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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: a grand tradition
From: John Huth
Date: 2011 Oct 20, 17:59 -0400
From: John Huth
Date: 2011 Oct 20, 17:59 -0400
Patrick -
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Keeping up with the grind
If you saw more of that video, you'd probably get even more agitated. I have the entire video. After that segment, they interview the first guy again and ask him what courses he's taken - they include electromagnetism, quantum mechanics and planetary sciences.
Then, they interview faculty members who give equally bad and even more bolluxed up answers.
What I also found interesting about it is the following - they keep making gestures with their hands to explain material, but the sun is out there shining. I would consider a "valid" explanation someone who points to the sun and says "you see, it's high in the sky, and it's warm, but if you wait until winter, you'll see it's much lower in the sky, even at midday." That might not be the 'best' explanation, but it's a far better one.
I agree that part of the problem is that it's a disconnected fact - but is part of their every day experience nonetheless. The answer is right around them.
John H.
On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 5:26 PM, Patrick Goold <goold@vwc.edu> wrote:
A good follow-up question: if the seasons change because the distance from the earth to the sun changes, why is it that the northern hemisphere has winter when then southern has summer and v.v.? I am sure that these same students are aware of that phenomenon. Why don't they put things they know together? It is as if many students have started seeing the world as a collection of disjoint facts, like a big jar of pennies or something, and nothing connects. It is not so much the lack of specific science education. I would be surprised if biology majors did not give a similar answer to the seasons question. There has been too much teaching that has left them passive before the facts. Information is everywhere. The ability to make an inference is rarer. The curiosity and the habit of doing so rarer still.
Oh, oh. My curmudgeon is coming out. I'll stop now.
Best,
PatrickOn Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 6:41 PM, Apache Runner <apacherunner@gmail.com> wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0wk4qG2mIg
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Dr. Patrick Goold
Department of Philosophy
Virginia Wesleyan College
Norfolk, VA 23502
757 455 3357
Keeping up with the grind
