For my inquiry project, I am
focusing on Moon Myths and realities. I interviewed a 7th grade girl, whose
name coincidentally means "moon." Here are some questions I asked her
and also a few I added based on her responses. Go through these questions
yourself and put in your "two cents" about what you'd like to learn
about the moon, too!
Do you ever look at the moon? What does it look like to you? Have you ever heard about the man on the
moon? What other stories or folktales have you heard about the moon? What do you think happens with the
moon? Why do celestial bodies spin on
their axis? Does the moon have an
orbit? Why are planets round? Is there anything you think would be cool
to learn about the moon?
One thing that came out of the
interview is how much people focus on the pattern of the moon. I guess I always
just look at the size, whether its waxing or waning and don’t focus too much on
the holes. My interviewee made reference to the holes a few times, so I know
that is a point of interest I should cover in my project.
I would also like to spend
sometime researching folktales and myths from around the world that include the
moon. There was also a hoax that the New York Times published in the 1920’s
where people believed furry batmen lived on the moon and apparently there was a
campaign to raise money for the furry batmen. It is definitely odd and
intriguing, perfect YA material for a lesson. It could talk about politics and
social concerns, about the ability of a crowd to be swayed, that you can’t
always believe what you read, etc.
My interviewee hasn’t really
covered much astronomy yet in school, so it seems natural that her responses
may be based on more what is perceived by an on-looker. My interviewee stated
that she knew the Earth rotated but the moon did not. The moon actually does
rotate on its axis, but it gives the appearance it does not because it is
orbiting at the same pace. “The moon orbits the Earth once every 27.322 days.
It also takes approximately 27 days for the moon to rotate once on its axis. As
a result, the moon does not seem to be spinning but appears to observers from
Earth to be keeping almost perfectly still. Scientists call this synchronous
rotation 28, 2014” (Space.com, 2017) I also thought it was interesting her
reason for why it doesn’t rotate, she didn’t really know why and I could tell
her in her response that she was not confident in her reasoning, but she came
up with one anyway. “The Earth does rotate but the Moon does not rotate. Why
would it rotate? The earth has all these continents and countries.” So, there
is some lack of understanding as to why celestial bodies rotate. To my
knowledge it is related to gravity. There also has been introspection about the
shape of the moon, which is actually a slightly squished circle, more
oval-like. Most people think it's round. But my interviewee raised a good
point, why is it round? Why not a square? My thought is that it has something
to do with the gravitational pull as well. I will have to research this myself,
too.
This project also brings me to
the point that I think this is also it’s common for a lot of YA’s, especially
girls, to feel that way in science class as the discussions get dominated by a
few “know-it-alls” and the teachers, as a result, may assume everyone “gets it”
and not allow extra time for others to process and learn. There are less women
in science, specifically astronomy and engineering, and I do think there’s
something to how they start out in middle school. In one of my other courses
last year, I did a research paper on female students in science. Here is a few
excerpts discussing this:
"Besides the discord between
academic skills and their application to the real world, women, as a whole, are
less likely to go into certain sciences, which often have higher salaries. Only
12% of computer science graduates are females. This doesn’t hold true, however
for biology and chemistry, which has about half of its graduates as females
(Usnews, 2014)."
"What influences a woman to pick
her chosen major and career field? Girls historically have steered away from
science degrees, while their male counterparts dominate the industry. (Usnews,
2014)."
"Is there anything we do in early
childhood classrooms that affirm the histories we have told and limitations we
put on women? There are some specific actions that encourage boys to explore
math and science, but not girls. For instance, boys receive more math and
science-related toys than do girls. (NEA, 2016) By the 3rd grade, 51% of boys
have used a microscope in class—just 37% of girls have. (NEA, 2016) A recent
study found that 71% of male teachers are more likely to attribute boys’
success in technology to talent, while dismissing girls’ success as luck or
diligence. (NEA, 2016) Children’s science programs feature three times as many
male characters as female characters and twice as many male scientists as
female scientists. (NEA, 2016)"
Resources
National Education Association
(NEA). (2016). Learning While Female. Retrieved from:
http://www.nea.org/tools/15863.html
UsNews. (2014). Getting Girls to
Study Stem. Retrieved from: http://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2014/05/05/getting-girls-to-study-stem-its-about-more-than-just-making-science-cool
