Astronomy For Educators

Astronomy 101 - Why Teach the Geocentric System?

In teaching astronomy, I've often been asked: "Why teach the ancient Geocentric (Earth Centered) solar system if you know it isn't true? There are two main ideas at work here.
1) You cannot possibly understand modern astronomy thoroughly without understanding where modern ideas come from. The history of scientific thought is worthy of study.
2) Ancient ideas are often dismissed as stupid by modern educators - nothing could be further from the truth!

In the second or third week of class, I sometimes dressed up in a white wig and wrapped a white sheet around my body as a toga, and introduced myself. "Hello, my name is Aristotle, I'm your substitute teacher for today!" I would then teach the Earth-centered solar system as literal fact. It usually didn't take too long for someone to challenge me and say: "That isn't true! The Sun is in the center!"

My challenge to the students: "Prove me wrong!" Never once in over 40 years of teaching astronomy was a single student able to refute the geocentric idea. My "Aristotelean" arguments were persuasive - even though they were incorrect. My point? Ancient theories were not stupid, they were complex and subtle. Refuting them required careful thought and clever experimentation!

In fact, The Sun-centered and Earth-centered theories of the solar system persisted side-by-side for over 2,000 years. Why? No one had the equipment or knowledge to perform a critical experiment that would refute one theory or the other convincingly.
Teaching the HISTORY of science also teaches the PROCESS of scientific thought, and how science functions as a self-correcting process.

Had a lovely visit with an old friend who took my Astronomy 101 class almost 20 years ago. I dug out my lecture notebooks from that era. As my friend & I reviewed these, she encouraged me to post these when she said: "Doc, I can hear your voice when I read these!"

I have decided to post these lecture notes for a variety of reasons, but primarily in the hope that they will inspire thought & discussion and perhaps inspire other educators to do as I have done - not just teach, but take your students out beneath the night sky and observe the heavens!

Please keep in mind that these are *outlines*. Each set of notes provided materials for apox. 3 hours of classroom time. To my knowledge, no recordings of the lectures exists. If any of my old students have such recordings, or have thoughts about those classes, I would love to hear from you.

If you are currently teaching astronomy and would like to use the materials, you are free to do so as long as you attribute my authorship. If you have questions or comments, please post them!

-- Dr. Daniel Barth

Star Mentor has climbed in the rankings on Amazon, now #355 in all Astronomy & Astrophysics books and also in the top 500 in Science for Kids. Hitting BOTH lists with one title is a real accomplishment!

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Ready for Hallowe'en night! Saturn, Jupiter, & Venus are tonight's treats!