edenfalling | Spirit Play, week 7

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edenfalling

I have discovered that knowing science may actually be a drawback when attempting to explain gravity to kids.

Who knew?

Only two kids again this week, but it was a different two, and I'm hoping next week we'll get some people back!

And now I am off to work.

Current Mood: rushed
Current Location: home

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From:

elenathehun.livejournal.com

*curious* How is science a drawback when explaining gravity?

From:

edenfalling

Allow me to enlighten you!

Here is the complete text of the dinky picture book (written by Aline D. Wolf) assigned by the curriculum:

I know that Planet Earth is shaped like a huge ball. People live all around Planet Eart, but no one falls off. Why?

Nothing falls off Planet Earth because GRAVITY pulls everything toward the center of the earth. If there were no GRAVITY, every person and every thing would float out into space.

I can see GRAVITY at work when I let go of my spoon in mid-air. It doesn't fall up to the ceiling or over to the wall. It falls to the floor, toward the center of the earth.

Some things, like balloons filled with helium, can go up in the air. Wings can lift birds and airplanes, but GRAVITY keeps them within the earth's atmosphere. Only very powerful rockets can escape from GRAVITY and travel in space.

How does GRAVITY keep everything else on Planet Earth? I wonder!

(All paragraphing courtesy of me; in the original, it's basically one sentence per page.)

...

See, I kept wanting to shout that GRAVITY (and I don't know what the heck is up with the CAPITALIZATION!) is not just about the earth. Gravity is a property of all matter, and is one of the four fundamental forces of the universe; and it's what keeps the earth spinning around the sun; and balloons float because of differences in density (not because they're somehow immune to gravity!); and birds and airplanes fly because of differences in air pressure flowing over and under their wings; and rockets don't escape gravity in general, just the earth's particular gravity; and, you know, if gravity is pulling the spoon down to the center of the earth, why doesn't the earth collapse into a tiny, super-dense ball, and...

Yeah. Too much science getting in the way of simple explanations. Remember, I am teaching six-year-old kids. Their comprehension and patience are limited.

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