Everyone was talking about the total lunar eclipse that happened this morning! Except they were calling it a Super Blue Blood Moon. Forget all the hype — How does a lunar eclipse work, and why was this one special? “Super” moon A supermoon is a little closer to Earth than a normal moon, so it…
Sixth graders think they know everything about space. They’ve learned the names of the planets; they’ve made the Oreo moon phases. They’re set. But they arrived in my classroom with a lot of misconceptions that, while based on reason or observation, are just plain wrong. I wanted a way to show them that they have something to learn about astronomy, and to gauge what they already know and don’t know. Astronomy concepts like these frequently aren’t taught again after middle school! As a result, we have a lot of confused adults walking around.
Introducing the Astronomy Pretest. I gave this quiz on the first day of the astronomy unit as a way to learn what they already knew – and I told them so. Sometimes I’d tell them ahead of time that the quiz was “diagnostic.” That they should do their best and tell me what they know, and to answer every question to their best ability, but it wouldn’t hurt their grade to be wrong.
Want to try it? Before you read any farther, click here to take the quiz. It’s 45 True/False questions and will only take a couple of minutes. Don’t look anything up! Guess if you need to.
When you’re done, read on…
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I just read this excellent piece about what Neil DeGrasse Tyson said to amateur eclipse observers. It made me think of another viewpoint I saw among serious eclipse-chasers: that if you weren’t going to totality, you might as well stay inside. This is something we addressed in the teacher training we did at the museum…
