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I think the lesson is, "Don't forget to include the article link."
- Evan :-)
>>> There's a lesson here somewhere, I'm just not sure what it is.
> This is a true story, reported in the Hartford Courant, about what just
> might be the perfection of science.
>
> It tells of two young scientists who personified a great many (granted,
> not all) of the greatest virtues of science learning. Free-form,
> inquiry-driven science flowered in them. In the science center field, we
> DREAM of those who act in this manner.
>
> And yet...
>
> Let's examine the scientific virtues that this pair exemplified:
>
> 1) Their exploration was self-motivated. They did not decide to learn a
> little bit more about the natural world because their teacher made them,
> because they had to know it for a test, because it was on the state
> science standards, because a well meaning parent or science center
> educator led them in this direction. They were driven by their own
> curiosity.
>
> 2) They began with a healthy skepticism of scientific content as
> presented in popular entertainment. An entirely wise approach. [Real
> forensics investigators, for example, do not act like those on the CSI
> shows. Amongst many inaccuracies, they have more than one facial
> expression. Unlike David Caruso.]
>
> 3) Confronted with a possible physical phenomenom, they cast a definite
> hypothesis about how it would function.
>
> 4) As in the heart of all good science, they tested their hypothesis
> with experiment. To make things even better, they designed the
> experiment themselves (unlike the "follow these directions" m.o.
> commonly used in science education.)
>
> 5) Once the results were in, the experiment disproved their initial
> hypothesis... and they readily accepted this fact. "I decided to try it
> because I thought all of the TV shows were lies," one said later, "but
> it turns out I was wrong." This lack of dogmatism, intellectual honesty,
> and openess to revise one's ideas in the face of evidence is far, far
> too rare in this world.
>
> What could possibly be bad about such a wonderfully scientific process?
>
> Well, here are some details on their experiment: Two fourth graders in
> Indiana decided to see if putting their tongues on a frozen flagpole
> really would get them stuck --- just like in the movie A Christmas
> Story. It turns out that in this case, Hollywood got it right, and
> yes... your tongue really will stick to very cold metal.
>
> There's a lesson here somewhere, I'm just not sure what it is.
>
> Jonah Cohen
> Outreach & Public Programs Manager
> The Children's Museum
>
> "I hate quotations."
> -Ralph Waldo Emerson
>
>
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>
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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
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