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Jona;
Two possible lessons:
observe and the collect data or
never get involved directly in your own experiment.
They did not predict the potential results of their experiment.
Martin
>
>
>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
>>
>>
>> ***********************************************************************
>> 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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>>
>
>***********************************************************************
>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.
>
>The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from
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--
Martin Weiss, PhD
Science Interpretation
Consultant,
New York Hall of Science
***********************************************************************
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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