product that they want to buy. Advertisement create favorable attitude of the customer that lead to the favorable actions. Dofman, Woodruff and Wallack (1993) stated that public service advertisement used for selling good health behaviors. Personal behavior will determine their own health status. They believe that health promotion advertising has been used to benefit the advertisers and industry. The mass media provide the solution of health problem. The public health professionals need to take the risk to use the advertising to change the attention from the personal to social. Health advertisement helps the company to sell their health product such as product that can lose weight, increase antibody, and multivitamin product. The health –rela... ...ponse produce the behavior. The behavior was created by three factors which is pleasure, arousal and dominance. Pleasure refers to a person feel happy in a certain situation. Arousal means that feeling that vary from person to person in different situation such as bored and excitement. While dominance refer to the individual feeling which are control in particular situation. When the consumer watches an advertisement thus develop the feeling of like the product then the willingness to buy it. The advertisement was consider as successful advertisement when the consumer has the ability to recall the brand in the advertisement. A firm can have the competitive advantage if the consumer can recall their brand through the advertisement. The positive attitude of a consumer can easily recall the advertisement than those who has negative attitude toward the advertisement. Essay -- CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction This chapter introduces the definition and importance of customer attitude toward health advertisement and followed by how determinants of health advertisement affect the customer attitude toward advertisement. This chapter also discusses the theoretical framework for the four independent variables such as credibility, informative, pleasure and good for economy that influences the customer attitude toward health advertisement. 2.1 Health Advertisement According to the American Marketing association stated that â€Å"advertising refer to any paid from of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and service by an identified sponsor†. The advertisement is directed toward increasing the sales of the business. The one of the trait of the advertising is for communication, information and persuasion. Advertisement is non-personal communication that use mass media. Buyer can get information from the advertisement about the particular product that they want to buy. Advertisement create favorable attitude of the customer that lead to the favorable actions. Dofman, Woodruff and Wallack (1993) stated that public service advertisement used for selling good health behaviors. Personal behavior will determine their own health status. They believe that health promotion advertising has been used to benefit the advertisers and industry. The mass media provide the solution of health problem. The public health professionals need to take the risk to use the advertising to change the attention from the personal to social. Health advertisement helps the company to sell their health product such as product that can lose weight, increase antibody, and multivitamin product. The health –rela... ...ponse produce the behavior. The behavior was created by three factors which is pleasure, arousal and dominance. Pleasure refers to a person feel happy in a certain situation. Arousal means that feeling that vary from person to person in different situation such as bored and excitement. While dominance refer to the individual feeling which are control in particular situation. When the consumer watches an advertisement thus develop the feeling of like the product then the willingness to buy it. The advertisement was consider as successful advertisement when the consumer has the ability to recall the brand in the advertisement. A firm can have the competitive advantage if the consumer can recall their brand through the advertisement. The positive attitude of a consumer can easily recall the advertisement than those who has negative attitude toward the advertisement.

Learning Organizations Essay

1. 1 Executive summary/ L. O! In times of uncertainty and change, organizations need new and effective managerial tools in order to cope with the rising competitiveness of markets. In this context, the concept of organizational learning is receiving growing attention among both managerial and academic surroundings in the last two decades. Among many possible definitions of a Learning Organization, David A. Garvin, a leading scholar in this field, suggests the following: â€Å"an organization made up of employees skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge. These people could help their firms cultivate tolerance, foster open discussion, and think holistically and systemically. Such learning organizations would be able to adapt to the unpredictable more quickly than their competitors could. †. A learning organization is aimed at increasing the flexibility and effectiveness of a company, making it react faster to changes in a competitive environment. This is achieved in cultures who constantly foster knowledge inside their organizations. Although this general idea of organizational learning may appear rather simplistic at first glance, it’s practical integration into day-to-day operations proves to require a more refined, systematic approach: â€Å"Generative learning cannot be sustained in an organization where event thinking predominates. It requires a conceptual framework of â€Å"structural† or systematical thinking, the ability to discover structural causes of behaviorâ€Å". This paper provides a deeper insight into the implementation and performance assessment of learning organizations (L. O. ’s), mainly using the Three Building Blocks Model outlined by Garvin, Edmondson & Gino. To better understand this concept, the work will rely on Xerox as an example to highlight how L. O. ’s can provide competitive advantages to corporations. In the last section, the paper will also breakdown the effect that learning organizations have on major stakeholders (leaders, employees and organization itself). 