So...
my favorite unit has begun... Evolution.
Not because I have any desire to indoctrinate my kids or because I want to see them change their views. I couldn't care less. What I'm after is the debate, the desire to dig deeper into the depths of knowledge and the language behind it all.
I just finished an activity that has kids rank the following concepts by how important they are to scientists... its amazing what they come up with.
(in no specific order)
1. Facts
2. Laws
3. Theories
4. Hypotheses
The view that kids have is that facts are the most important to scientists because they are "truths" such as "the sun rises in the east; life is carbon-based; we have 8 planets in our solar system (a nice debate in itself)". But the funny thing... who cares? What can scientists do with that information... nothing. They are just "confirmed observations".... no testing to be done, nothing to be explored... so to scientists, they are the least important.
Funny how language so often is misunderstood and misshapen by society and the media. That's why evolution is so fun... the debate, the curiosity...
"Mr. Malone, what is the big deal with Intelligent Design?"
I love that the kids wonder... the curiosity that is lost sometime during Junior High reappears. It was always there, its just often shadowed by hormones and what makes them cool. But bring up what everyone is arguing about and they suddenly pipe up. Not that they aren't interested otherwise... but how can I tap into that innate curiosity all the time?
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