Subject:
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Re: My Non-LEGO family experiance (Nice Story)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 1 Mar 2000 03:57:58 GMT
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Viewed:
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627 times
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> I see other kids' confusion and misconceptions, and I dislike it very much.)
Unfortunately the US system of teaching science depends a lot on simplification
of topics in the early years and then clarification when the subjects are
taught again in high school and college. Of course over simplification often
leads to misconception, and when students are later taught that what they
learned before isn't quite right, there's a lot of confusion and some mistrust
of teachers (not always undeserved). And then there's the fact that lots of
students don't ever lose their misconceptions. Then they become high
school shop instructors (sorry shop instructors, I'm sure you're not all as
misguided as the ones I know, especially if you read Lugnet).
> I learned about Kinetic energy in both Phys and Chem at about the same time,
> and to my surprise they both used the same equations...
Funny that, just like aerodynamic simulations, structural models, and
electronic circuits (not to mention population ecology and probably some
economic models) use the same basic equations. If you study enough you'll
realize that Chemistry is just really small Physics (and some Physics is really
small Chemistry), and all is one. That will really blow your mind, man.
> I heard (and learned) about electromagnetic waves long ago, and learned about
> spectrums (uh, spectra?) far too many times, while some kids in my class never
> heard the word before.
Good for Israeli schools! Did they teach you that waves are particles and
particles are waves, and light and matter aren't all that different? Of
course, my understanding of this subject is something of a simplification. But
at some point almost any subject has to be simplified, or we'd all spend a lot
of time staring at walls, thinking about waves and particles and going "dude,
that's heavy man" (believe me, I've seen it happen). I think the crucial thing
when teaching a simplified lesson is to make sure the students understand that
the full truth is more complicated. But then, it's hard to get kids (or even
adults) to understand that any way of thinking about reality is just an
imperfect model.
> Don't let me even START about the MCAS, the Mass--(achoo!)--setts
> 'standardized' test, or about how I learn math here (ugh!).
Hoo boy, and I what I saw of the Boston area (specifically Cambridge) schools
were pretty good compared to the Michigan public schools I went to. I think I
somehow failed the Michigan standardized tests once, too. Some of the
questions are pretty ambiguous if you actually know what they're talking about
- they have science misconceptions built right in.
The one good thing about the US school system is that the people who manage to
get a decent understanding of science are really good at figuring things out
for themselves, which makes for good scientists and inventors.
Phil
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: My Non-LEGO family experiance (Nice Story)
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| (...) Yeah, I know what you mean, except it's the opposite here. I love the sun and the beach - not very common around Boston... Well, at least I had a week in Florida and stocked up on some sun for these cold winter days :) (...) Yeah, maybe we (...) (24 years ago, 29-Feb-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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