The Private Universe video hit very close to home for me. I did my student teaching in 8th grade science and seasons astronomy were units I covered. We had pre-tests for our units and I saw the same misconceptions in my classes that occurred in the video. For our lessons we incorporated quite a bit of physical modeling, especially in the moon phases lessons. I believe these activities helped a great deal in the students attainment of the concept of moon phases. When asked to explain the phases the students can recall what they did during the modeling activities instead of trying to just recall what the teacher said to them or what they may have read in a book. Towards the end of the video the student grabbed the balls to help her better explain the moon phases. I hope some of my students would think to do that if they were asked to explain the moon phases and couldn’t easily explain it in words.
Something I, and I am sure others, have thought about in regards to science is how long must a student retain something for a lesson to be successful? Say a students of mine does very well in the lessons and on the test. If they can’t do as well on a similar test a year later was my lesson less successful. If they can’ t remember 5 year later have I failed? I took french in high school and I did well in the class. I can’t really speak any french now and if I were given a test from my french class I am sure I would do poorly. So was my high school teacher not very good? I bring this up in light of the Private Universe video. I suspect most of the students hadn’t thought about the phases of the moon since middle or high school. Why should they? Will not knowing the phases of the moon or seasons keep the economists or the doctors from being successful? What if Bill Gates or Donald Trump, or Barak Obama couldn’t answer the questions? For the college graduates were their middle or high school teachers that taught them phases of the moon poor teachers because they couldn’t remember 5, 8, or 10 years later? I don’t really know that this is going anywhere, these are just a couple of things I thought of when I thought about concept attainment after watching the Private universe video.