1. 2. Introduction: Background to Xerox Xerox is a US-based multinational, founded in 1906, which produces and sales printers and photocopiers and provides related services. Throughout it’s history, Xerox has faced several crisis periods which ended up pushing the company to become a Learning Organization. Around 1980, the company was hit hard by the emergence of new japanese players on the market and lost its almost 100% market share. As a response Xerox introduced the â€Å"leadership through quality initiative† with the objective of training every employee in tools for generating ideas and collecting information, solving problems in a systematical way, reaching consensus etc. â€Å"Xerox became a case study — the first American group to win back market share from the Japanese†. More recently, in the year of 2000, with the announcement of Anne M. Mulcahy as CEO of the company, XEROX’s was able to overcome another serious crisis. Mulcahy’s leadership style, which mirrors many of the strategies suggested by the LO literature, managed to turn around this †sinking ship†, which had 19 billion in debt, a falling stock and double-digit negative growth. In 5 years time, Xerox would be profitable again. Ursula Burns has continued Mulcahy’s work, since becoming the new CEO in 2009, even acquiring new companies such as the 2010 $6. 4 bln. takeover of ACS. Xerox continues to stay on the list of companies frequently cited as learning organizations. The 3 Building Blocks of a Learning Organization The concept of the three building blocks of a learning organizations is introduced by David A. Garvin, Amy C. Edmondson, and Francesca Gino as an assessment tool to determine areas where organizations need to improve their learning methodologies. Below we provide a deeper explanation of each of the three building blocks and how Xerox fits each one of them. Building Block 1: XEROX, a supportive learning organization? There are four distinct characteristics of an organization that determine whether it is or not a Supportive Learning Organization. Firstly, how psychologically safe its employees feel. This is common in organizations where employees don’t feel pressured or marginalized when presenting their own ideas even if these go against what the majority of the organization thinks. Similarly, subordinates at this organization are encouraged to disagree with their coworkers and superiors and present new and bold opinions, meaning that this organization is opened to new ideas. In a supportive learning organization, employees also become aware of the different inputs and opinions each member of a team brings to the table and learns how to accommodate and value those differences. Lastly, a supportive learning organization needs to provide its employees with some time for reflexion, when they will to go over the company’s procedures and analyse past performances in order to assess what can be changed and/or improved. Tolerance and diversity at Xerox Xerox’s openness to new ideas can be partly linked to its high diversity of employee backgrounds, which ultimately reinforces the acceptance and inclusion of different solutions, making employees feel more comfortable in taking risks. This diversity has also enabled Ursula Burns, the current CEO, to climb up the ranks of Xerox and become the first female black CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Besides being â€Å"a proof† to other employees that effort at Xerox pays back, Burns herself stresses this idea of a supportive learning organization when she mentions that she â€Å"wants [XEROX’s] 130,000 employees to get over the past, take more initiative, become more fearless and be more frank and impatient with one another to ratchet up performance†. Burns refers to the all Xerox community as the â€Å"XEROX family†- â€Å"When we’re in the family, you don’t have to be as nice as when you’re outside of the family,(†¦ ) I want us to stay civil and kind, but we have to be frank — and the reason we can be frank is because we are all in the same family. † Building Block 2: Does Xerox implement concrete learning processes and practices? Because â€Å"a learning organization is not cultivated effortlessly†, organizational entities must put explicit processes in place to ensure that knowledge is constantly generated and collected inside the organization. The information must then be interpreted and infused into the organization to be always accessible in a way that will support problem-solving tasks and benefit its constant transformational processes. Moreover, this will also help to develop new products or services, as well as closely monitor competitors, clients and technological developments, using benchmarking techniques. Lastly, the company has to invest in training measures for its employees. MAIN Education and problem-solving at Xerox: The Six Sigma Method In the case of Xerox, measures to implement LO practices started as early as 1983 when executive management inaugurated Xerox’s â€Å" leadership through quality initiative†. The initiatives goal was â€Å"improving business processes to create higher levels of customer satisfaction, quality and productivity† by providing workshops to Xerox employees. These workshops were refined in the late 90’s, reorienting