[meteorite-list] Planet Definition

From: Dawn & Gerald Flaherty <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Aug 3 21:20:33 2005
Message-ID: <037101c59892$b042c460$6502a8c0_at_GerryLaptop>

Aye Dave and Francis, Jerry
----- Original Message -----
From: "Francis Graham" <francisgraham_at_rocketmail.com>
To: "Meteorites" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Planet Definition


>
>
> --- David Weir <dgweir_at_earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> > Francis,
> >
> > What's wrong with teaching kids the actual facts,
> > even if they aren't
> > readily conducive to pigeon-holing?
>
> My old lunar friend Dave brings up something very
> important. It IS MUCH BETTER to allow students to
> decide what a planet is in their minds, and teach them
> that Pluto, Xena, etc. are bodies that orbit the sun,
> are approximately spherical, and are different from
> Earth, Venus, Mercury, Mars because they are largely
> made of ices and not rocky, and different from
> Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune because they do
> not have colossal hydrogen atmospheres. This would be
> the better approach, much, much more informative.
> But we all know what will really happen. Test item
> on state-mandated proficiency test: "How many planets
> are there in the solar system?" a. 9 b. 10 c. 14 d.8"
> One right answer.
> Such would be neither in the spirit of science or
> scientific. But: state-mandated.
> So Dave, I know where you heart is.
> Francis Graham
>
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Received on Wed 03 Aug 2005 09:20:22 PM PDT