Todd, for my classes this week I have been handing out a survey on the big bang theory and trying desperately to get at the students attitudes and ideas concerning the theory. It has been interesting and rewarding but more difficult that it seems like it should be. I have some who have been willing to let me know how they really feel, but not enough. Many of my students do not enjoy learning about the theory because it doesn’t make sense to them according to their religion. On the other hand I also have a fair amount of students that accept the theory at face value because they think that smart people have figured it out enough. Somehow I wish that I could get my students to see the value in learning about theories instead of immediately discounting everything about them or blindly accepting them. At the same time I also wish that I could get them to tear them apart and ask the hard questions so that their learning can go to the next level. Anyway…. James
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
A Post from James (Delving into Theories)
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James,
I have thought about this through the week and wondered what your thoughts are about the following approach to engaging students more and more into tearing apart theories.
While I am not sure I would teach this isolated from discussion of a specific theory, I do think this may be significant and timely for the purpose and context you have. I wonder if taking time to engage students in a lesson specifically about theories and laws. Lederman (NOS researcher) found that students don't typically pick up on the nature of science unless we explicitly focus on the tenets. I have seen a couple of activities in which students are presented with a cone with strings through them and asked to develop a similar cone. They are never shown how the cone is constructed, but are guided to test their construction against the original. THis leads into discussion about what theories are and perhaps even what laws are. I have also seen a box constructed with numerous tubes in it. As liquid is poured through a funnel at the top, several different things happen to the liquid (colored, never come out, etc.) students are then asked to diagram what is inside the box. This leads to discussions similar to the other activity with the cone and string.
I think this would be timely especially leading back into discussion about the Big Bang theory in ways that you have described. Perhaps this would lead into what Deb has offered as a possible approach. Let me know if you would like to get more info on the two activities I described.
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