A Different Use for Celestia

[JimDv1.2]

Hi all.

I thought I would share this about a different application for Celestia.

My brother is a college professor and one of the classes he teaches is climatology. Amazingly, there are a sizeable number of students, at the college level, that do not understand that the tilt of the Earth drives our seasons. In the past he had demonstrated how this works this in his classroom using the classical ?€?lamp and ball?€

[PlutonianEmpire]

Good luck to him!

[Malenfant]

I don't think it's all that different really, Celestia was designed as an educational tool after all

[Don. Edwards]

It blows me away that college age students are leaving high school without the understanding of this very simple knowledge. I understood the workings of the Earth's seasons clear back to second grade, of course self taught. Of course I was an advanced reader, having a reading level way beyond what was considered normal for my age group. I was reading at the college level by fourth grade and understanding everything I read. It just blows me away that the educational systems just can't seem to get very simple ideas as to how the Earth works across to student until they are at the colledge level. It makes for a very scarry future in my opinion.

Don. Edwards

[fsgregs]

Don and Jim:

As an Astronomy teacher in a high school in an affluent suburb of Washington, DC, I can attest that less than 10% of high school seniors actually realize the Earth's seasons are caused by the tilt of the axis. The reason is simple. The topic is taught in "Earth Science" in middle and high school in the U.S., and "Earth Science" is considered by most kids and their parents as the 2nd rate science that kids only take if they can't hack Biology or Chemistry or Physics. Only the "losers" take Earth Science in many kids minds. As a result, the seasons, Meteorology, Astronomy, Geology, and Oceanography typically don't get taught to most high school students.

Hell ... over 1/2 of the seniors that first enter my Astronomy class at the beginning of term cannot name the nine planets in order. In fact, 1/3 of them can't even name all nine planets, let alone tell me their order. That is why Celestia is such a powerful tool. It energizes their learning and gives them something visual to remember!

I also use the program in class on a big projector screen for demonstrating the axis and seasons, and I use Maxim's great physical map add-ons to demonstrate plate tectonics and continental drift. Recently, I've begun using it to explain global warming.

Regards

Frank

[gandalf]

Unfortunately, I must mostly agree with fsgregs as far as the status of earth science in high school goes. There is a real stigma attached to earth science. The dumbed-down earth sci textbooks I have seen really don't help that perception much. I teach small earth science class of juniors and seniors who are attending for one of two reasons - they need the credit and are terrified of the math required in chemistry and physics, or they actually WANT to learn it because science has always interested them. I am just starting the learning process of Celestia myself and it does look to be a great learning tool.
Many Thanks to all who support this program!

[Chuft-Captain]

Don and Jim and Frank,

Some even scarier statistics:

Among 18- to 24-year-old Americans given maps:
87 percent cannot find Iraq
83 percent cannot find Afghanistan
76 percent cannot find Saudi Arabia
70 percent cannot find New Jersey
49 percent cannot find New York
11 percent cannot find the United States

Source: http://archives.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/ ... aphy.quiz/

Perhaps it's time for a spot-quiz in your classroom(s)...

Let us know how your students measure up!

[Fightspit]

[t00fri]

Don and Jim and Frank,

Some even scarier statistics:

Among 18- to 24-year-old Americans given maps:
87 percent cannot find Iraq
83 percent cannot find Afghanistan
76 percent cannot find Saudi Arabia
70 percent cannot find New Jersey
49 percent cannot find New York
11 percent cannot find the United States

Source: http://archives.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/ ... aphy.quiz/

Perhaps it's time for a spot-quiz in your classroom(s)...

Let us know how your students measure up!

Here I can also contribute a (non-statistically significant) event from a long time ago when I attended an International Conference at Cornell Univ. (hi Selden ). In a public bus down to Itaca, a middle aged lady addressed us (my wife + myself), explaining in GREAT detail that her son was serving since several years in the US army in Heidelberg/Germany. After the 15 minutes ride, my wife and I knew every little detail about the lady's family

Just before leaving the bus, she asked me: " Oh, tell me, do you also have dollar currency in Germany?" . What was shocking was that she really didn't make a "primitive" sort of impression. Highschool level I would guess ...

After spending many months in the US over the years and watching local TV news, it became clear to us that despite those "never ending" news broadcasts, the coverage of European afairs was ridiculously low. So perhaps that was the reason...Yet, it is just OUT OF THE QUESTION to find anyone around here not knowing the currency of the US.

At the other end, however, the number of American Nobel Prize winners is just overwhelming . Hmm...

Bye Fridger

[buggs_moran]

At the other end, however, the number of American Nobel Prize winners is just overwhelming . Hmm...

Bye Fridger

Our smart few (relatively, we do number around 300 million people now) are a very intelligent minority. How's that for a redundant statement?

Ah, complacency and mediocrity!

I think I'll go watch TV now and bask in it's calming glow or perhaps some PS2...now where is that book I was using as a coaster...

Beware. Scary times ahead.

[Lethe]

The running joke is "God invented wars to teach 'Murricans geography".

