[Squeakland] the non universals
Alan Kay
alan.kay at squeakland.org
Thu Aug 23 15:49:51 PDT 2007
Of course, Mark didn't look carefully enough at either the Squeakers
DVD or the Kim Rose and BJ Conn book "Powerful Ideas in the
Classroom" and other materials which show what we actually do with
the kids (actually in 5th grade for this example).
We don't teach any abstractions, but work our way out from various
kinds of animated movement in Etoys (constant velocity, random
velocities, steadily increasing velocity, etc.). From a number of
such examples the children gradually associate both a relationship
"increase by" and a history of the movements (shown by leaving dots
behind on the screen). Later (about 3 and one half months later, in
the case of the first time we tried this) we got them to think about
and investigate falling bodies. One example on the Squeakers DVD
showed 11 year old Tyrone explaining just how he worked out and
derived the actual differential equations of motion (in
intellectually honest and mathematical version that computers make
very practical). He did this by recognizing accelerated motion in the
pattern of pictures of the dropping ball, measured the differences to
find out what kind of acceleration (constant) and made the script for
vertical motion partly using the memory of how he had done the
horizontal motion in Etoys 3 months before. He explained how he did
this very well on the video. Also, by luck, I happened to be in the
classroom on the day he actually made his discoveries and
derivations. Most the children were able to do this.
The important things about this experience was that Tyrone and the
other children had learned a model of acceleration and velocity that
was quite meaningful to them. Months later they were able to remember
these ideas and adapt them to observations of the real-world.
According to Lillian McDermott at the U of Wash, 70% of all college
students (including science majors) are unable to understand the
Galilean model of gravity (which uses a very different pedagogy in college).
The most important piece of knowledge from cog psych is a study done
in the late 60s or early 70s that showed exposure to any enriched
environment for less than 2 years was not retained. But two or more
years of exposure tended to be retained. This also correlates to
habit formation and habit unlearning.
So, I would argue that Mark's three examples are very different and
don't really deserve to go together. And, in any case, all we know
about the 5th graders is that using this pedagogy and Etoys they are
generally able to be more successful in both the math and the science
of accelerated change than most college students. This particular way
of looking at differential equations has become more and more
standard as computers have become more and more the workhorses of
science (partly because they are in a form well set up for creating a
simulation -- and for the kids, because they are much easier to
understand than the previous standards for DEs).
Cheers,
Alan
At 03:23 PM 8/23/2007, Brad Fuller wrote:
>though I'd pass this along for another viewpoint. Mark Guzdial's latest
>perspective on powerful ideas, abstractions and design patterns:
>
>http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK13L1MC1Q3613J
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