About five years ago my eldest grand-daughter was given a home-work
project by her teacher at a school many miles away from me in the
Thames Valley England. This was in the last week of the summer term.
The project consisted of a taking sheet of paper with a circle and
right-angled triangle printed on it and a few (random) instructions
about cutting bits out, sticking the triangle to the circle and using
it to tell the time. Nothing about the properties of the triangle or
the directions in which things should point etc.!
Certainly nothing about what magic enabled this device to tell the
observer the time ~ leave alone the science involved!
I was furious and contacted the school but, by then, they'd finished
for the summer and I was fobbed off with all kinds of excuses.
Well, I thought, put it down to experience. It won't happen again.
W - R - O - N - G !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Next year her younger brother was set the same task.
Now, there is a third child in the family that goes to the same
school. His name is Oscar and guess what next year, when he is 8, he
is likely to be set the same pointless exercise. It's enough to turn
any kid away from science.
I am passionate about my grand-children and pointless homework raises
my blood pressure!
I would be perfectly happy to go into the School to explain how a
sundial works and to set up a meaningful project ~ though it would be
better if there were a few of us.
Are there any offers of help and any advice on material to use?
This will help Oscar and lower my blood pressure but the material
could also be made available via this mailing list to help other
Oscars in other parts of the world.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Andrew
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Postman Pat: 3, Lucastes Road, HAYWARDS HEATH, West Sussex, RH16 1JJ,
ENGLAND
Tel. UK: +44 (0)1444 453111
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
---------------------------------------------------
https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
