Many science teachers struggle to with lessons surrounding Earth Sciences. Explaining the planetary motions that give rise to day, night, seasons, differences in insolation and tides are not simple, concrete topics that students can easily grasp. I have struggled with teaching lessons surrounding these and similar ideas in my own Science 10 classes. I believe these topics are difficult for students to learn because they involve processes which are difficult to explain and visualize. In addition planetary motion, gravity and weather systems are topics rife with misconceptions especially in younger children.
In an effort to help teach these complicated topics to middle school students [slider title=”Edelson, Salierno, Matese, Pitts and Sherin (2002)”]Edelson, D. C., Salierno, C., Matese, G., Pitts, V., & Sherin, B. (2002, April). Learning-for-Use in Earth science: Kids as climate modelers. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, New Orleans, LA.[/slider] constructed a learning-for-use model to help build student knowledge surrounding planetary concepts. Using the Planetary Forecaster curriculum as a base, researchers used this new model and investigated how student’s perceptions and understanding of these processes changed. In my opinion their design model did not lead to any significant change in student understanding surrounding these concepts. Students still displayed many misconceptions after the unit and some seemed even more confused. As stated these topics are very difficult and discussing them in any depth at the middle school level would be very difficult.
I must say I applaud the researchers in their efforts to better a unit of study. Obviously the Planetary Forecaster portion of their curriculum is an area of concern and they are taking the right steps into investigating how best to help their students learn these complex ideas. When I teach similar units I try and make abstract concepts like planetary motion real to the students. I think some valuable learning could be found in using models, online simulations and actual physical representations for these events. As the researchers found come misconceptions were cleared up when small activities such as playing with the rays of a flashlight were used instead of simple diagrams or descriptions.