Anyway, I always wondered how easy it would be to adapt Celestia to be a working atom/molecule viewer.

With the way the scripting/modelling is handled, it should be easy once the blueprint is done?

Nick

[t00fri]

The running joke is "God invented wars to teach 'Murricans geography".

Among 18- to 24-year-old Americans given maps:
87 percent cannot find Iraq
83 percent cannot find Afghanistan
...

That apparently wasn't such a successful idea of Mr. God


Bye Fridger

[yunir]

i think, when it come to world affairs, Americans are ignorant because there's no need to care much about other countries.
Being a superpower, everyone else is just a weeny.

As for my side of the globe, with very much polluted night skies,
there's no need to study astronomy. Heck, study astronomy and people laugh at you, if they don't call you weird. And since we can't see milky way, even the teachers/educators don't know what they are!!!

[Vincent]

I've built a specific version of Celestia to be used in schools about the lenght of the day/night along the seasons...

It is part of a complete educational project that I've nearly finished integrating worksheets, videos, and this specific version of Celestia...

You can download and try a Windows beta version here (french version) : http://vincent.gian.club.fr/jour_nuit/jour_nuit_1.5.zip

Here's a summary of the worksheet :
- Activity 1 : pupils manipulate the Earth to find different marks (equator, hemispheres, poles,...) and note them on their worksheet.
- Activity 2 : pupils time the lenght of the day and the night for different values of the angle of Earth's inclination to find the value of this angle.
- Activity 3 : pupils time the lenght of the day/night inside the polar circles on the summer/winter solstice to understand the phenomenom of polar night/day
- Activity 4 : pupils follow the earth along its journey around the sun and notice the increasing/decreasing phases of the lenght of the day on the southern/northern hemispheres.

Here's a screenshot of Activity 4 :


If you're interested, I can post a link to the video as soon as the last chapters are done...

[Dollan]

i think, when it come to world affairs, Americans are ignorant because there's no need to care much about other countries.
Being a superpower, everyone else is just a weeny.

My own experiences in the classroom show that this is just not true. The real culprit lies with several vectors, including over-crowded classrooms, teachers required to spend the majority of their time on discipline matters, and perhaps the largest of all, the lowering of the standards by our government.

This last started a LONG time ago, as a response to lowering test scores. The easiest way to raise the scores was to provide a simpler test. This, of course, can only end badly.

...John...

[fsgregs]

Vincent:

Your new educational lesson plans look interesting. I've just downloaded and will try out soon.

Frank

[t00fri]

i think, when it come to world affairs, Americans are ignorant because there's no need to care much about other countries.
Being a superpower, everyone else is just a weeny.

My own experiences in the classroom show that this is just not true. The real culprit lies with several vectors, including over-crowded classrooms, teachers required to spend the majority of their time on discipline matters, and perhaps the largest of all, the lowering of the standards by our government.

...John...

John,

that sounds not quite right to me. These unfortunate constraints you are referring to are about the same everywhere.

Many years ago, when I spent several months at Fermilab/Chicago, our daughter was very small and I had plenty of opportunity to watch US TV (rather than going out ).

In several months of daily extended news broadcasts the only shown scenes about European politics, were /two/ 30 second spots, one about Mrs. Thatcher waving her hands in Downing street 10 and the other one about former German chancelor Brandt waving his hands as well while coming out of some building.

+++++++++++++
THAT was IT!
+++++++++++++

As I said earlier, the intriguing clash being the exorbitant number of US Nobel Prize winners ...

Bye Fridger

[Dollan]

I would say, Fridger, that the media coverage is a small part of the whole. The original fault lies within our educational system; having been a part of it, I can attest to that quite easily. Don't get me wrong, while small, the media component is actually quite deep in its influences. But when the average student, even at the college level, does not have the knowledge base to compare with what they're seeing (or not seeing) on TV, then the problem is only compounded until it becomes absolutely septic.

...john...

[Dollan]

Actually, I should qualify the above with the fact that the problem *is* regional. In some areas of the US, student knowledge base is a lot higher than other regions. But as a whole, and in general, I would say that it rates as relatively poor.

...John...

[fsgregs]

Perhaps an illustration of the level of student education (in America) is in order.

I have had numerous students ask me if the scenes depicted in the movie, "The Core", are possible. For the uneducated, "The Core" was this nutty Hollywood movie about a team of "scientists" who journey to the center of Earth in a special Laser equipped boring vessel to plant a nuclear bomb to restart the core of the Earth (which had mysteriously stopped). Along the way, they encounter hollow caves, lots of lava, rocks and heat. Naturally, their ship is indistructable and their boring tool is a laser that melts a giant hole in front of the ship at ... about 3 meters a second. The ship then uses propellers in the back to kind of ... swim ... down into the Earth and through the mantle and liquid core.

Of course, the nuclear bomb works, the core spins back up in a matter of seconds, the ship manages to get back out real fast ... and ....

To my astonishment, at least 20 of my high school juniors and seniors have asked me if such a ship exists ... or if people could actually journey to the inner core of Earth

What can one say ....

Frank