[meteorite-list] Planet Definition

[Dawn & Gerald Flaherty]

Aye Dave and Francis, Jerry
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Francis Graham" <francisgraham at rocketmail.com>
To: "Meteorites" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Planet Definition


> 
> 
> --- David Weir <dgweir at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> > Francis,
> > 
> > What's wrong with teaching kids the actual facts,
> > even if they aren't 
> > readily conducive to pigeon-holing?
> 
>    My old lunar friend Dave brings up something very
> important. It IS MUCH BETTER to allow students to
> decide what a planet is in their minds, and teach them
> that Pluto, Xena, etc. are bodies that orbit the sun,
> are approximately spherical, and are different from
> Earth, Venus, Mercury, Mars because they are largely
> made of ices and not rocky, and different from
> Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune because they do
> not have colossal hydrogen atmospheres.  This would be
> the better approach, much, much more informative.
>    But we all know what will really happen. Test item
> on state-mandated proficiency test: "How many planets
> are there in the solar system?" a. 9 b. 10 c. 14 d.8"
> One right answer.
>    Such would be neither in the spirit of science or
> scientific. But: state-mandated. 
>    So Dave, I know where you heart is. 
> Francis Graham
> 
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
> http://mail.yahoo.com 
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>