From: George Zack <zack@indra.com>
Subject: Mars Navigator CD and other issues.
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 14:53:06 -0700
Hey gang, ISSUE ONE: MISSING CD's Well, it appears that the Viking CD might be difficult to obtain. When I get to work in the AM, I am going to call 415-604-0421 to order it as Steve Tindall from Fort Walton Beach High SC suggested (Thanks Steve!). Still it appears that might not yield any results. At least two folks have mentioned that they used the Mars Navigator CD instead. >However, I have been using the Mars Navigator CD they gave us and that is >excellent. >Barb How did you get that Mars Navigator CD? In the kit that I have, I have a letter from Geoff Haines-Stiles that said it was not yet available from NASA JPL Mars Exploration Directorate. Jan confirmed this for me on the phone. Did you folks who went ot DC get an early release? ISSUE TWO: CHALLENGE QUESTIONS Chris Rowan makes some good points concerning the nature of challenge questions. Having different level questions would give educators a choice as to what material is most applicable to their students. I found some of my sixth graders growing frustrated (READ APATHETIC) with the most recent question concerning Phobos and Diemos (by the way PTK, nice question), so I generated a different one for them (Something about how long would it take to drive a car Mars, how many tanks of gas would this take, how many vehicles would you have to use and if it would be better to do it in a Dodge, Ford or Chevy Truck. Sounds silly but we had fun with it). The only problem with this is that they don't share their answers through the forum of the challenge question (unless we do it on the kids corner of the LFM page) Actually, I have no problem posing the questions as they are to my students. They can generate conversation and lessons that are (by some standard) "beyond" what is typically expected of my middle schoolers. That excites me and them. It seems to me that the reward for giving the "best" answer is getting your answer shared on the web or via email. Am I wrong here? Is there a place where all answers are published? That would be really neat and educationally rewarding. Then you could compare your answers to other students. Teachers could discern how deep they wanted their students to go (on an individual basis if needed). Conversation could be generated about what issues seemed common in answers, and "what did they see that we did not see." THAT would be science. We all know that scientists share and doing this with the challenge question across the levels would be very helpful. BTW, that answer from Philip Gressman was interesting ... but I am still looking it over to see if it is really solid or if it is just a bunch of junk. Did he have to make some assumptions about the slope of the canyons walls that are not explicitly stated? Thanks, George ------------------------------------------------------------- George Zack Gilpin County School District RE-1 MS/HS Science Educator Home of the Eagles /Elevation: 9200' AMSL zack@indra.com 10595 Black Hawk CO 80403 303-582-3444 ext 353