I was wondering how you plan to make it feel like a real, lively debate, given that to many people the question might seem like “settled science.” Right now it reads a little bit like schoolwork (which isn’t a bad thing!) rather than having the irresistible pull of an online disagreement. Will you be introducing the competitions in your usual lesson style, even though they’re outside the normal curriculum? I’d love to see how you bring the topic alive and get kids to really care about it.
And I’m interested in your reasoning behind letting kids only take the “wrong” side of the debate — I’m sure you’ve already thought this through, and I’d be keen to heard more about what you hope they’ll get from it!
Ooh, that's good thinking! I suspect the thing that answers all those questions is that I'm not conceiving of it as a thing, primarily, for the average kid in SiW to do. (The fossil hunt being the exception to that. Everybody loves fossils.) Rather, I'm trying to engage the ~1/3 of people for whom the mainstream story of the planet is NOT settled science, who'll leap at the possibility to make their point to a listening audience.
Though, well, y'know, fingers crossed. What I'm less sure of right now is how to gain traction in the communities who'd most love this. (I have lots of young-Earth creationist friends, but am not part of the community myself.)
Everything I know about young earth creationism comes from the youtube documentary Mantracks by Dan Olson from the channel Folding Ideas. Olson is very much not a young earth creationist and doesn't hold back when he thinks something is nonsense, but he does take time to explain the ideas and why he thinks they are wrong. I recommend the video for anyone interested in learning about the origins of the movement or anyone looking to do a little research into what some of the debates for and against young earth creationism might look like.
I am very excited by what you are doing here, by the way. This is a brilliant participatory way to help put kids in the very center of what science is trying to do, which is to help them reason about the world.
Great idea for a project!
This sounds wonderful!
I was wondering how you plan to make it feel like a real, lively debate, given that to many people the question might seem like “settled science.” Right now it reads a little bit like schoolwork (which isn’t a bad thing!) rather than having the irresistible pull of an online disagreement. Will you be introducing the competitions in your usual lesson style, even though they’re outside the normal curriculum? I’d love to see how you bring the topic alive and get kids to really care about it.
And I’m interested in your reasoning behind letting kids only take the “wrong” side of the debate — I’m sure you’ve already thought this through, and I’d be keen to heard more about what you hope they’ll get from it!
Ooh, that's good thinking! I suspect the thing that answers all those questions is that I'm not conceiving of it as a thing, primarily, for the average kid in SiW to do. (The fossil hunt being the exception to that. Everybody loves fossils.) Rather, I'm trying to engage the ~1/3 of people for whom the mainstream story of the planet is NOT settled science, who'll leap at the possibility to make their point to a listening audience.
Though, well, y'know, fingers crossed. What I'm less sure of right now is how to gain traction in the communities who'd most love this. (I have lots of young-Earth creationist friends, but am not part of the community myself.)
Everything I know about young earth creationism comes from the youtube documentary Mantracks by Dan Olson from the channel Folding Ideas. Olson is very much not a young earth creationist and doesn't hold back when he thinks something is nonsense, but he does take time to explain the ideas and why he thinks they are wrong. I recommend the video for anyone interested in learning about the origins of the movement or anyone looking to do a little research into what some of the debates for and against young earth creationism might look like.
I am very excited by what you are doing here, by the way. This is a brilliant participatory way to help put kids in the very center of what science is trying to do, which is to help them reason about the world.