to Materials for physics education
Education of joyful and familiar science for students thinking irrationally
Hu Tiang TODA (belong to Stray Cats)
from the presentation of GIREP Meeting at Ostrava in Czech
Abstruct
As the third presenntationn of Stray Cats demonnstrationns,
the results of questionaire survey on the connsciousness of students about gohsts or supernatural power are reviewed.
Joyfull and familiar sciennce for educating high school studennts of irrational trend is proposed.
1. Many students tend to think irrationally
To my surprise, many students believe in ghosts, supernatural power and
curse according to myquestionaire survey in our school.
Why do they tend to think irrationally?
In these questionaire surveys I have found that mass media influence the attitude of citizens , especially children.
I have paid attention to the influence of the attitude of students after the judgement of a trial.
A TV program "Cosmic Power" and the publication introduced the woman
who called herself a person with supernatural power "Cosmic Power".
She said that she could cure serious disease and cheated many patients with incurable disease.
In the trial 30 persons in patients with incurable disease or families of patients brought an action for damage against the TV station,
the production company and her.
In the judgement the court ordered her to pay one hundred million yen for damage to the plaintiffs in 1997
and then the TV station and the production company agreed to pay them sixty million yen at suggestion from the court.
I expected that after the judgement TV stations would change its way of making programs
and then the attitude of students would be changed.
I carried out investigations based on the questionaire shownin Table 1, and the results are shown in Figure 1 and 2. Details will be found in my homepage(1).
| Question | Answer a. | Answer b. | Answer c. | Answer d. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.Do you believe in gohst? | a. believe in gohsts | b. maybe exist | c. don't believe in gohsts | d. don't know |
| 2.Do you believe in curse? | a. believe in curse | b. maybe exist | c. don't belive in curse | d. don't know |
| 3.Do you believe in supernatural power? | a. believe in it | b. maybe exist | c. don't believe in it | d. don't know |
| 4.Do you believe that spirits live after death ? | a. believe in it | b. maybe live after death | c. don't believe in it | d. don't know |
| 5.Do you think that the Deities or Buddhas determine the destiny? | a. believe in it | b. maybe they do so | c. don't think so | d. don't know |
| 6.Do you use charm? | a. do often | b. do so sometines | c. don't do at all | d. don't know |
| 7.Do you decide your behavior believing in the result of fortune-telling? | a. do often | b. do so sometines | c. don't do at all | d. don't know |
| 8.Do you believe in intellectural creature on UFO from the outside of the earth? | a. believe in them | b. maybe they exist | c. don't believe in their existense | d. don't know |
| 9.Do you think that theDuities or Buddhas grant your request? | a. believe in it | b. maybe they do so | c. don't think so | d. don't know |
You can see the results in the following figures.
In 1994 the most students bilieve in ghosts supernatural power,curse and so on in these questionaire survey,
As you know there were the sarin murder cases in Japan in those days.
They scattered poison gas in subway trains in Tokyo in 1995.
I think that mass media are responsible to the society for this case in the social background.
In 1998 less students believe in irrational things as ghosts than before the judgement.
But unfortunately the number of irrational programs seems increasing
and moreover they let some objectors take part in these programs cunningly
as if they were fair and square.
The parcentage of the students who think irrationally is high in 1999
when mass media splash the 2000-year problem in asttrology by Nostradamus.
I am afraid of recent trend after 2000.
How do the students think about ghosts, supernatural power, curse and so on in your school?
Let's conduct an attitude survey of students together!
N.B. I could get the lost data of year 2001,then I could apend them in this page as follows.
do you believe in gohst
link to the Distribution of snswers to
questionnaire of gohsts and supernatural powers
2. Education of joyful and familiar science for irrational trend of students
Every year in my questionaire survey I find that many students believe in ghosts and so on.
-
We have to send our opinions to TV station as a citizen.
Let's encourage producers who made good programs !
Let's protest against producers of bad ones ! -
As science teachers we have to deal with this problem between rationality
and irrationality in our class.
At the begining of my physics class, I declare that I have supernatural power and then
I perform some conjuring tricks and then let students think of the magic.
Of course I reveal the trick to our students.
I tell our students as follows.
Don't take the whole story on trust.
Do think of anything using your own head.
Don't believe what I say directly.
Don't believe in mass media.
It is very important to doubt anything at first.
You'd better discuss with your classmates sometimes.
Don't be in a hurry for the conclusion.
Let's take time to think until you agree to the conclusion.
It is not the way of science to learn the truth by heart.
If you master science, you can find any false story.
It is important to emphasize the followings.
- We can understand anything of the world under the laws.
- Everyone can solve any riddle livelily when we master scientific way of thinking.
-
When we find any wonder, it is important to have doubts about it.
- When we master scientific way of thinking, we can see through anyone's plot and it will be arms to create our own future.
3. The evolution of gear musical instrument
3.1 Gear musical instruments
3.2 Hand-made musical instruments(sire type)
3.3 CD type using light signals
3.4 Gear instrument made of corrugated cardboard and plastic gear instrument
4. Let's construct our materials for physics education worth to learn !
4.1 Unrealisible figures made by Penrose
4.2 Evolution of "Ames's room"
4.3 Anamorphosis
4.4 Magic wall(miniture type)
Magic wall (miniature type)4.5 Polarization and eyes of bee
- Impossible figures made by Penrose
- Evolution of "Ames' room"
- Anamorphosis
- Musical instruments
a. Hand-made musical instruments (siren type)
b. CD type using light signals
c. gear instrument made of corrugated cardboard
d. plastic gear instrument - Magic wall (miniature type)
- 3D-box and Einstein alive