around the Six Sigma method, which had previously been successfully applied in other companies. Although these efforts proved successful in improving productivity, they were only limited to a local supply chain level and were not conducted regularly. In 2002 the management of Xerox then decided to implement the Six Sigma strategy across the whole organization, an effort which Xerox is continuing today. This is shown by the fact that the method has become part of the everyday communication process inside the company. The Six Sigma strategy is a tool, which empowers employees to become more efficient and proactive in daily problem-solving situations, for example by using the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) approach. Six Sigma also requires the employees to closely monitor market trends and to apply benchmarking appropriately. Xerox particularly emphasizes the fact that they see the efforts to implement the Six Sigma method (see attachment 1) as a long-term project. This idea is aligned with the academic literature on LO’s stating that â€Å"becoming a LO is a long process and small setbacks should be expected†. This is because employees and the management have to â€Å"unlearn† old modes of thinking. Information distribution at Xerox Xerox provides employees with access to a large intranet consisting of e. g. reference knowledge, material on best practices, and answers to frequently asked questions. This helps the stakeholders inside the company to share information. It also supports the efforts to keep employees informed on what the priorities are for the overall company. Building Block 3: Are Xerox leaders reinforcing learning? Leaders in a L. O. promote constant learning by raising difficult questions and listening to the answers and concerns of their employees. While doing so, leaders also communicate openness to these new ideas and take them into consideration in their actions. Additionally, leaders have to encourage employees to invest their time in reflecting on both how to solve current problems and what can be learned from past performance. The ultimate goal is for leaders to motivate employees to question the underlying assumptions of current modes of thinking, and therefore initiate efficiency and innovation inside company processes. Promoting Initiative at Xerox For the past two decades, Xerox has engaged their employees to participate in the Earth Awards Program. The goal of this yearly event is to come up with solutions for saving company resources by increasing its efficiency, therefore making it a â€Å"greener† company. With this challenging program, Xerox motivates their employees to generate new ideas that, for instance, in 2010, resulted in company savings of $10. 2 Million. In that year, thirteen winners were announced, corporate wide and among different teams. This is an example of how leaders take their employees’ input seriously and how the generation of new initiatives at Xerox arises from both top and bottom levels of hierarchies. Encouraging employees to invest their time in reflecting by example Senior management at Xerox demonstrates the behaviors, which they in turn expect from employees. A clear example of this â€Å"policy† was when, in 1993, the executive management put together the Presidential Review process. The objective of this process was to review the overall progress of the company collectively through Presidential Review process in 1993. Interviews were organized with more than 30 senior managers answering questions like â€Å"What has changed? Where are the largest gaps between what was intended and what is currently true? If you were to outline barriers that need to be dealt with, what comes to mind? What would you have done differently? †. After the interviews, 45 seniors got together for one day meeting to identify trouble spots and develop recommendations. Action plan was the result . 3. The Effect on Leaders, â€Å"Followers† and Organizations Becoming a successful learning organization can provide a company with significant competitive advantages in the long-run, as it also can largely benefit its major stakeholders (employees and leaders). However, it also requires some behavioral changes from them. In order to achieve the goal of a L. O. (foster knowledge creation and sharing to gain competitive advantage), it is important that leaders infuse a common goal inside the organization. This implies, that leaders should have an effective communication in delivering the company ethos to their subordinates. Once employees identify with the company and its goal, people on all levels of the company would naturally start thinking and discussing promising new ways to achieve these goals. On the other hand, learning processes require time among other resources, and eventually leaders will have to find efficient ways to maximize the time of their employees. It is crucial to determine a balance between time spent going over problem-solvings tasks and past performance analysis (required for learning processes) with regular work. Additionally, leaders will have to define the line between â€Å"acceptable mistakes†- those that arrive from risk taking attitudes, and â€Å"unacceptable mistakes† – those originated by irresponsibility and lack of accountability. This is not always clear and, therefore, leaders might face some obstacles in implementing a learning culture as their workers’ â€Å"fear of punishment† can result in the limitation of creativity. Probably the most effective tool to boost innovation is to empower workers. But if the empowerment process provides employees the feeling that they are contributing and helping to define the company processes, then a new attitude is also required from them. Employees will have to remember that they are expected to show