Pluto – No longer a “planet”
Written on August 27, 2006 – 6:18 pm | by Ed Warkentin
As I was preparing to write a post on this topic, I thought for a moment about what would be the best destination for my thoughts. Should I put it on my classroom blog, with my students and their parents as the primary audience? Should I put it on “Teach ‘Em How To Fish?” How do I decide?
I invite your thoughts on this question.
Here’s where I came out: I should be modeling for my students how I use a blog to reflect on my learning. I just learned about this thing with Pluto, so I need to practice this myself, and show them how it’s done. My enthusiasm will only grow about the power of this activity for a person’s learning. I put this post on my classroom blog, but obviously I decided to put it here, as well. I thought some of you would like to read my thoughts. If not the specific Pluto stuff, then maybe these reflections about how to model for kids!
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I just read an article about how Pluto will no longer be considered a planet. Wow!
This will really change how students learn about the planets. All of those sentences that are really acronyms that help us keep the planets in the right order (My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas) will have to change!
Here’s the gist of what has occured:
The International Astronomical Union voted on Thursday, August 24th, to downgrade Pluto from its status as a planet to a “dwarf planet”. They did this by approving a new definition of “planet”, which has been met with a bit of controversy, which I found interesting.
Here is the new definition. A planet 1) orbits the sun, 2) is round due to gravity, and 3) “has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit”.
One point of controversy mentioned in the article made me laugh. One of the scientists quoted said, “What exactly is meant by planet ‘clearing its neighborhood?’” He said that Pluto swings inside the path of Neptune for 20 of the 248 years it takes for Pluto to circle the sun. He said, “I’d say Neptune’s neighborhood still needs some clearing!”
Pluto was discovered in 1930, when the instruments to view objects that small were not as advanced as what we have today.
3 Responses to “Pluto – No longer a “planet””
The perfect post at the perfect time (for me)! I just started blogging for myself (professionally) and I was realizing, now that I’ve gotten started, that there are so many things I want to share with my students at a more age (and topic) appropriate level (I teach middle school). After reading your post, I’ve decided to start another blog just for all of my classes
We’ll see how it goes. Thanks!
Your RSS and ATOM feeds appear to all be broken.. Alas, I probably wont re-discover the information on your site bc of that..
Ah well, Ill tag it onto my delicious, so mayhaps Ill have some chance..
Al,
Can you be more specific as to what your difficulty is? I’ve tested it with two different computers, two different bloglines accounts, and the subscription seems to be working fine…
Kim,
I’m thrilled that you were encouraged to see my work. I’m kinda humbled to know that someone actually cares to read my work! Send me your blog’s URL. I’d love to see what you come up with for your situation.