Class Blog 10-2

For class today we began by over viewing chapters 3 and 4 in "Ready, Set, Science." We briefly looked at a few PowerPoint slides regarding childrens' capabilities to learn and understand science. I learned that before school, children are able to understand their own ideas and beliefs regarding knowledge. Dr. E said that we should "never lose sight of what it's like to be a kid." I found that quote to be really important and relevant to myself in regards to teaching now and in the future.

Next we discussed "Plato's Allegory of the Cave." I had never heard of the idea before and found the video to be very interesting. "Plato's Allegory" involves prisoners in a cave being locked up with their heads faces a stone wall. Behind the prisoners, a fire is burning. When people walked by, their shadows would display in front of the prisoners. That was the only vision of the world that they knew. So when they were released they were basically blind and unaware of what they were seeing. To recreate "Plato's Allegory," our class did an experiment regarding mystery black boxes. We had to figure out what was in the boxes without being able to see. My partners and I thought that there were different objects in the boxes and not that there were objects places at different angles in the box to make the marbles move differently.