From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Sun Sep 01 2002 - 04:43:04 MDT
Vanessa Novaeris, Wed Aug 28, 2002 :
>Its really great to see this topic here. But looking to the teachers
>themselves to help the situation is IMHO much to short-sighted. I
>agree that many teachers are not qualified for their jobs, but even
>here we must turn to the modest requirements needed to obtain a
>teaching certificate. Back to my point, the root of the problem
>really is the curriculum.
You could go one level deeper, and say the root of the problem
is the student not being inspired. Then whose fault is it?
>No matter how much a teacher may want to enlighten his/her class,
>they are restricted, sometimes almost completely, to the guidelines
>set forth in the school's curriculum.
In public schools, yes. I think that U.S. private schools
(while still bound) have more leeway in their curriculum.
>On this problem alone, I could write pages
you should ... :-)
(writing to an email list about very large topics isn't the best use of
time, unless you want to clarify an idea or gain more practice
writing)
>(core curriculum varies
>in sophistication with respect to demographics, local vs. state vs.
>nationalized systemization, inter-disciplinary education on the
>whole rather than 8 different classes, personalized education based
>on interest vs. IQ, etc. etc.)
>I began to draft some ideas for a
>different kind of public education. Not just curriculum, but more focus on an
>inter-disciplinary approach to all education.
Neat!
But notice that 'inter-disciplinary' means different things to
different groups. If you say 'inter-disciplinary' to a group of only
planetary scientists, they combine topics like: "ring dynamics +
accretion disk formation". If you say 'inter-disciplinary' to a
group of only scientists, they combine topics like: "solar
oscillations + seismology".
Your 'inter-disciplinary' is broader:
>One simple example (off the cuff) would be the figure of Albert
>Einstein. A student could easily be assigned literature about
>Einstein for an English class, learn about relativity in a science
>class, discuss some of his essays in a philosophy class, examine the
>historical setting of this period (which might be another way to
>objectify history - introducing it as a background for other events
>& explaining its *global* significance rather than scrutinizing the
>details, which seems to be where things get sticky - just a thought)
>and ALSO examine Einstein's position in the history of scientific
>progress. The last piece is missing from both science & history
>classes - so I guess the development of the H bomb wasn't that
>important after all :P
>The possibilities are endless -
Oh yes. You might have guessed that I'm an inter-disciplinary person
(These days I'm running with all aspects of violins.)
>it illustrates the point. When a student see the connection between
>all the different things he/she is learning, it starts to form a
>bigger picture. Education can then connect what seemed like useless
>tidbits of facts & figures to create an objective presentation of
>the world & its history.
It might depend on the student's level of educational development.
Ten-year-olds are harder to keep interested in different aspects of
the 'big picture'. You need to grab their interest with ideas and
topics which contain a lot a 'energy'.
By high-school level, though, I think that the student is able to
see connections and subtleties between fields, and from then on,
'inter-disciplinary' is the best way (imo) to expose them. The most
important task for a teacher/parent/family-member/etc. at this level
is to expose the young person to a wide range of ideas, planting
seeds, if you will, so that under proper conditions, some of those
seeds will take root and flower. Then the student can go deeper
into an area when she/he is hooked. The inter-disciplinary also adds
in providing more meaning, to see a large picture, and helping that
person to see the why/how/where of humans today, and the
possibilities for humans' future.
>Part of the problem with American education is that "grown-ups" severely
>underestimate the potential & capacity of young children.
Agree.
>I'm reading Black Holes & Time Warps right now, which seems clear
>enough for any *interested* high school student or even junior high
>student to absorb. Its a good example of a simple text that reaches
>into different disciplines to foster a multi-dimensional approach to
>learning (not so objective in parts, but still...) A better example
>would be Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas.
"Cosmos" turned on a large number of people in my generation ....
You might consider creating such a book list. As a first step
towards 'thinking like like a renaissance person', I put together
one reading list
http://www.amara.com/aboutme/renhuman.html ,
but my idea was for the sum of the books to lead to an
inter-disciplinary education, not each book by itself (although many
of these books _are_ 'inter-disciplinary').
