Dr. Jeff’s ‘Jeffisms’
Posted by DrJeff
Copyright 2009 | About this blog
A blog post to engage your class with a way cool ’ism’.
As a teacher, every once in a while I love to craft a simple sentence that says something bold, something that sparks an interdisciplinary conversation leading to deeper understanding. I’ll periodically write one of these Jeffisms as a Blog post for you to explore with your class or at home. It might be on earth and space science, or education, or learning. It might even be one of my Teachable Moments in the News if it was a news story that sparked my interest. For instance, say there’s a news story about the New Horizons spacecraft speeding toward Pluto, so I’ll post a Jeffism something like:
Pluto hasn’t completed a single orbit of the Sun since
the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Pretty cool. Imagine the class discussion. When was it signed? 1776? That’s over 230 years ago! Pluto hasn’t gone around the Sun once since then?! How come? How do we know? Isn’t that the definition of a year … on Pluto? It must be pretty far from the Sun. It must be pretty cold. How long will it take the spacecraft to get there?
My hope is a bold discussion in classes everywhere, growing from that one little sentence. For some even deeper Jeffisms see my Jeffisms Resource Page, and for pointers on how to put them to work, see the Blog on the Universe section of the Cool Resources for Teachers and Cool Resources for Parents pages.
Latest Jeffism posts:
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One Response to “Dr. Jeff’s ‘Jeffisms’”
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Sally Jean Jensen Says:
October 9th, 2009 at 5:57 pmI read some of your “Jeffisms” at the workshop today in Maine. I had 30 people. I did not expect that. Most of them were from 2 different Maine University’s as students studying in elementary education.. I used my Helpful Hints about your blog. I could not get on the internet at that school..
