Mr Ribas’s blog

So this is how a traditional lesson goes:

• You start a topic from the text book and discuss the main concepts involved in class.
• You end the lesson with an open question and you ask the students to write down their thoughts for homework
• The day after, you run a class debate in which students use the arguments they have researched to go even deeper in their thoughts.

And this is a simple way to expand that into a 21st century lesson (not the best one, but let us hope it works!):

• You do all the above, and then you write a blog post on the issue and ask your students – and anyone else – to comment on it.

So here we are. The debating issue is We should stop spending money in space exploration. My Year 10 Physics students provided an interesting range of arguments, which I will try to summarise.

For:

• Money would be better spent in helping poor countries in Africa
• We have already made the most of space exploration, and we are never going to find alien life or anything like that
• We do not discuss the benefits that space exploration has brought – satellites, etc – but this is not a priority anymore.

Against:

• We do not know what else we will find out there. Space research has already brought us lots of discoveries and inventions (plasma screens, GPS, etc)
• Money not spent on space exploration would not necessarily go into helping other countries, and it probably would not be enough anyway.
• Humans are explorers by nature, and the quest for space is a challenge for us.

I hope I got things right, but I am sure my students will correct me otherwise. If any of my readers want to give their opinion on the subject, or (for teachers) bring their class in and share their thoughts, they will be more than welcome!

My students – remember to sign your comments using your initials so I know who you are!

May the force be with you…