astronomy education

AstralTraveller (David) · #1 03-06-2008, 08:56 PM

The other night I received a phone call from my 14 year old niece. That in itself is a minor miracle but that isn't why I am writing. She wanted help with revision she was doing on an astronomy module they had done at school. (For those others as ancient as me, revision these days is done in the form of an on-line quiz). After pointing out that she should attempt the questions first (which she mostly had), I worked through the questions with her. I have to say I was impressed with the level of knowledge year 8 students are expected to have.

Some of it is quite enlightening. My first enlightenment was to discover that a rock from space that hits the Earth is a meteorite, while one that burns up in the atmosphere is a meteoroid. Well, I have heard the word before but I can't think of when someone last actually used it. The following multiple choice questions are even more enlightening. See how you go (no peeking - OK).

A large rotating cloud of gas and dust is a:
a) star
b) planet
c) asteroid
d) galaxy

The rotation of the Earth in one direction causes the celestial sphere to rotate in the opposite direction. Therefore starts appear to rise in the:
a) north
b) south
c) east
d) west

Right Assension (RA) is used to measure:
a) the First Point of Aries
b) distances east-west on the celestial sphere
c) the equinox
d) distances north-south on the celestial sphere

If you answered (d) to all of the above you will go far in the education system. Otherwise you could be an astronomer. I suppose that 'galaxy' it the best option for the first one but it does ignore the small matter of stars. The other two are just plain wrong. I don't remember hearing the explanation for the second one but I did for the third one. Apparently "lines of RA run north-south on a sky chart and are used to measure distance north or south of the equator".

If it makes you feel any better my sister, a triple certificate nurse, was amazed to find that some bones have migrated. These days the clavicle is at the back of the shoulder and the scapula is at the front.

I believe this is a state-wide quiz. Given that, you would think they could have some people with some basic knowledge of each area proof read the questions.

ngcles · #2 03-06-2008, 10:40 PM

Hi Astraltraveller & All,

I can relate to your experience!

My daughter did astronomy as part of her "comprehensive" education two years ago at a large public high school in southern Sydney in Yr 10.

Of course, she didn't let Dad know she was doing astronomy in science, she didn't want me looking over her shoulder at what she was doing. But ...

One day near the end of the section she came home and asked:

"Dad, Sedna _isn't_ a planet, is it" -- No it isn't I replied "Why do you ask?" (privately I was very proud that she knew that despite her "apparent" disinterest in astronomy).

"Well, we were taught today that it _was_ a planet and I asked the teacher whether she was sure and the teacher said she was".

Hmmm ... well the teacher is wrong I'm sorry.

"Yep I told her that it was wrong and that she ought to check it out, and then the teacher said it would be in the exam at the end of the week _and_ that if I answer that Sedna is not a planet, I _will be marked incorrect_ and loose the marks. What should I do?"

Well that wasn't hard.

I told her to go into the exam and give the _correct_ answer and if anything comes of it, I would deal with it. I also armed her with print-outs of several pages from the IAU website on the status of Sedna confirming its KBO/non-planet status by the only body that has authority to make pronouncements on the subject.

She did the exam. She took Dad's advice. She was marked wrong.

After the exam, she took the point up with the teacher and produced the IAU documents that prove the point _definitively_.

The teachers response was (can you guess??):

(a) Oh yes, I see you are right. I'll fix it right away. Thanks for putting me straight.

(b) The curriculum documents clearly instruct that Sedna is the 10th planet in the solar-system. It is the only answer I can accept. What the IAU says is _irrelevant_.

Yep you guessed it, b.

Luckily parent-teacher night was the next week. It was an interesting conversation we touched firstly on the issue of the status of Sedna. The teacher asked "well what makes you an authority on the subject?" -- so I told her. Then, we discussed the absolute authority of the IAU on nomenclature.

Following this, we had a bit of a "fireside chat" over the role of the teacher, the importance of teaching factually correct material and lastly upon scientific method.

The marks were restored.

Was the correct material ever taught? Who knows. I'll bet all my daughter's classmates are still under the impression Sedna is a planet.

Most teachers do a sensational job but this fool really, really irritated me and I am given to wondering how much other incorrect stuff is taught, and how this wrong information could become part of the curriculum.

My daughter is now at a different school.

True story.

Best,

Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T

renormalised (Carl) · #3 03-06-2008, 11:31 PM

Les, the education system is rife with gross inaccuracies in many subjects, and astronomy (if it's ever taught at all) is one of them. I've seen the various textbooks they use in high schools for teaching science and they have a lot left to be desired. The astronomical knowledge in them is woeful. I actually approached the senior science teacher and headmaster at a school I was doing teaching at back in the late 90's about this and showed them the books in question, pointing out the inaccuracies. Apart from being clueless themselves, they did feign surprise at the inaccuracies but I'd doubt they really had the requisite knowledge to understand anyway.

It's a complete and utter educational disaster to think that these books are actually being used as authoritative texts!!! The knowledge of those that write them is in my opinion entirely suspect. I wonder whether they even did a science course at uni, at all. I seriously doubt it. To really teach science, you need to have done science and I believe you really need a science degree to be even competent in the field. Not a subject or two, maybe, scattered in amongst the art and humanities courses. No wonder our science education in this country is going backwards!!! When it came time to teach the kids I had a little bit of physics and astronomy, I refused to use the text and taught from my own experience and knowledge. I rewrote their curriculum and suggested an appropriate text for them to order. I then suggested they write to the BoSSS (Board of Secondary School Studies) and have them change the curriculum for the state.