Convergencia de Medios, Tecnologías y Aprendizaje

Universidad Nacional de ColombiaProfesor: Fernando Díaz del CastilloSemana 2: Septiembre 2007

Guíon: A Private Universe

Harvard CommencementIdeas That Block Learning

Narrator: Despite a lifetime of the very best education, students in our classroomsare failing to learn science. Many of these students will graduate from college withthe same scientific misconceptions that they had on entering grade school. To testhow a lifetime of education affects our understanding of science we asked thesegraduates some simple questions in Astronomy. Consider for example that thecauses of the seasons is a topic taught in every standard curriculum.Graduate 1: O.K. I think the seasons happen because as the Earth travels around theSun, it gets nearer to the Sun, which produces warmer weather and gets fartheraway which produces colder weather. And thus the seasons.Graduate 2: How cold it is or how warm it is in any given time of the year has to dowith the closeness of the Earth to the Sun during the seasonal periods.Graduate 3: The Earth travels around the Sun, and it gets hotter when are closer tothe Sun, and it gets colder when we are farther away.Narrator: These graduates, like many of us, think of the Earth’s orbit as a highlyexaggerated ellipse, even thought the Earth’s orbit is very nearly circular, withdistance producing virtually no effect on the seasons. We carry with us the strong,incorrect belief that changing distance is responsible for the seasons.Graduate 1: I took physics, planetary motion, and relativity, and electromagnetismand waves.Graduate 2: I don’t really have a scientific background whatsoever, and I gotthrough school without having it. I’ve gotter very far without having it.Graduate 3: I had quite a bit of science in high school, yeah. Through physics 1, firstyear, and two years of chemistry.Narrator: Regardless of their science education, 21 of the 23 randomly selectedstudents, faculty and alumni of Harvard University revealed misconceptions whenasked to explain either the seasons or the faces of the Moon.

Guión transcrito por Fernando Díaz del Castillo

Graduate 4: When it’s further away from the Sun it gets colder.Professor 1: The Earth’s position interferes with the reflection of the Sun against theMoon.Narrator: To test how standard instruction succeeds or fails in reversing suchmisconceptions, we interviewed ninth grade students from a nearby high school. The students selected had little training in Astronomy.Student 1: Winter is when the Sun is farthest away from the Earth and when it’s…summer is when the Sun is closer to the Earth.Interviewer: Why is it hotter in the summer?Student 2: It’s hotter in the summer because we’re closer to the Sun than we are inthe winter.Interviewer: Tell me about the different shapes of the Moon.Student 3: Of the Moon? When the Sun’s right here, the Earth blocks the sunraysand it causes the Moon to have a shadow right here…Narrator: That the monthly cycle of lunar phases is caused by the shadow of theEarth is another popular misconception.Interviewer: Can you tell me about the difference in seasons? What’s different aboutthe seasons of the year.Student 4: In the summer time it’s like we’re closer to the Sun and the sun’s rayscoming down, so it’s hot. And we move further away I guess it gets colder.Narrator: Unlike the Harvard graduates, theses students have had virtually noinstruction in science.Interviewer: And does the Moon have different shapes?Student 2: No, it’s round.Interviewer: Does it ever look different than round?Student 2: Yeah, it does. It looks like a half-croissant. Kind’a looks like a half…Interviewer: And what causes that?Student 2: Uhm… clouds… blocking it. Let’s say we had a half . This is here withclouds and all you see is that.Narrator: Like a scientist in search of an explanation this student created his ownunique theory to explain the phases. Teacher: I don’t know. You get some kind of key in a room as to why kids don’t2

understand.Interviewer: If we went outside today, out in the grass, and we see the sun… whatwould things look like at say 8 o’clock.Heather: 8 O’clock… is uhmm… well the Sun would have ro… well the Earth wouldhave rotated so that the Sun would be on the other side of the Earth so it would bedark here and we’d be able to see the start with the… yeah.Interviewer: Where would the stars be in the daytime?Heather: They’re still up there. We just can’t see them. It’s not dark enough. Teacher: Heather… Heather is very bright. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would probably puther on a 9… a little bit above the level of the other kids. And I would expect her toknow the answers to these things.Heather: That’s the Sun. It’s a lot bigger. And there’s a plant and another planet andthen there’s the Earth ‘cause it’s the third planet up from the Sun. And then thereare six more planets.. and then… well the Earth revolves around the Sun and theMoon revolves around the Earth. So this goes like this and that goes like that. Andeach time the Earth goes like this is a day. And it takes 365 days for the Earth to goaround the Sun and that’s a year.Narrator: You may recognize Heather as typical of your best student. Teacher: Yeah, I would expect that she could give a better explanation that the otherkids. I think she’s a little bit… she a lot more sure of herself. The other kids I thinkmight have been a little more inhibited and more afraid. I hope she’ll tell you whatshe knows.Heather: But the Earth doesn’t quite go in a circle. It’s more of… let’s see… it’s morelike… that.Narrator: On probing we see that Heather believes that the Earth travels in a bizarrecurlicue orbit.Heather: … and when it’s farther away it’s summer, and when it’s closer right here iswinter. O. K. it’s winter when it’s closer and it’s summer when it’s farther awaybecause of… uhm… at least for us it is. It’s when… because its axis. The sun’s raysare indirect it’s summer, ‘cause we get warmer. When the Earth is closer the sun’sbeams are direct it’s colder.Interviewer: Can you draw a picture of what it means to be direct or indirect?Heather: O.K. when the light comes from the Sun, when it’s direct it comes straightfrom the Sun to the Earth. And when the light’s indirect it sort of bounces off andthen comes to the Northern Hemisphere. It’s different.Narrator: Heather believes that light can bounce and that this somehow causes the3