It's 2014, and they're still teaching “Force Causes Motion” to our impressionable second-grade knowledge-sponges. What annoys me so much is not that the material was being taught by a second-grade teacher with no background in physics, but that it was printed by a respected publishing house whose editors certainly knew better.
I think many people regard “science” as some kind of abstract thing that educated people hafta know, rather than a way of discovering the real world we live in. It doesn't help when science texts reinforce fallacies with real-world examples that directly contradict familiar experiences of children.
So, when a text says “Things cannot move by themselves.* You have to use a force to make something move. […] If you did not kick the ball, it would stay in the same place” the student must then distinguish between how balls move in “science”, and how they move in the Youth Soccer League.
I sent a letter to MacMillan/McGraw-Hill listing all the headscratchers in their text; as far as I know, they ignored it. I have no formal science learning, but I do read popular books and Wikipedia, and I try to notice interesting phenomena and guess at the explanations.
Here's some stuff that the kids have to read and then repeat on the test:
"If you use more force things move faster and go further." There's a graphic of kids throwing a basketball in the book. Most kids probably know that if you throw a basketball hard or easy, it will go until it hits the fence. Galileo investigated this principle four hundred years ago.
"Friction is a force that slows down moving things." Strange that bike tires and tennis shoes seem designed to maximize friction, in situations where you want to go fast.
"If you pull something it moves closer to you." Again, kids know all about pulling on locked doors, or fighting with siblings over toys, where things cannot possibly move toward all those pulling on them.
"The gravity of Earth is stronger than the gravity of smaller things. That is why a ball in the air will fall back down to Earth." I just have to mention a game I play with my five-year-olds, where we try to balance the Earth on the soles of our feet, and then gently toss it away from ourselves and catch it again. One of my children can actually hold the Earth on the top of his head, against the force of his own gravity.
Please excuse me, I needed to rant; this forum seemed appropriate, or at least appreciative.
I think many people regard “science” as some kind of abstract thing that educated people hafta know, rather than a way of discovering the real world we live in. It doesn't help when science texts reinforce fallacies with real-world examples that directly contradict familiar experiences of children.
So, when a text says “Things cannot move by themselves.* You have to use a force to make something move. […] If you did not kick the ball, it would stay in the same place” the student must then distinguish between how balls move in “science”, and how they move in the Youth Soccer League.
I sent a letter to MacMillan/McGraw-Hill listing all the headscratchers in their text; as far as I know, they ignored it. I have no formal science learning, but I do read popular books and Wikipedia, and I try to notice interesting phenomena and guess at the explanations.
Here's some stuff that the kids have to read and then repeat on the test:
"If you use more force things move faster and go further." There's a graphic of kids throwing a basketball in the book. Most kids probably know that if you throw a basketball hard or easy, it will go until it hits the fence. Galileo investigated this principle four hundred years ago.
"Friction is a force that slows down moving things." Strange that bike tires and tennis shoes seem designed to maximize friction, in situations where you want to go fast.
"If you pull something it moves closer to you." Again, kids know all about pulling on locked doors, or fighting with siblings over toys, where things cannot possibly move toward all those pulling on them.
"The gravity of Earth is stronger than the gravity of smaller things. That is why a ball in the air will fall back down to Earth." I just have to mention a game I play with my five-year-olds, where we try to balance the Earth on the soles of our feet, and then gently toss it away from ourselves and catch it again. One of my children can actually hold the Earth on the top of his head, against the force of his own gravity.
Please excuse me, I needed to rant; this forum seemed appropriate, or at least appreciative.
via JREF Forum http://ift.tt/1qxe1iP
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire