I agree that we need to do more to get good geoscience into elementary school. With 'No Child Left Behind', hardly any science is taught in our district. The minutes must be used for reading and math - and most administrators don't support teachers who try to use science as the 'hook' to get students to want to do reading and math. I am always amazed at how some ideas
presented in these early grades stay with the students so much better than what I am trying to get them to remember in their teen-age years during a high school science class. So we need to make sure that these teachers - who are often afraid of trying to do any science - are presenting age appropriate and correct geoscience topics.
And how about the problem of students 'learning' science from movies and television? How do we 'unlearn' these concepts - I sure can't compete with Hollywood special effects!!!
Jenelle D. Hopkins, NBCT
Earth and Environmental Science Teacher
Centennial High School
10200 Centennial Parkway
Las Vegas, Nevada 89149
Phone: 799-3440
It is precisely for this that I love geology. It is infinite and ill-defined: like poetry, it immerses itself in mysteries and floats among them without drowning. It does not manage to lay bare the unknown, but it flaps the surrounding veils to and fro, and every so often gleams of light escape and dazzle one's vision.
R. Töpffer, Nouvelles genevoises (1841)
