I was emailing my 13-year old niece, and she said her mom mentioned a rover had landed on Mars, but the picture I sent was the first she'd seen. Then yesterday I sent this video, which she really liked. She's in remote learning, very diligent about it, and a master on her Chromebook. I'm a little disappointed that her teachers didn't take a little time to discuss the rover landing, show a picture, and then this video. Or had mentioned it before now and prepped them. When I was a kid in ancient times they wheeled a TV into our classroom on a high stand and we watched the Apollo launches and landings if they were during school hours, and it was exciting. I watched them at home, too, and will forever remember staying up late to watch Neil Armstrong step onto the Moon. I don't know if it influenced me going into science -- I was already pretty "deep" into space stuff when I was 5 years old and made a study area in the corner of our living room with books and NASA posters and little spaceship models -- it was a phase -- but seeing Apollo missions in school didn't hurt. And it was cool and fun. 'Course we didn't "study for the test" back then -- what in the US has come to mean teachers only preparing students to do well on achievement tests and prep exams and college entrance tests, and nothing else. So I don't understand why her teachers wouldn't have taken a few minutes to discuss this rover landing. What 7th grader isn't going to be wowed by this video? Hopefully they'll get to it.
3 comments:
Thank you My five year old granddaughter is also very engaged with Perseverence, so I've sent her this link.
When I was in the 6th grade, several kids brought transistor radios to class so we could listen to the Project Mercury missions. It was big excitement then.
Mark, thanks for sharing. I wonder if anything at all could generate the same excitement in 6th graders today.
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