Cosmic questions
When Pluto loses its status, what happens in the classroom?
For decades, K-12 students have learned about the nine planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. They're in every textbook, listed in every encyclopedia and the subject of countless science-fair exhibits.
But what happens when a planet is no longer a planet? According to some analysts, Pluto's recent "demotion" to dwarf planet is more a teachable moment than a cause for alarm. "It's exciting. It's a chance to teach kids that this is the nature of science. Things are always changing," Arizona teacher Rich Hogen told CNN.com.
"To come up with a new classification shows science is not static. It's good to show that to the world," Jim Murphy, New Mexico State University associate professor, told the Associated Press. "I suppose our reaction is more emotional. I don't want anyone to think anything less of the discovery by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930."
Murphy is referring to the discoverer of Pluto. Tombaugh was just 24 years old in 1930, and working at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., when he spied what he first thought was an orbit of Uranus. What he had actually discovered was Pluto, making the young astronomer the only person in the Western Hemisphere to have discovered a planet in the Milky Way solar system.
Pluto is the farthest from the sun of the traditional nine planets. "However, the frozen object generated heated debate because its orbit is tilted the furthest from the plane on which the Earth and other planets travel," noted a PBS report. "The debate gained steam in 2003 when Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology discovered another planet-like object, nicknamed Xena, circling the sun that was even larger than Pluto."
On August 24, Pluto was officially stripped of its planet status after a vote by an international panel of astronomers in Prauge. "With one vote," wrote Alan Crosby of Yahoo news, "toys and models of the solar system became instantly obsolete, forcing teachers and publishers to scramble to update textbooks and lessons used in classrooms for decades."
Keeping up with change
The Pluto incident is one example of how fast-changing development in science, social studies, geography or other subjects can be a source of concern when textbooks are rendered instantly outdated.
For many school systems, Internet research has taken an important role in augmenting textbooks. But as every educator knows, the uncontrolled World Wide Web can be a wellspring of misinformation, leading students and faculty alike to often random, unreliable or even biased data. The widely searched Wikipedia, for example, requires no qualification for users to post information on virtually any subject.
One solution is the use of screened, reliable subscription databases. For primary schools, Thomson Gale's Kids InfoBits includes the latest information on the subjects K-5 kids study most, including animals, world cultures and, of course, the planets. Age-appropriate material from Thomson Gale's imprints Blackbirch Press® and KidHaven Press™ are complemented by timely articles and images from respected sources.
For secondary schools, Science Resource Center is a dynamically updated database that collects screened, materials from award-winning Thomson Gale references, major newspapers, general and specialty periodicals, peer-reviewed science journals, Web sites and more.
Going a step further, Thomson Gale's ClassTrac is a groundbreaking service custom-designs high-school science lessons based on adopted textbooks and geared to each state's science standards.