Shhhh....I got about as lucky as a science teacher can get, and have Mr. Fred Guterl, the executive editor of Scientific American, coming to my classroom next week.
It gets better.
We get him in our room, unencumbered with an agenda. He wants to talk to my kids. About whatever.
I grew up with two magazines by my pillow. Mad Magazine and Scientific American. Scientific American is the longest running magazine in North America.
So what did I do to earn this? Nothing on my end. We have a wonderful MAT student Susan Eckert spending time with us here--she's bright and passionate and generous. She has shared great ideas, articles, and even couple of sea critters (a chocolate starfish and a cranky crab). She made this possible.
If she represents the new face of teaching, we're in real good shape.
***
So here we are, a week away, and I am like a child waiting for Santa Claus.
As I race towards my death, as we all do, marvelous things keep happening. In just the past couple of weeks we figured out that there are a whole lot more stars than we ever imagined, that our galaxy has been shooting off incomprehensibly large amounts of energy, and that life does not need phosphorous, a key element in DNA. Mr. Guterl must be an incredibly busy man.
(Yes, Mr. Guterl was the science guy on Fox News discussing this just this morning. Did I mention I'm excited?)
So here's my question--if you had the executive editor of Scientific American coming to your classroom, what would you want him to discuss?
Pinch, pinch! I can't believe this!!!!
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3 comments:
Because it is about the kids, not you or I (sorry) I would ask him what is the most important thing to do to learn about science.
Then I would ask whether there were articles published that he thought were unimportant that he time, but have been much more important, or vice versa (and give examples).
Then I would ask him if I thought I were not a scientist, why should I care about science?
Then I would ask what subjects he learned in school that are now useful to him.
But mostly I would wait to see if the kids asked these questions before I jumped in.
Lucky you!
Dear Anonymous,
Great questions! I love the order, too.
I missed the obvious--polling the students before he comes.
(I'm a bit paralyzed by the whole thing--I don't want to blow the chance of a lifetime.)
WOW! So many questions, so little time. I love the list from anonymous. I think I would add
"How do you choose which articles are important enough to be selected to be published?"
"Are there any articles you have published (or not published) that you regret?"
"What do you think is coming next in the world of science?"
"How does a monthly magazine continue to compete with the huge influx of information from other sources - web, radio, TV?"
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