Weblog of Wesley Fryer

Dr Walter Smith, Ball State
University
21 March
2005
Presentation at TTU College of
Education

Observation of nature,
observing nature is the focus
- is a
scaffold to do many other things
- is an
invitation to collaborate with others: ed psych instructional tech, language
arts, global studies, science
education

Vision is consistent with
various national level publications
-
ultimate goal (?) of science education: product should be people who are
inquirers, know how to inquire and want to
inquire!

issues of teacher quality:
impact of teachers on students
- working
with volunteer teachers
- if the teacher
agrees to participate, we try to do everything else for the
project
Linda Darling Hammond in Eudcation
Policy Analysis, 2000: “student learning..(is) enhanced by the efforts of
teachers who are more knowledgeable in their field and are skillful at teaching
it to others.”

“…effects of
weel-prepared teachers on student achirevetn acan be stronger than the
influences of studntet background factors, such as poverty. language background,
and moniority statud

trying to
apply new educational technology
potential

Why study the
moon?
- 20 year roots personally: Fajada
Butte in Chaco Canyon, about 8 hours northwest of
Lubbock
- Anazasi on side of Fajada Butte,
placed 3 slabs of rock leaning against the wall, at summer solstice light
shining between the first 2 casts shadow behind the stones, the daggers of light
that show
- moon hasa 19 year cycle, shadow
has placement

only place we know of
on earth where prehistoric peoples had an
observatory

this is called the sun
dagger

href="http://www.lapahie.com/Chaco_Sun_Dagger.cfm"
target="NewWindow">http://www.lapahie.com/Chaco_Sun_Dagger.cfm

href="http://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/lost_dagger.html"
target="NewWindow">http://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/lost_dagger.html

Moon is only object that can be
studied worldwide

Messages after 9-11
tragedy: bottom line is we should talk with each other to promote better world
understanding / world peace

Music is
pervasive across cultures
- also in books,
movies
- most prevalent theme in music is
love, 2nd most prevalent theme is the
moon

Sun is often seen as male, makes
its own light, steady, regular,
dependible
Moon is seen as female, reflects
sun’s light, irregular,
undependible

reference to menstrual
cycles

Moon is part of religion: not
just pagan, also in Christian
- Regorian
Calendar, set by Pop Gregory XIII in 1582
-
is solar based and moon-based (idea of
month)

Easter is first Sunday after
the first full moon that occurs next after the vernal
equinox

href="http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/easter.html"
target="NewWindow">http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/easter.html

Julian calendar is also moon
based
- Greeks and Russians use different
calendars for Christmas and Easter
- Easter
is May 1st for Russians
- this year is an
example of the greatest differences between the Julian and Gregorian
calendars
- Greeks have different
traditions: follow new calendar for Christmas, old for
Easter
- Armenians have still different
calendar traditions

Muslim calendar
is much more lunar based
- Ramadan is 9th
month in muslim calendar, starts on 4 Oct
2005
- then 23 sept
2006
- then 12 sept
2007

Everyday beliefs about full moon
being evil
- word “lunatic” comes from
Latin word for moon

Moon is part of
national standards, especially focusing on
inquiry

Keys
-
can have global inquiry on this object
-
pervades all cultures: music, art, literature, moveis, religion, everyday
beliefs
- part of our
standards

How does project
work
- students in Austraila or Navajo
reservation make lunar observations for 10
weeks
- this semester about 1/3 of
participating students are in Australia
-
lots of students in Ukraine, some in England, Finland, Tropical island in
Caribbean
- Boston, Indiana, about 140
students in Lubbock

Map shows
participants: not all from northern
hemisphere

as students compare and
contrast their observations, students learn how their view changes based on the
viewer’s
location

students
-
keep records of their observations (keep data in
handbook)
– teacher quality makes a huge
difference: couldn’t just get the students and teach them
online
- teachers have weekly discussions
with students

student observations
that children in northern hemisphere can
make
- moon is not visible at all times,
even when the sky is clear
- sometimes the
moon can be seen during daylight hours, sometimes it can be seen when it is
dark
-

students learn “real science is
messy”
- we often try to come up with
foolproof labs for students, but that is not the way real science
works
- students learns that science
improves when we work in teams
- science
starts with observations, we look for patterns in those
observations

students learn to see
pattern of about a month in repetition of moon’s
phases
- in this way, VOCABULARLY FOLLOWS
EXPERIENCE for the students

Have
questions of the week

Value added of
technology0based worldwide discussion groups: students are in worldwide
classroom sharing this info

In
teacher’s handbook, there are 30-40 observations that students can
make
- this is provided with some
trepidation: don’t want participating teachers to just lecture to their
students

moon’s shape is NOT caused
by the earth’s shadow!
- it is the relative
position of the earth, the moon, and the sun that causes the
phases

Students are now getting more
used to chat rooms and IM
- esp with 4th -
8th graders, it is harder to get them to write in complete sentences, keep them
on-task talking about the moon
-

there is a land of the midnight moon
- winter time, earth tilts away, when moon is up constantly it is close to a
full moon for about a week
- 2 weeks later
it is a new moon
- 6 months later it will
be constantly up as a new moon, down as
full….

News article about Ball
State
href="http://www.bsu.edu/news/article/0,1370,-1019-2111,00.html"
target="NewWindow">http://www.bsu.edu/news/article/0,1370,-1019-2111,00.html

website is href="http://web.bsu.edu/moon"
target="NewWindow">http://web.bsu.edu/moon

Where do we go from
here?
- Ball State and TTU in
collaboration, OSU is in now
- having
videoconference with Brisbane
tonight

Australian semester just
started 2 weeks ago, so this can be interesting getting schedules lined up for

Others that will collaborate:
Indiana Univ, some in
Australia

Looking at innovation
transfer at university level

Reality
is we only get about half the students to participate: schools and the
curriculums are very busy and
full

Contact Dr Smith at Ball State
for more info, or Jennifer Wilhelm here at TTU