education
The whole project was an enjoyable
exercise to show just how one can use
libraries to find out information.
But this was more than just a fun
way to pass the time. In these days of
fake news, information overload, and
tough academic competition, the ability
to conduct fast, accurate research
is one of the best skills any student
can have.
Data-handling skills are often
associated with what is sometimes
called “left-brain processing” or
“convergent thinking” or STEM-style
research, with STEM standing for
science, technology, engineering and
mathematics—areas of learning which
used to be considered “boy subjects”
although no one would dare to suggest
that now! STEM is now sometimes
extended to “STEAM” to include arts
subjects—and there’s debate about
how much sense that makes.
In my experience, there’s as much
convergent thinking in arts subjects as
there is divergent thinking in science
subjects, so the division is more than a
little artificial.
But how can you encourage your
child to think analytically?
Our library lunch challenge game
turned into a book—The First of
Everything—so my junior assistants and
I had to spend a lot of time researching
the origins of things.
I
sat in a school library and challenged
the school community to ask me
about the origin of anything at all—and
pledged to use library resources to
answer within 60 minutes. It was a game.
Children and adults delivered clever,
funny, unexpected questions:
Who owned the first pet dog?
Who invented toilets?
What was the first song?
Were the first newspapers really made
of rock?
And who was the first human, anyway?
Seeking answers from reference
books, the Internet, and educational
databases, my young assistants and
I soon discovered the answers to the
questions—and many more amazing
stories from history.
Did you know that someone once
used a tape measure to work out how
far away the moon was? (He noticed
that during an eclipse, the shadow of the
Earth reached all the way to touch the
moon. So he used maths to work out
how long the shadow was.)
Perhaps one of our oddest
discoveries during this process was
the fact that the first daily newspaper
really was made of rock—just like in
the Flintstones cartoon. (Julius Caesar
published it every day by getting his staff
to scratch announcements into sheets of
rock and placing them in public places.)
Here’s a tip for reading
scientific articles:
You may find an article with a clear
conclusion: “Earth’s rotation is
speeding up.” Before trusting this
information, take a moment to check
whether there is another science paper
that reaches the opposite conclusion.
You’ll quickly learn that there is! An
Internet search will show there’s a
paper which reports that “Earth’s
rotation is slowing down”. Both claim
to have good supporting evidence.
So instead of adopting the views of
individual science papers; look for lots
or sources, or general overviews. Now
the rest of this article is really aimed at
younger readers.
Summer 2019
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