initiative, propose new ideas and act. And they should not always expect directions to do so. This can be particularly hard for workers who are risk-averse and who need clear instructions about their work role. Learning organizations can bring significant benefits to employees. Being part of the company processes transformation and being aligned with its goals are expected to make employees more motivated and dynamic. In this way, many of the aspects of the L. O. raise the levels of enjoying the work process. The job satisfaction in turn is expected to raise productivity levels. Also, because employees are more exposed to those in higher positions in the company, new career opportunities might arise together with monetary rewards. RISKS FOR COMPANY â€Å"No learning organization is built overnight. Success comes from carefully cultivated attitudes, commitments, and management processes that accrue slowly and steadily. The first step is to foster an environment conducive to learning. Analog Devices, Chaparral Steel, Xerox, GE, and other companies provide enlightened examples. † (http://w3. ualg. pt/~mzacaria/gic/HBR-Building-a-Leaning-Organization. pdf) 2. Organizations should be careful in applying new principles ensuring buy-in from most influential employees and checking progress not to fall into the trap of unfeasable change which could seriously hurt current business (see http://knowledge. wharton. upenn. edu/article. cfm? articleid=268) 4. Final considerations: As illustrated by the above analysis, as well by its overall economic performance in the last 11 years, it has become clear that XEROX has largely succeeded in becoming a LO. Arguably, Xerox has become so successful in it’s LO efforts that this has resulted in providing learning services to other companies through subsidiary spin offs, such as Xerox Learning Services. Concerning the evaluation of the theory proposed by Garvin, Gino and Edmondson, it has to be noted that the building blocks have to be seen as interdependent. Without effective leadership and learning environment, the learning process implementation will likely fail. Therefore, each of the above building blocks needs to be tackled by taylormade strategies, not least because companies do not perform consistently in each department. Similarly, organizations have to pay especial attention to comparing the extent of the learning process with other organizations, since only then you will have a solid benchmarking (in contrast to looking only at individual company performance over time). Attachment 1 ——————————————– [ 1 ]. O’Keeffe, T. 2002. Organizational Learning: a new perspective. Journal of European Industrial Training, 26 (2), pp. 130-141. [ 2 ]. Peter Senge (1990), â€Å"The Fifth Discipline† [ 3 ]. â€Å"Is yours a learning organization? † [ 4 ]. One good source on Xerox crisis times http://knowledge. wharton. upenn. edu/article. cfm? articleid=268 [ 5 ]. Building a L. O. [ 6 ]. http://www. economist. com/node/387740 [ 7 ]. http://www. economist. com/node/387740 [ 8 ]. http://mitleadership. mit. edu/r-mulcahy. php [ 9 ]. The following work will assume that the stance of the management towards encouraging the LO inside Xerox has remained constant. Since Mulcahy had been working with Burns for more than 9 years, Burns is expected to â€Å"put her own stamp on the company in a way that was deferential to the work of Ms. Mulcahy, who remains chairwoman. † See: http://www. nytimes. com/2010/02/21/business/21xerox. html? pagewanted=all&_r=1& [ 10 ]. http://www. freepatentsonline. com/article/SAM-Advanced-Management-Journal/20982068. html [ 11 ]. http://www. businesswire. com/news/home/20041027005036/en/Diversity-Practices-Organization-Recognizes-Xerox-Diversity-Leadership [ 12 ]. Farmer, Paula (August). â€Å"The First African American To Head A Fortune 500 Company, Franklin D. Raines Takes Over Fannie Mae†. The Black Collegian. Retrieved November 7, 2008. [ 13 ]. Bryant, A. (February 20, 2010) Xerox’s New Chief Tries to Redefine Its Culture, The New York Times [ 14 ]. Bryant, A. (February 20, 2010) Xerox’s New Chief Tries to Redefine Its Culture, The New York Times [ 15 ]. Garvin, Edmondson & Gino (2008), p. 4 [ 16 ]. Page 11: http://www. xerox. com/downloads/usa/en/n/nr_SixSigmaForumMag_2004_Aug. pdf It could be argued that these efforts were a spillover-effect from Xerox ground-breaking benchmarking efforts in its production process areas in billing, warehousing, and automated manufacturing. [ 17 ]. Page 13: http://www. xerox. com/downloads/usa/en/n/nr_SixSigmaForumMag_2004_Aug. pdf [ 18 ]. Slide 68:http://www. moyak. com/papers/learning-organization-presentation. pdf [ 19 ]. Easterby-Smith, M. , Crossan, M. , and Nicolini, D. 2000. Organizational learning: debates past, present and future. Journal of Management Studies. 37 (6) pp 783-796. See also Senge’s definition of â€Å"mental models†, which refer to how workers need to time to overcome old modes of thinking: Senge, P. M. 1990. The Fifth Discipline. London: Century Business. [ 20 ]. http://www. xerox. com/downloads/usa/en/n/nr_SixSigmaForumMag_2004_Aug. pdf [ 21 ]. Kaye, L. (November 15, 2010) Xerox’s Green Ideas Save Company $10. 2 Million, http://www. triplepundit. com/ [ 22 ]. Garvin, D. A. (2000), Learning in Action: a guide to putting the learning organization to work, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data – p. 105 [ 23 ]. Garvin, D. A. (2000), Learning in Action: a guide to putting the learning organization to work, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data – p. 105 [ 24 ]. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. : ImageXerox lean six sigma framework. Figure 3Xerox lean six sigma framework. emeraldinsight. com http://www. emeraldinsight. com/journals. htm? articleid=1628232&show=html.

