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Season misconceptions in newspaper



Today (6/21/03) on the front page of the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper

<http://subscribers.uniontrib.com/daily.pdf>

is a great science activity.

(In the digest you will need to search the newspaper web site for the front
page on this date)

On the part of the page titled "Midsummer Dream: To See Sun," there is a
diagram of the earth and sun (the sun and the earth are about the same size
and the earth is about 2 sun diameters from the sun) and the following text:
"The North Pole is tilted toward the sun in June, which is the closest the
Northern Hemisphere gets to the sun each year."

The science activity is to ask your students how many mistakes and
misconceptions they can find in the statement and the accompanying diagram.
Then have them rewrite the diagram and text so that it is correct and
understandable to the readers of the newspaper.

Shades of a private universe!
<http://www.learner.org/teacherslab/pup/
<http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/sed/resources/privateuniv.html>

Larry Woolf
General Atomics
San Diego
CA 92121
www.ga.com
www.sci-ed-ga.org