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| Seeds of Education
| Trump’s Executive Effects
| If the goal of education is to expand students' minds, merely memorizing facts and equations and then regurgitating them is definitely NOT the appropriate method. Instead, the correct path is encouraging the development of curiosity. Demonstrations with unexpected results, observations of the world that surrounds us, thinking of potential possibilities in the future, and posing questions that do not necessarily have a single, distinct answer all lead in this direction. As Smiley Blanton said in Love or Perish, "A sense of curiosity is nature's original school of education."
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| Unlike the common textbook presentations, actual science is not linear. (This is the subject of “Research in Reverse" by Charles C. Mann in the September 2025 issue of Scientific American.) The driving issue in real science is why. Those who initiate research are trying to find the answers to a diverse range of questions. At a later point, someone else may wind up discovering an application. Einstein's theory of relativity was later applied to create the GPS (Global Positioning System). This should be the driving issue in science education. As Carly Anne York noted in The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog, "Human curiosity, mixed with a dash of serendipity, was the path to transformative ideas."
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| In teaching the concept of atmospheric pressure, I pointed out that the atmosphere exerts a force of almost 15 pounds per square inch. I asked the students to hold out a flat palm and explained that this meant that over 150 pounds of pressure was pushing down on their hand. Could they feel it? Why not? What would happen if a 150-pound block of metal was placed on their hand? I then pointed out that an equal pressure was pushing up. What would happen if equal blocks were pushing up and down? Why weren't their hands being crushed?
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| I then asked if they could puff their cheeks. Could they do it if their mouths were open? Internal and external pressures cancel out one another, which is why we don't feel atmospheric pressure! A good activity to help them perceive this required a large plastic garbage bag (~60 gallons) and a vacuum cleaner with a hose. A volunteer removed his or her shoes and sat cross-legged within the bag. I instructed how to position a hand so neither plastic nor clothes would stop the flow of air into the hose. I then positioned the mouth of the bag around his or her shoulders and held it in place while turning on the vacuum for just a moment. The student was being "vacuum-packed" and suddenly actually felt atmospheric pressure! As time permitted, I let other students also experience this.
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| Early in the course, I would ask students what the difference in science is between a theory and a law. I found that few had any idea of the actual difference. Laws include Newton's Laws of Motion, Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion, the Law of Gravitation and the Laws of Thermodynamics. Theories include the Big Band Theory, the Atomic Theory, the Theory of Evolution and the Theory of Natural Selection. Both laws and theories are supported by extensive evidence and are accepted in the scientific community. Both are subject to change, should new evidence become available. The fundamental difference is that laws can be observed directly while theories cannot, due to limits such as time, distance or diminutive size, though extensive evidence supports the concepts.
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| Why can a plane fly? Four forces act upon it, which can easily be displayed on a board. Thrust pushes it forward. Drag, due to air resistance, opposes that force. Gravity pulls downward and the upward force, called lift, is due to the Bernoulli effect. The Bernoulli effect explains that air exerts less force when it moves faster. Giving the students a strip of paper (about 1" by 8"), they can hold one end at their lower lip and blow above it. The strip moves upward! Folding an index card into a V, placing it on their desk and blowing beneath it, it will move downward. Holding two sheets of paper parallel to one another and blowing between them, they are forced together. Folding a sheet in half across the broad side and creasing it, they can shift the top back an inch or so and tape it in place. This is now a cross-section of a wing. Using a short piece of tape, the flat edge can be attached to the desk. Getting down and blowing across the desk surface, they can observe the Bernoulli effect. Going one step further, you can have them make a circle ring glider -- a wingless plane that can fly since the Bernoulli effect is applied within the ring!
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| The human eye indirectly supports the theory of evolution since the nerves from each eye cell travels from the inside of the eye to the brain. They gather at one point and go through a gap in the eye. They then travel to the brain. Thus there is a gap in the visual picture sent to the brain, meaning that a blind spot exists in each eye. We do not see it, as the brain "paints" in the picture to make it complete. Give each student a sheet with two small dots about 6" apart. Closing or covering one eye, the sheet is held in front of the other eye with the second dot to the side away from the position of the head. Holding the paper at a full arm's length, the sheet should be drawn in slowly. When the second dot is over the blind spot, it will suddenly disappear!
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| Early in the year, I asked my class what they would get if they added one and one. Everyone normally responded by saying two. I would agree that this is correct if they are doing decimal math, but what would the answer be if they used an alternate math. Most had no idea what I was saying. I then explained that if one is added to one, the answer would be zero if they used modular two math. Their faces were blank. I would go the room's light switch and note that there are two options -- on and off. Let "on" be one and "off" be zero. If the light is turned off, it is at zero. Turn the switch twice, adding one plus one, and it is back to zero! Computers use binary math, a series of ones and zeros. However, if they add one plus one, the digit is carried to the next column. 1 + 1 = 10! In Boolean algebra, true statements have a value of one and false statements have a value of zero. Two true statements ("A is before B" and "B is before C") give a true result ("A comes before C"). Thus, 1 + 1 = 1! What do you get if you add 9 and 8? In decimal math the answer is 17, but in modular twelve math, the answer is 5. What is modular twelve math? It's something we use all the time -- literally. It is the system used on a clock. If you start a job at 9 and work for 8 hours, you finish at 5. In this case, 9 + 8 = 5! The decimal system is only one form of math.
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| In a good education program, setting goals, for the students and for oneself, are critical. As noted in "Invest in Public Education" in the September 2025 issue of Scientific American, the editors state that the "fundamental drivers" of education are "curiosity, imagination, ingenuity and innovation." Strive to find ways that will spark the students' interest. It is rewarding for you and will be beneficial to the students in the long term. Dorothy Parker noted that "The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." As Albert Einstein said, "It is a miracle curiosity survives a formal education." To succeed in education, it is imperative to keep in mind William H. Johnson's simple line: "If it is to be, it is up to me."
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