Meteor Misconceptions

     I have never seen a meteor shower so when I learned about the new meteor shower The May Camelopardalids I was very excited. Over the next few days, anticipation started to build both in my own mind and also in the media. Now usually I like to be in bed no later than eleven especially on days that I wake up early (so every day). But last night, Friday, the night of the predicted once in a life time meteor shower extravaganza I stayed up until 3am and sat outside staring at the sky waiting to be amazed.

     Here I must confess a misconception...I thought that all of a sudden, the sky would be filled with "falling stars". It would look as if it were raining sparkles way up high in our atmosphere. Boy was I wrong, wrong, wrong! I was quickly enlightened to the fact that meteor showers did not happen the way I imagined. When I found out that people actually spend an hour or more sitting and staring up at the sky, seeing maybe one "falling star" every ten minutes or sometimes less I could not believe it! To make the experience more disappointing, I never saw a single "falling star" so I missed out on the once in a life time experience..bummer.

    While I gained many things from this experience, one of them I hope will serve me in the classroom. That is, relating to students disappointment as they discover their ideas were incorrect. There is a special excitement that comes with discovering new knowledge however, there is also a certain less comfortable feeling one experiences as they realize they are completely absolutely wrong. For children especially, this can be a particularly unsettling feeling. Therefore, it is important that teachers help students to break their misconceptions in an environment where wrong ideas are welcomed and valued. Without wrong ideas, discovering the truth would have much less value.

    Click here for a beautiful picture from Ontario where someone was fortunate enough to actually see the meteor shower.