This was a semi-lecture that I had prepared to get students thinking about how scientists use models and how observations are used to validate or revise those models. The models used were the heliocentric and geocentric models of the solar system, as this ties in well with the moon phases just learned and gravity which is next on the agenda. The outline of the talk is in a separate document. I think the students got a lot from the discussion. I was asked a lot of good questions from a few of the students. A few ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ here and there indicated that they were paying some attention. Still, it was difficult to pull in the students who were reluctant to participate. There’s a lot of resistance from some to be active in discussions.
For the most part I think the pacing was pretty good, but towards the end I had to rush a little. In all I think there was about 40-45 minutes available when they got back from the break. It probably would’ve fit better in an hour, allowing more time to pull answers from the students and let them consider the more challenging points of discussion. The software worked very well, and I think the students appreciated it. For next time I think it would be good to try to fit in some more images, perhaps from the Hubble telescope, because that really gets the students excited. It would also be useful to have a more concrete way to assess how well the students absorb and understand the material.
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