h a l f b a k e r y
"Not baked goods, Professor; baked bads!" -- The Tick
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This idea would start out with a contest. Maybe somone like the Gates Foundation could sponsor it to make it worthwhile. The contest would present a list of critical scientific concepts that every educated person should know. Contestants would then submit the simplest possible method they could think
of for getting the concepts across. Methods would be categorized by visual, tactile and auditory to cover different learning styles. Rewards would be given to each person who came up with the simplest method of getting one of the concepts across in each of the categories. Bonus dollars might be awarded based on entertainment value.
The invention would be a new kind of textbook, one written for all types of learners based on the most creative teachers (winners) we can find.
[link]
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"Moment is force times...?" |
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<taser crackle and screaming> |
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"...force times what...?" |
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<more tasering, some whimpering> |
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"Take your time now..."
Wagster Educashun Inc. is awaiting it's entertainment bonus. |
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Over here in HE-AL, we do this every day with our home educated children. |
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I like it (+), a mini X-prize for teachers! This is exactly the kind of small important and achievable goals that should be incouraged. |
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Every action causes an equal an opposite reaction. |
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As you step off this cliff, you will be accelerated at a rate determined by the mass of the earth. |
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Everyone likes pi, we can start there! |
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I don't like it - proper understanding isn't a host of independent elements - it's a continuum, an inter-connecting landscape that takes time to understand. |
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I'd be worried that the simplest methods of teaching quanta of knowledge would obfuscate the far messier but ultimately more satisfying experience of the interconnectedness of all things. |
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zen-tom - Isn't the continuum a concept? |
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[zentom], I agree but if one piece could really hit home then they will be encouraged to learn the rest. How many people learned chemistry or physics because they played with model rockets? Electronics because of ham radio? How much better would this world be if science was as cool as sports? |
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Science *is* as cool as sports, to some! |
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By the way, longshot9999's idea as a final list of seminars or lesson plans would be great. The best teachers that I knew had an uncanny knack of explaining things so that I said to myself "Why didn't I figure that out for myself?" |
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What you're saying [zen_tom] is that children should learn about the forest before they learn about the trees? |
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+, but make sure you screen the teachers. So far our poor kids have been tasered, slapped, and pushed off a cliff. |
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Won't somebody PLEASE save the children! |
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.... don't look at us ...... |
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Yeah, I don't think it's gonna work. Covering all the learning styles will add complexity, taking out content will abandon particular styles. There's no way to have your robust and simplify it too. |
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I point you to [zen_tom]'s Invisible Finger. But don't look at *my* finger. (Perhaps we need an invisible finger pointing to [zen..]'s invisible finger, but then we might need one that points to mine.) |
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Of course this whole mess could be avoided if we just looked at the moon. |
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In the good old days, people thought the moon was the reflection of the sun off God's window. Galileo used telescopes to show it had craters and mountains, just like the earth! Yay! Then they figured out it was made of cheese and generally lost interest until 20 years after the second World War, the one where millions of people were killed in the name of initially benign idealisms, and then we wanted to go to the moon (like, our bodies and everything!), probably because we accepted our fate with it's dark side, and maybe wanted to check it out, see what's a crackalackin'. Well, we haven't been back in over 30 years, and whaddaya know, we're in another war. So, class, to conclude this super encompassing lesson on the moon, I want your homework to be to go out and measure the parallax of the moon over a 20 minute period. I want you to use Kepler's laws to deduce the length of Earth's apogee by measuring moon borne shadows on two distinct points on the earth's surface. And, finally, I want everyone to record their best howl at the moon and send it to the grader in an email using the audio software provided in the textbook. If you don't like software, you can just scream in my ear for ten minutes about how much the education system sucks because it doesn't accommodate for people's idiosyncratic weaknesses, and that will count as your howl. Have a good weekend! |
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[QED] Not that I disagree, but cause and effect could be easily confused here. True: I am more motivated to understand the physics of refraction/optics because I enjoy using my 100mm Mak. These really do compliment each other, however, my inquisitive nature is more easily satiated by telescopes / model-rockets / chemistry sets than by atari / play-station / x-box. But then again, my inquisitive nature might have been cultivated by my father buying, then helping me build and launch a nova pay-loader, and showing me Saturn through his 60mm refractor.
<reflects>
Hmmm, I believe I owe my father a debt of gratitude. I believe you are right QED. A great chicken did indeed come before this humble egg. |
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Simplest does not mean "easiest." |
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