Thursday, January 22, 2004
I know now...
Everything I need to learn I learned from teaching science at Underwood. As my current students leave me this coming Monday, I find now an ideal moment to reflect on the many things we've learned together...including these tidbits associated with review from my recent final exams:
* The freezing point of water is 0 degrees Fahrenheit...or 32 kilograms.
* New Zealand is a small island country off the coast of Canada, or maybe Seattle, Washington.
* There are 1,000 kilometers in a centimeter.
* The three particles that make up all atoms are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
* The speed of a falling object can be found by multiplying its weight (in tons) by the time it falls (in seconds).
* A liter is a unit of height, approximately equal to 13 centimeters.
* Sugar is an element because it is able to react in liquids and foods.
* Sugar is not an element because sugar is not a solid, liquid or a gas.
* One can not possess an atom of water. Why? Because water is a solid!
* Salt is not eatable and the chemicals that make it up (sodium and chlorine) are!
* Eighteen electrons can fit in the second energy level of an atom.
* Sulfur is not a good conductor of electricity because it is a luster. (Whatever that is...)
* The friction force acting on an object can be found by multiplying the mass of the object by the gravitational acceleration.
* Mass and velocity are interchangable in the calculation of kinetic energy!
* Contrary to popular belief, centripetal acceleration is equal to the product of mass and tangential velocity...not momentum!
* Stoves and matches are both everyday uses of inert gases.
* Calcium and magnesium, despite being in the same group of the periodic table do not have similar properties. Why? "'Cause they just don't." (apparently the both help your bones, though...)
* Finally: A rectangle with length 3 and width 1.5 has an area of 4.5 square units.
No problem with that last one right?
Normally no, but I asked the student who gave me this answer his reasoning, and he explained that he had added the length to the width to get the area. Extremely logical, I suppose...when one ignores common sense.
But then, as the responses above indicate, it seems that many of my students can just take or leave that particular commodity on a whim.
Everything I need to learn I learned from teaching science at Underwood. As my current students leave me this coming Monday, I find now an ideal moment to reflect on the many things we've learned together...including these tidbits associated with review from my recent final exams:
* The freezing point of water is 0 degrees Fahrenheit...or 32 kilograms.
* New Zealand is a small island country off the coast of Canada, or maybe Seattle, Washington.
* There are 1,000 kilometers in a centimeter.
* The three particles that make up all atoms are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
* The speed of a falling object can be found by multiplying its weight (in tons) by the time it falls (in seconds).
* A liter is a unit of height, approximately equal to 13 centimeters.
* Sugar is an element because it is able to react in liquids and foods.
* Sugar is not an element because sugar is not a solid, liquid or a gas.
* One can not possess an atom of water. Why? Because water is a solid!
* Salt is not eatable and the chemicals that make it up (sodium and chlorine) are!
* Eighteen electrons can fit in the second energy level of an atom.
* Sulfur is not a good conductor of electricity because it is a luster. (Whatever that is...)
* The friction force acting on an object can be found by multiplying the mass of the object by the gravitational acceleration.
* Mass and velocity are interchangable in the calculation of kinetic energy!
* Contrary to popular belief, centripetal acceleration is equal to the product of mass and tangential velocity...not momentum!
* Stoves and matches are both everyday uses of inert gases.
* Calcium and magnesium, despite being in the same group of the periodic table do not have similar properties. Why? "'Cause they just don't." (apparently the both help your bones, though...)
* Finally: A rectangle with length 3 and width 1.5 has an area of 4.5 square units.
No problem with that last one right?
Normally no, but I asked the student who gave me this answer his reasoning, and he explained that he had added the length to the width to get the area. Extremely logical, I suppose...when one ignores common sense.
But then, as the responses above indicate, it seems that many of my students can just take or leave that particular commodity on a whim.
