Homework

[prophet_marcus]

It was like a flash from the past. There I was, sitting at the kitchen table, helping Amanda with her homework. I haven't done that for years. But she's taking a science class called "Our Solar System"; a science credit for folks who don't much like science. But this assignment was about doing measurement conversions - days to galactic years, au's to parsecs, fun stuff like that. I would have had a ball just doing the assignment on my own - but trying to help Amanda while not actually doing all of the work was tricky. I'm not a very good tutor because I have a hard time remembering how I learned stuff. We sure could have used wcg's help, it being in his general field and he being a better teacher than I am. But apparently, he's fallen down a rabbit hole or something.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

What do you need to know?

[prophet-marcus.livejournal.com]

How to teach. I was reasonably familiar with the material she was working on, but I'm no good at getting it across to someone who's not really into science of any sort.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

The first trick of teaching is to pique the interest of the student. Meet them where they're coming from. What is she interested in? What appeals to her sense of wonder? Sometimes it's useful in astronomy to begin with the information that the solar system formed from a collapsing cloud of gas and dust that eventually became the raw material from which we are made. Or as it says on the Woodstock album We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon.

If appealing to her sense of wonder doesn't work, try for the pragmatic. Courses like the one she's taking are intended to develop two things: communication skills and problem solving skills. Astronomy is the vehicle for that development.

Ultimately it's all the stuff we practiced in Callahans Marcus.

[prophet-marcus.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Bear in mind that she's 22. She knows what she likes and it isn't science of any sort. I have no doubt that she'll get through the class, but it really isn't her cup of tea, so she fights against it - especially the math. And then she gets frustrated because she's still not used to school being hard. Grade school and high school pretty easy for her.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, she's welcome to write to me with questions. As are you. wcg@livejournal.com works just fine.

[archangelbeth]

...rabbit holes?

*paranoid looks*

Everyone's doing rabbit holes today and I have not enough brain for one.