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Re: Physics first




An article ran in the newspaper the other day which reported the results
of a study that asked for the answers to some simple science questions.
One of the questions asked to describe the motion of the Earth with
respect to the Sun. 53% questions could not accurately explain that the
Earth orbits the Sun in the space of a year. How, I ask, does something
as important as this become lost in the grand scheme of education? Do
people generally forget nearly everthing that is taught or is it never
taught in the first place, at least in slightly more than of the nation's
classrooms? I find this to a most interesting question since this
knowledge should also have been presented in at least one histroy class
when the scientific revolution is the topic.

This also gets back to what someone else stated about the age
appropriateness of analytical material but I have a hard time accepting
that a heliocentric notion could not be understood by, say, the fifth
grade. It is so troubling to see how little people know about the world
about them and, when they say education is getting worse, the
ramifications are numbing.

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TK McCarthy, PhD Email:mcca6300@spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov