Florian, D. (2007). Comets, stars, the moon, and mars: Space poems and paintings. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.
Introduction
What happened to the planet Pluto? Discuss the demotion of the planet and the changeability of science.
Pluto
Pluto was a planet.
But now it doesn’t pass.
Pluto was a planet.
They say it’s lacking mass.
Pluto was a planet.
Pluto was admired.
Pluto was a planet.
Till one day it got fired.
-Douglas Florian
Extension
This poem begs to be read with two voices, one for the “Pluto was a planet” lines and the other for the alternating lines. Children could be placed around the room in the order of the planets while the poem is read aloud.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
I implore you not to discuss the demotion of Pluto as fact but as one interpretation of fact that was adopted by only four percent of the International Astronomical Union, most of whom are not planetary scientists. It was immediately rejected in a petition of an equal number of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto.
The debate about Pluto is far from over, and it is unfair to present it as such, especially when the planet definition that led to it is problematic in multiple areas. First, it states that dwarf planets are not planets at all. Second, it defines objects solely by where they are while ignoring what they are. According to the IAU definition, if Earth were in Pluto's orbit, it would not be considered a planet either.
Please do the right thing and teach BOTH sides of this ongoing controversy. You can find the petition of scientists who opposed the demotion here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/planetprotest/ And you can find arguments for both sides from a national conference, the Great Planet Debate, held in August 2008 at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD, here: http://gpd.jhuapl.edu/ Finally, feel free to visit my Pluto blog for more on why Pluto is still a planet and chronicling of worldwide efforts to reinstate it, at http://laurele.livejournal.com
Post a Comment