The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM) represents one of the avenues for indulging in a life long learning process. Children may not be entirely interested in watching a person give a lecture, especially if they are not motivated to pay attention because there will be a test. However, I think there is some validity in asking my daughter to, as a homeschool student, watch these sorts of things.
Librarians and school teachers stress the importance of a parent reading to their children every day. Apparently, reading to your children is one of the very best things you can do for your children. Reading for your own enjoyment and allowing the child to see you read also helps accomplish this. Children learn what they live, as an old poem used to go.
Children will mimic, mirror, copy, parrot, etc... those things that they see us doing. For me this is an excellent reason for my son and daughter to see their father interested in watching lectures as well as reading for my own elucidation. (My daughter is already aware that her father reads "old, college level books" as she puts it.)
Back to The Amaz!ng Meeting. (Wikipedia) The James Randi Education Foundation sponsors this meeting which focuses on science, skepticism, and critical thinking. Teaching our children to value traits such as these would serve them well in the life ahead of them. Truth does not simply fall out of the sky and land in our brains. Truth requires a devotion and a discipline akin to religion. Without skepticism, the mind falls prey to motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance, and other assorted pit falls.
If one would like to read further on an example of where the pursuit of truth sans rational rigor has run amok, I may suggest reading Sir Walter Scott's Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. Reading is always Core Language Arts credit, but you might choose to label this as Social Studies and be not unfounded in your designation.
Today, I would like to promote a video from The Amaz!ng Meeting in 2014 by Eugenie Scott entitled, "Playing with Deception." This video runs a convenient half hour duration and, coming from a conference devoted to science, skepticism, and critical thinking, you should be able to assign Core Science credit. I leave it to your own judgement if a test is required. A test can demonstrate that the student has payed attention and might provide motivation to focus their mind on the video. (Not everyone is self-motivated and self-directed.)
To that end, I am going to watch the video and provide a few questions that might suffice. You should watch the video yourself, I believe, to demonstrate to your student that the video and pursuit of knowledge in general are important for adults as well as children. If you do do, certainly, you can ask questions to highlight the parts of the video you, personally, found most meaningful. Should you do so, it would certainly be appropriate to comment to this article with your suggested questions.
http://web.randi.org/swift/genie-scott-plays-with-deception-in-her-tam-talk-wins-the-2014-james-randi-award
1. Museumofhoaxes.com (actually hoaxes.org) lists four broad categories of deception: Fraud, Hoaxes, Pranks, and Urban Legends. Please label the definitions below with the appropriate category.
A. _____ are a deliberately deceiving act that has succeeded in capturing the attention of the public.
B. _____ are Popular Stories that are widely believed.
C. ____ are a criminal form of deception in which someone gets hurt.
D. _____ are playful acts performed between or among people who are acquainted with each other.
2. Jan Harold Brunvand is
A. A medium from around the time of World War II.
B. Built a house of crazy architecture because he believed ghosts told him to do so.
C. A skeptic who has been offering a prize to any psychic able to convince him of their powers.
D. An editor of a book of urban legends.
3. Thylarctos plummetus is
A. A fossilized hominid skeleton uncovered in the process of being eaten by a dinosaur.
B. The deadly Australian "Drop Bear."
C. A well known prank where a person is punched with a downward angle in the thylarctos plexis, a group of nerves that when hit causes uncontrolled passing of gas.
D. An example of a hoax.
A. Because he was bald with a smaller head in proportion to his body and a flatter face and funny ears set high up on his head.
B. Because he was highly personable and displayed human-like use of silverware and cups as well as smoking cigars and drinking alcohol.
C. Because he was extremely personable with humans.
D. Because he had a characteristically upright posture when walking.
E. All of the above.
F. People are gullible.
D. Because he had a characteristically upright posture when walking.
E. All of the above.
F. People are gullible.
A. Showing dinosaur and human footprints in the same bed.
B. A place where people back in the depression used to carve out dinosaur footprints for sale.
C. Reasonably explained by Glen Kuban.
D. Evidence refuting evolution.
D. Evidence refuting evolution.
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