Private Universe... Seemingly not so private

Okay. So here is what I'd come up with before watching this video...

What causes the seasons/temperature differences on earth thru the the year:
The earth's axis is slightly tilted and as the earth orbits the sun, the axis tilts either closer to the sun or farther away. In addition, the earth's orbit around the sun is not circular-- it's path is more oblong. So when the earth is closer or farther away from the sun on its orbit and/or a particular area of the earth is tilting towards the sun or away from the sun, this can affect the temperature and season of that particular area. For example, during the summer for the North American continent, the earth's axis is tilted so that the Northern hemisphere is closet to the sun and the Earth is closest to the sun on its orbit. The winter for the North American continent would be the opposite-- the earth is farthest away on its orbit and the earth is tilted on its axis so that the Northern Hemisphere is away from the sun. Spring and Fall occur when only one of these conditions are happening, but not both (ie, the earth is tilted on the axis towards the sun but is far away from the sun on its orbit, or the earth is tilted away from the sun and is close to the sun on its orbit).


What causes the phases of the moon:
The light of the moon is caused by the sun's light reflecting off of the moon (the moon does not produce it's own light). So, as the moon is orbiting the earth and the earth is orbiting the sun, the earth moves in between the sun and the moon. This casts a shadow on the moon where the earth is blocking the light of the sun. Depending on where in the orbits the moon is around the earth and the earth around the sun will determine how much of the moon we will be able to see from earth, causing the different phases of the moon.


So come to find out I was half right with my first answer and only about a quarter right with my second answer.. but completely on track when it came to popular opinion of what the right answer was. So what does this mean? Well, the video would like you to believe that we've all come to these conclusions on our own.. but I find this really hard to believe. In fact, I decided to poll some of my friends who, granted, went through the same schools I did... but they all said the same thing I did! So did we all independently come up with these explanations or were we taught incorrectly in the first place?? I'm reminded of the first time I found out that Christopher Columbus didn't come to the New World and have a friendly encounter with the Indians. I feel duped. Or, at least, lied to, whether or not I actually was (but I reeeeaally think I was).

I'm all for the argument that the tangible helps to debunk incorrect theories we may have. And I think new media will only further this, as we can see 3D images and videos to help us to explain such scientific concepts. Instead of us reading about such things or looking at flat, 2 dimensional images of such things , we can actually "experience" them in a sense. I am a visual learner, so I know this would definitely help me (or have helped me) to understand. The first thing I did after watching this video was search the internet to find images, diagrams, and even videos to help my brain re-learn these concepts so that I would have a totally correct version in my brain (not just a half or quarter correct understanding).

Whether or not we really were taught this information incorrectly or just didn't grasp it correctly, this is yet another argument for our need to really revamp our education system. And new media could have (and SHOULD have) a strong influence on the education systems we employ from this point forward. Incorporating new media could prevent such mis-learnings for future generation (hmm.. what a novel idea).

The great thing about the incorporation of new media is its realtime edits. I've spoken on this before, but I want to reiterate. In situations where old theories (widely accepted theories, not just our own private theories) are debunked (such as Pluto being a planet), educators can point to new media to assist them in educating versus relying on an out of date textbook. And who knows how many things have been incorrectly learned or are misunderstood/misinterpreted, etc. New media can assist us in all getting on the same page on a global level.

When I went to Thailand, I was traveling with a group of Canadians. One of the things we did while we were there was go to a Thai elementary school to teach them about Canada. At dinner the night before, I was joking about how I should probably sit with the Thai students to learn about Canada, as my knowledge was VERY limited. This spurred a conversation about the education system in America. One of the Canadians said he bet he could name all 50 states while I likely couldn't name all the provinces and territories. I one-up'ed him, saying I doubted I could name 3, much less all, of the provinces and territories (I was right, by the way). Then he and some of his fellow Canadians went on to name the capitals of almost all the 50 states (or, at least, I think he was mostly correct... I didn't even know all the states' capitals). We joked that the Thai children probably knew more about Canada, and quite possibly (read:likely) more about the US than I did.

This spoke VOLUMES as to the condition of the school system in the US versus other countries. While there are great schools that, I'm sure, educate their students much better than the schools I came up through, they are the exception, not the rule. I consider myself a strong student-- I was always on the honor roll, always paid attention in class, etc. Yet I barely know ANYTHING about other countries. I barely know anything about my own country. So what if we could use the new media resources we have available to us to decrease, or even eliminate, this huge difference between the US school systems (and other lacking school systems around the world) and those that are giving much better educations (specifically global education)? Again, instead of relying on outdated textbooks, which we all know often work to fulfill the agendas of those in control of what is printed and what isn't, we can help to teach each other, with no biases at work.

I just took this a whole different direction.. but I think it's a direction worth exploring...