![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/files\/2017\/05\/earths-eliptical-orbit-300x172.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOnce I got over the hair and trying to identify the decade in which the video was shot, I was pretty captivated by the developmental path of Heather\u2019s concept of an orbit.<\/p>\n
Because of the montage style of filming, it is quickly apparent that Heather comes to the class with preconceived, informal notions about the movement of planets.\u00a0 Having taught astronomy, I can attest to there being a ton of information, much of it highly graphical and spread over thousands of years of history and many cultures.\u00a0 In this case,\u00a0 she has superimposed orbital motion with formal learning about the analemma\u2014the relative position of the Sun at noon every day over the course of a year.<\/p>\n
I was further struck by the importance of clear graphical representation as illustrated by the \u201cperspective view\u201d of a circular orbit appearing to be an ellipse. \u00a0At the time of this writing, a Google image search for \u201corbital motion\u201d delivered this gem:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hosted proudly on PowerSchool Learning the curriculum clearly shows the Earth in a highly (incorrect) eccentric orbit.\u00a0 For extra irony, there is a link to a PhET animation, arguably the most reliable and accurate simulation space for physics on the web today.<\/p>\n
In my exploration of the readings around conceptual challenges I find the \u201cformal versus informal knowledge gap\u201d the most compelling.\u00a0 If formal describes the white-washed, devoid of context topics like \u201cblock on an incline\u201d from a standard introduction to physics, then informal is all of the real sensory concepts and language that people develop to explain what they experience in \u201creal life\u201d.\u00a0 Why can\u2019t we spend more time meeting the kids where they are and give them more time to explore?\u00a0 Learn about things that are directly relevant to the structures that they live within?\u00a0 Watching Heather come to an astronomy class and \u201cbook learn\u201d about things she cannot touch or clearly observe directly to me is just another example in a career litany of curriculum that is divorced from practical application for the sake of, say, academic purity, or following an \u201caccretion of knowledge\u201d paradigm that is demonstrably not very effective for many learners.<\/p>\n
British Columbia is going through an interesting change in curriculum that offers an opportunity to address this formal\/informal gap.\u00a0 In broad strokes, the focus has changed from curriculum heavy with \u201cthings to be taught\u201d to a reduced list of core competencies and the chances to explore concepts in a way that is deeper and more personally relevant.\u00a0 Although the details and execution are in early days, I believe this is the best chance we\u2019ve had to move the focus of school from teacher-centred to valuing student-centred study.\u00a0 It is my hope that allowing for differentiated instruction and more time to learn, students will have a chance to reduce the formal\/informal gap.<\/p>\n
Confrey, J. (1990).\u00a0 A Review of the Research on Student Conceptions in Mathematics, Science, and Programming.\u00a0 Review of Research in Education, Vol. 16 pp. 3-56.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once I got over the hair and trying to identify the decade in which the video was shot, I was pretty captivated by the developmental path of Heather\u2019s concept of an orbit. Because of the montage style of filming, it is quickly apparent that Heather comes to the class with preconceived, informal notions about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49895,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1669382],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-conceptual-challenges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49895"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2465"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2468,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465\/revisions\/2468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}