{"id":33,"date":"2006-09-10T14:11:26","date_gmt":"2006-09-10T21:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=33"},"modified":"2008-08-05T10:34:18","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T14:34:18","slug":"pluto-makes-for-a-teachable-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=33","title":{"rendered":"Pluto makes for a teachable moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a cute story about students and teachers talking about Pluto’s status change<\/a>. There are a number of good points made in this story, such as, science changes all the time to deal with new discoveries, and facts dictate those changes, not emotion.<\/p>\n

Fifty-five middle school students spent a recent Monday morning deciding whether mama should serve nine pizzas or nachos.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a lunch menu request.<\/p>\n

It was the E.L Wright students\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 chance to weigh in on the Aug. 24 announcement by the International Astronomical Union that the solar system\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s smallest planet, Pluto, no longer met the requirements of a planet.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

In Lexington 1, science and health coordinator Karen Stratton sent an e-mail to science teachers telling them how to handle the reclassification of Pluto.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Powerful new telescopes are changing the way astronomers size up the mysteries of the solar system and beyond,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So \u00e2\u20ac\u201d adjust your curriculum, change your bulletin boards and models, update your teaching to change information presently in your science textbooks, AND let you students know that THIS IS SCIENCE.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Petty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two classes viewed the vote to demote Pluto differently. Her second-period class was near unanimous in its support for making Pluto a dwarf planet. Petty said she was surprised by the overall sentimental tone the students from her first class shared. Nearly all defended Pluto\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s classification as a planet.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They looked at Pluto like some little child that has been kicked out of the family,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n

Science, she reminded students, is based on fact, not feelings.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a lawyer, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go into a courtroom and say (my client) should be declared innocent because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a nice suit,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a cute story about students and teachers talking about Pluto’s status change. There are a number of good points made in this story, such as, science changes all the time to deal with new discoveries, and facts dictate … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-x","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=17","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":0},"title":"I don’t think Pluto really cares","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 25, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I just love how newspaper stories about the demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf play up the whole personification of the solar system thing. It's as if there is some seismic shift in planet hierarchy and the planets' feelings have been hurt. It's just silly. Anyway, I do like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":393,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=393","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":1},"title":"Report from the field: St. Johns school board meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science member Kristine Hoppenworth attended the St. Johns County school board meeting during which the board approved an anti-evolution resolution. Here is Kristine's report: ------------------------ Hello!\u00c2\u00a0 I attended the St. Johns School Board Meeting last night in St. Augustine at 6 pm.\u00c2\u00a0 Although the resolution wasn't on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":371,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=371","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":2},"title":"News roundup on last night’s meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My greatest fear concerning last night's meeting in Jacksonville about the new draft of the state science standards was that the anti-science folks would beat us with numbers. Having more people there would then skew the perception of the media and the public. Fortunately, that didn't happen! Florida Citizens for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":163,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=163","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":3},"title":"Another sad science fair story","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's yet another story lamenting the decline in science fair participation. It's good to see that some schools actually offer science project classes that kids apparently enjoy. But for the rest ... gotta prepare for the test, ya know! Science fairs used to be big deals -- competitions that exercised\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":749,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=749","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":4},"title":"Science scores up 14 points at Polo Park Middle","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is an interesting story about a partnership between Discovery Communications (responsible for the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet) and Polo Park Middle School in Palm Beach County. Discovery went above and beyond in helping the school implement a new supplemental educational program despite tight budgets. Hardin Daniel, Discovery's vice\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=749#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1250,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1250","url_meta":{"origin":33,"position":5},"title":"The Nation’s Report Card on Science in Florida","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Center for Education Statistics today issued it \"Report Card\" on science education in the U.S., and broke their results down by participating states. The report indicates that Florida is not special at all when it comes to science. We're buried deep in the middle of the pack. Here's\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}