ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Thank you, indeed, David. I always feel slightly guilty at my inability to
explain our Bernoulli exhibit. Of course, being a Children's Museum, our
visitors don't always care "why", they just know that it's cool. And I guess
in a lot of ways, that's a good start. If kids gets excited and think
something is cool, and want to persue it further, or have just decided that
science is fun after all....my job here is done. And maybe someday one of
these kids will be able to explain Bernoulli to me in a way that I can
grasp.
I find Eric's question a fun one as well. I always had a tough time with
waves beyond the visible spectrum; the fact that some insects can see
ultraviolet is kind of bizarre. Electromagnets hurt my head--wrap a wire
around a screwdriver, and it becomes magnetic? huh? (and for those of you
who were at the Faraday workbench weekend, that's my guilty secret). On the
other hand, DNA replication makes perfect sense to me.
Fun stuff.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alissa Daniels, Science Program Manager
Boston Children's Museum
617-426-6500 x342
www.BostonChildrensMuseum.org
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but "That's funny..." --Isaac
Asimov
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Siegel [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 6:55 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Bernoulli exhibits
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
****************************************************************************
*
Good post, David. I guess it is a truism in this field that we are not
teaching facts but rather trying to engage visitors in "thinking like
scientists." Your realization about how much science you take on
faith, so to speak, seems to me to be an example of how new science
gets done. If our visitors were introduced to a similar process of
analyzing what they understand and what they only *think* they
understand--on whatever level-- it would be a great service to them. I
assume this is what people mean by "critical thinking skills" though I
have never been entirely sure.
On a related note, I was thinking recently how much science of the last
few centuries was based upon taking things that were obvious to our
senses and experience and showing how they are wrong. Starting with
the flat earth...of course the earth looks flat, through the geocentric
universe...of course the sun and the stars move around the earth, any
fool can see that, up through relativity, quantum mechanics, cosmology.
Not all breakthroughs are like that. Genetics describes a mechanism
for what we intuited, that the leaf doesn't fall far from the tree. I
wonder whether scientific breakthroughs fall into these two
categories...the counterintuitive and the intuitive.
As an additional response, in a certain frame of mind, it seems to me
that I can adequately explain *nothing.* There is always too much
texture, detail, and complexity to explain any actual phenomenon.
Richard Feynman talks about this in the "six easy pieces" extract of
his lectures, as does Jim Gleick in Chaos. Maybe it is a bit different
from what you are talking about, but to explain exactly how this
specific lever moves this specific object is an endless task.
Thanks for bringing this up.
Eric Siegel
Director, Planning &
Program Development
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street
Queens, NY 11368
[log in to unmask]
www.nyscience.org
On Sep 2, 2004, at 2:42 AM, David Taylor wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
> ***********************************************************************
> ******
>
> This discussion brings up one of the things I have given some though
> to, but don't really know yet what I think or how I feel about it...
>
> I'm a pretty smart guy... I've seen Bernoulli exhibits for more than 30
> years and seen and heard the term in physics classes, pre-flight
> instruction classes, in learning how a sail works on a sailboat and
> have
> even written copy for two Bernoulli exhibits... but in reality even
> though
> I can see the phenomena and explain the phenomena, I don't really think
> I understand the way the Bernoulli effect works... in many ways it is
> still
> 'magic'. It's the same with the Doppler effect and many other really
> great
> science demonstrations and exhibits... they are great 'gee whiz' stuff,
> but what is our purpose in teaching them and what do folks really learn
> other than the sorta semi-scientific explanations and to say, wow I
> sorta
> have some explanation for why a 200 ton airplane flies and why a train
> sounds funny as it passes... how is this different than saying it's
> because
> some things are fire, air, earth and water based, as some other
> cultures
> have said. To the average person (and probably me too) it is only the
> belief in the paradigm of science as a better way of explaining things
> that
> these explanations have any more credibility than magic.
>
> There are some physical principles I can convince myself I understand
> like the way a lever works... it is very concrete and I can see and
> touch
> it... but how sound passes through solids, liquids, gasses but not
> vacuums
> but light does... or understanding light as a particle or a wave, is
> still
> something I have to take as faith (even though I know the words and can
> convince other folks to believe that it is true.)
>
> I'm not sure what my question or statements are about other than to say
> that I'm still confused about how much we really can accomplish in
> getting
> kids and non-scientist's (including myself) to truly understand the
> world we
> live in rather than just being able to use scientific terms and
> explanations
> to describe what occurs...
>
> I would love some insight and comments from the rest of you...
>
> Dave Taylor...
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