The creation of my own book list was more to poke a person to think
about the inter-disciplinary ("renaissance") topic for themself and
make one of their own, both to evaluate where they've been and where
they are going, and share their reading lists with others to help in
understanding each other better.
>But the student needs to be interested if they are to excel. Children will go
>to astonishing lengths to satiate their curiosities - their motivation could
>indeed serve as a model for some burnt-out grown-ups out there!
Yes, yes, yes. Kids inspire me all of the time. They have a wonderfully
fresh and curious perspective on the world. I strive to be like them :-).
---------------
Here are some additional notes on this topic.
---------------
Astronomy Education in the United States
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/useducprint.html
Andrew Fraknoi, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 390 Ashton Ave., San
Francisco, CA 94112
This paper describes astronomy education in the U.S. (and the
shocking ignorance of basic astronomical facts), and tries to convey
the idea that the schools are not the place to teach astronomy, it's
the role of the astronomers themselves. Andrew Fraknoi urges
professional astronomers to spend some small fraction of their time
regularly in any number of activities to expose people of all ages
to this field. Learning astronomy is not the ultimate goal, however,
what he wishes is for people to be more educated about basic
science.
Therefore, while the following very well-written paper (Fraknoi
has won alot of teaching awards and is well-known in the astronomy
community) uses astronomy as a springboard, I would say any of us
well-educated in a technical topic could do the same thing. The idea
is to share our enthusiasm about a topic we know, not relying on the
schools to do it. If you commit yourself to talking, teaching,
writing, showing.... well the universe is the limit.
---------------
Science for kids
http://www.writermag.com/wrt/html/Magazine/Featurestories/200204_459.asp
by Staton Rabin
June 2002 issue, The Writer.
This nice article focuses on ways to inspire kids, teaching science.
The author states that children today are far more educated about
basic science concepts than children in the past. Rabin uses the
'inter-disciplinary' hook too, in particular, through the method of
story-telling. For example Rabin suggests starting with a personal
anecdote or "scene" out of life or history, giving them a reference
and then leading to imaginative conjecture, combining facts in the
process. The author presented some useful points (I condensed it
down, you should really read the whole article):
<begin quote>
In addition to my advice that you always check your facts and tell
compelling stories, here are more tips for bringing youngsters into
the world of science.
*When writing about unfamiliar things, such as scientific ideas that
kids may not know, compare them to what they already know.
* Compare large numbers to something more easily understood.
* When choosing topics to write about, choose what interests you,
because then you will write about it with passion.
* Never shy away from a science topic because you think it is too
complex or sophisticated to explain to children. There is always a
way to make complicated topics easier to understand. Even string
theory, human genome research or neuroscience can be at your
readers' level.
* The converse is also true. Never shy away from a topic because it
seems too simple. Often, the simplest questions, like why is the sky
blue, can make for the most interesting articles. I recently wrote
an article for children about the science of belly buttons, which
will be published by The School Magazine. This is a far more complex
subject than meets the eye. It turned out that topics such as human
gestation, stem cell research, religion, theoretical physics and
many other subjects came into play when I was writing about belly
buttons.
* Even science fiction or science fantasy should be scientifically
accurate in its details.
* It almost goes without saying: Do thorough scientific research.
* Don't shy away from using scientific terms where necessary, but
don't get too bogged down in defining terms.
* You don't need to be a scientist to write about science for kids
or adults; you just need a sense of curiosity, an ability to explain
things simply, entertainingly and clearly, and good research skills.
Being a scientist can even be a handicap, as it may be hard for an
expert to put herself in a "beginner's mind."
The key to teaching somebody a new skill or piece of information is
to try to remember what it was like to know almost nothing about
it's which is not easy to do once you're an expert. But just as
important, never write down to children.
* Choose a topic nobody else is writing about. Provide ideas for
safe experiments that children can try at home, when appropriate.
And test your article out on children of the appropriate age to make
sure they can understand it.
<end quote>
---------------
Amara
--
********************************************************************
Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com
Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/
********************************************************************
"Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known."
-- Isaac Asimov
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:16:36 MST