[IAEP] How can we help kids get into the habits of looking for all possible causes and counter examples to problems?

[Maria Droujkova]

On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 12:58 AM, <nanonano at mediagala.com> wrote:

>  *>On 02/10/2011 09:07 a.m., Maria Droujkova wrote:
> >...I have never had to do anything with REASONS for seasons or phases of
> the moon, outside of curriculum design. Have you?*
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> One reason to think about  phases of the moon on our normal life is the
> fact that people on the north hemisphere see the moon "upsidedown".  Or the
> opposite: people on the southern hemisphere see the moon "upsidedown".
>
> We can use that knowledge on our normal life: On the calendar we can see
> the icons of phases of the mooon, but those icons were designed by northern
> people, with  the crescent moon like a "D" and the Waning Moon like a "C",
> but in the southern hemisphere is the opposite, crescent moon is a "C" and
> waning moon is a "D". (the people that designs calendar on the south repeat
> like parrots the things that northern people designs, so they draw the moon
> in the opposite way....)
>
> In northern hemisphere the mooon is liar, because she is a "C" when she is
> "de-crescent", and she is a "D" when she is Crescent, but here on the south
> the moon tell us the truth.
>

First of all, I did not even know this fact, let alone finding use for it.

Second, why do we need to know REASONS for this fact, other than idle
curiosity?

I am playing devil's advocate here. I am a curious person myself, and I
think pure intellectual play is a valuable thing. But it does not answer the
question about the NEED to know REASONS behind moon phases. So, they work
differently in different hemispheres. Duly noted... why do we need to know
WHY?


> -----------------------------
>
> For example: a child in Uruguay could take a picture of the moon and send
> to a child in Canada,  the same day, so they can compare that fact. and
> maybe another child on the equator  can send another picture that shows the
> moon on the middle, like an "U".
>
> That is an exercise that children have to think, not only repeating
> something like parrots , things that they hear from the teacher.
>
> ---------------------------
> *
> Another fact about seasons and our normal life:*  if you are on the same
> longitude, you don't have the sunset at the same time, ¿why is that????
>

And why are you asking?

(Again, this is a curriculum design prompt; I am not questioning your
motives here).

>
> ANd more interesting: on some dates of the year the sunset is on the same
> hour, but not all the year... ¿why?
> There are only two days on the year that this happens.
>
> For example, the longitude of boston is almost  the same as Chile, and now
> the sunset on both places are almost at the same time, children can control
> that sending them an e-mail, o chatting.
>
> That is because it began  the spring on the south and fall on the north.
> If you make the same experiment on Christmas, the sunset on Boston is 2
> hours before that the sunset in Chile ¿why is that?
> If a child on BOston chat whit a child on Chile, the child on chile have
> the sunset, but the child on boston had the sunset 2 hours ago.
>
> the answer is the same as the answer about the season
>

Whoa, is this obvious from the above experiments? I don't think so. I don't
think seasons come into them at all, actually.


> : the tilt of the earth.
>
> That kind of experiment was theoretical some years ago, but now it's a
> normal thing with the internet and the XOs.
>
> That fact is very clear if you see it on Google earth, with the sun turned
> "on", and you look the earth thousands of Km away, like a satellite. If you
> move the timeline you can see it very clearly.
>

These are cool activities, but do they pose or answer any WHY questions? Do
kids NEED to know WHY in order to successfully finish the activities? I
think these activities are just prep for other, "why- related" activities we
still need to design!

>
>
>
> Paolo Benini
> Montevideo
>
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