[meteorite-list] Re: Kitchen Comet Cows

From: Bob Martino <martino.6_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:02:24 2004
Message-ID: <v03130301b8a85b0b03cc_at_[65.24.110.16]>

You have _got_ to be kidding.

Did you in fact READ my kitchen comet write-up? If you did then you should
have noticed that it is stuffed full of educational content. Every
ingredient added to the comet is there because such things are found in
real comets. So I make my activities enjoyable. This is wrong somehow?
Should all science content be presented by someone who talks like Ben Stein
on sedatives? Should I not have my own style?

I inject humor into my presentations. This elicits an emotional response
from the audience. If you had bothered to keep up on educational,
learning, and brain research in the last 18 years you might have noticed
results indicating that humans remember better when strong emotions are
tied with the memories. Since it wouldn't do for me to make my audience
cry or run in fear, I figure that making them happy through the use of
jokes will add that emotional engagement which helps to make the memories
last.

FYI, I never fail to receive many compliments from the _parents_ (not their
"crude youth") who attend my shows. I constantly am told that they learned
something and will remember it. And I made them happy, too. Oh, how awful
I am! Western Civilization is DOOMED!

Seriously, if you have a better way to indicate the methane content in the
kitchen comet, I'd love to hear it. Until then, you might try to lighten
up. "Fun" and "educational" are not mutually exclusive.


>You are not alone in this opinion. The idea that science should be taught
>as a form of entertainment --not necessarily with any substantial content
>nor accountability-- is the primary reason why I left the science teaching
>profession 18 years ago. The old Mr. Wizard TV shows of the 1950s would be
>considered dull by today's commercial entertainment-driven standards, but
>they were highly informative-- and to me as a young boy--fascinating.
>
>> In my humble but doubtless unique opinion, too much of our world is run
>> already by crude youth and their toadies, the crude youth marketeers.
>> Perhaps like the methane itself, it's a product of decay.
>>
>> I vote not to encourage it.
>>
>Add my vote too.
>
>> Dave Coleman
>and Paul Dudley
>
>>> And don't forget the methane! So I take a stuffed cow and have it pass
>>> some gas into the bucket. Sure its crude. That's why the kids love it
>>> so.
>>
>> > Mooo!
>>
>> ______________________________________________
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>>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Martino Can you really name a star?
                                   http://home.columbus.rr.com/starfaq/
"I look up to the heavens
 but night has clouded over
 no spark of constellation
 no Vela no Orion." -Enya
Received on Sun 03 Mar 2002 08:07:04 PM PST