Lightning-Prone States, Flash Densities, and Fatalities

Flashes in the Sky The Origins of Meteors

Have you ever watched a meteor shower? They happen very frequently when Earths orbit takes it through the debris left behind by a comet or asteroid orbits the Sun. For example, Comet Tempel-Tuttle is the parent of the November Leonid shower. Meteor showers are made up of meteoroids, tiny bits of material that vaporize in our atmosphere and leave behind a glowing trail. Most meteoroids do not fall to Earth, although a few do. A meteor is a glowing trail left behind as the debris streaks through the atmosphere. When they hit the ground, meteoroids become meteorites. Millions of these solar system bits slam into our atmosphere (or fall to Earth) each day, which tells us that our area of space isnt exactly pristine. Meteor showers are especially concentrated meteoroid falls. These so-called shooting stars are actually a remnant of our solar systems history. Where Do Meteors Come From? Earth orbits through a surprisingly messy set of trails each year. The bits of space rock that occupy those trails are shed by comets and asteroids and can remain for quite a long time before they encounter Earth. The composition of meteoroids varies depending on their parent body, but are commonly made of nickel and iron. A meteoroid doesnt typically just fall off of an asteroid; it has to be liberated by a collision. When asteroids slam into each other, little bits and pieces settle back onto the surfaces of the larger chunks, which then assume some kind of orbit around the Sun. That material then gets shed as the chunk moves through space, possibly through interaction with the solar wind, and forms a trail. Material from a comet is usually made up of bits of ice, specks of dust, or sand-sized grains, which are blown off the comet by the action of the solar wind. These tiny specks, too, form a rocky, dusty trail. The Stardust mission studied Comet Wild 2 and found crystalline silicate rock bits that had escaped the comet and eventually made it into Earths atmosphere. Everything in the solar system began in a primordial cloud of gas, dust, and ice. The bits of bits of rock, dust, and ice that stream from asteroids and comets and end up as meteoroids mostly date back to the very formation of the solar system. The ices clustered onto the grains and eventually accumulated to form the nuclei of comets. The rocky grains in asteroids clustered together to form larger and larger bodies. The biggest ones became the planets. The rest of the debris, some of which remains in orbit in the near-Earth environment, gathered into whats now known as the Asteroid Belt. The primordial cometary bodies eventually gathered in the outer regions of the solar system, in areas called the Kuiper Belt and the outermost region called the Ãâ€"ort Cloud. Periodically, these objects escape into orbits around the Sun. As they get closer, they shed material, forming meteoroid trails. What You See When a Meteoroid Flares When a meteoroid enters Earths atmosphere, it gets heated by friction with the gases that make up our blanket of air. These gases are generally moving pretty fast, so they appear to burn up high in the atmosphere, 75 to 100 kilometers up. Any surviving pieces could fall to the ground, but most of these little bits of solar system history are too small for that. Larger pieces make longer and brighter trails called bolides. Most of the time, meteors look like white flashes of light. Occasionally you can see colors flaring in them. Those colors indicate something about the chemistry of the region in the atmosphere it flies through and the material contained in the debris. Orange-ish light indicates atmospheric sodium being heated. Yellow is from  superheated iron particles likely from the meteoroid itself. A red flash comes from the heating of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere, while blue-green and violet come from magnesium and calcium in the debris. Can We Hear Meteors? Some observers report hearing noises as a meteoroid moves across the sky. Sometimes its a quiet hissing or swishing sound. Astronomers are still not completely sure why the hissing noises happen. Other times, theres a very obvious sonic boom, particularly with the larger bits of space debris. The folks who witnessed the Chelyabinsk meteor over Russia experienced a sonic boom and shock waves as the parent body burst apart over the ground. Meteors are fun to watch for in the nighttime skies, whether they simply flare overhead or end up with meteorites on the ground. As you watch them, remember that youre literally seeing bits of solar system history vaporize before your eyes!