A DAY WITH DR. FRED

Dr. Fred presents "Our Next Planet," August 7, 2002
Photo courtesy Ron Paarmann, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

"Dr. Fred" at Nye Elementary School, Hummelstown, PA, March 23, 2001
Click here to see where Dr. Fred is going and where he's been!
You will also find links to references at that page.

"A DAY WITH DR. FRED" SUPPORTS INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE
AND CROSS-DISCIPLINARY LEARNING

The "Day With Dr. Fred" Program was developed especially to:

• enhance the use of inquiry in the science classroom;
• to reinforce the idea that literature includes nonfiction as well as fiction;
• to encourage reluctant readers to try "true stories";
• to demonstrate the interrelationships among all areas of the curriculum.

If teachers are unfamiliar with or wish to reinforce their knowledge of techniques effective techniques in inquiry-based science teaching, Dr. Fred highly recommends Nurturing Inquiry: Real Science for the Elementary Classroom by Charles R. Pearce (Heinemann, 1999).

Click here or on book cover for Amazon.com description of this book.

Dr. Fred's visit and his books naturally encourage inquiry. One of his favorite expressions is "follow your questions," and that theme will pervade his visit.

The day begins with an assembly presentation and continues with smaller group sessions driven by student questions. The assembly opens with a rousing "Hello-o-o-o-o, Earthlings!" Dr. Fred's grin and colorful bowtie, plus a bit of friendly coaching, encourages the audience to respond, "Hello-o-o-o-o, Dr. Fred."

Dr. Fred then provokes their curiosity with "Hello-o-o-o-o, Aliens!" and notes their response, pointing out that there may indeed be space aliens among them. Later in the talk, he will reveal who they are -- see "The Day of the Visit" below for more.

• Earth, Environmental, and Life Science
  • Development of land, water, and atmosphere
  • Development of conditions suitable for life -- including complex life
  • History of life on Earth, including the causes of mass extinctions (such as the end of the dinosaurs) and the development of new life forms to replace them
  • Weather and climate, including the many changes over Earth's long history
  • Plate tectonics
  • Habitats, ecology, and the interdependence of species
  • Global warming and the "greenhouse effect"
  • The impact of technology on the environment
  
  
• Astronomy and Planetary Science and Space Technology
  • The Solar System
  • The Sun, its life cycle, and the effects of its past and future changes on Earth
  • The Moon, including its formation and importance to life on Earth
  • Mars and Venus, almost Earth but oh, so different
  • Jupiter, its moons, and its importance to life on Earth
  • Asteroids and comets, including the importance of cosmic collisions in Earth's development and history
  • The Milky Way galaxy and our place in it
  • The importance of supernovas to life on Earth
  • Planets of other stars
  • Past and future space probes
  • The next step outward, a permanent base on Mars
  • Can we and should we transform Mars to support an ecology from Earth?
  • Travel beyond the Solar System
  • Life on other worlds, including the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
  • Humanity's future in space
  
  
• Other Topics in Science and Technology
  • Subatomic Particles
  • Materials Science and Engineering
  • Careers in Science, Technology, and Engineering
  • The Process of Science, from Hypothesis to Accepted Theory
  • Learning From Failure or Unexpected Events
  • Computers, Computing, and Artificial Intelligence

A few weeks prior to the visit, librarians and teachers should begin introducing Dr. Fred's books and his website (www.fredbortz.com).

[Note: This is available at a modest additional charge.]

A week to ten days prior to the visit, the school will begin an e-mail exchange with Dr. Fred, sending one question per day for up to five days. Before sending any questions, the teacher or librarian who mediates the exchange should discuss with the students what makes a productive question.

Here are some suggestions:

• Science is not a collection of facts; it is a way to gain knowledge. It's not as much about what we know as how we know it -- and how we understand it.
• If you ask Dr. Fred for a simple fact, such as how fast, large, or hot something is, he'll often just tell you to look it up for yourself. He'll do that because he knows the best way to learn something is to put in some effort. If you don't know where to look, then you can ask for some pointers.
• Dr. Fred's favorite questions are ones that show you have begun to understand something, but you want to understand it better.

Dr. Fred's e-mail replies will usually have a light tone to show his enthusiasm for the topic and the pleasure of following questions. The correspondence often serves as an ice-breaker, so the students are excited from the moment they see Dr. Fred and his bow tie in their building.

As noted above, Dr. Fred involves the audience immediately with a hearty opening of:

HELLO-O-O-O-O, EARTHLINGS!

After a pause, Dr. Fred says:
Let's try that again. I say, "Hello-o-o-o-o, Earthlings!" You say, "Hello-o-o-o, Dr. Fred!" Ready?

HELLO-O-O-O-O, EARTHLINGS!

After another pause:
That's much better! Now let's try something else.

HELLO-O-O-O-O, ALIENS!

Then, depending on the response, he continues:
What, no aliens out there?
-- OR --
Don't laugh, maybe they really are aliens.

You see, I'm pretty sure there are one or two space aliens out there in the audience. One might even be in the seat next to you.

The mention of space aliens keeps the students hooked as the talk turns scientific. The aliens in the audience are later revealed to be future astronauts who will visit Mars. They will be creatures from another planet, settling in for a visit of probably 18 months.

Following the talk, Dr. Fred will meet with smaller groups (20-60 students) and discuss their questions from any area of science or writing. He will schedule up to six half-hour sessions or up to nine twenty-minute sessions, depending on the age of the students and the school's needs.

An autographing session is always welcome, as is an end-of-day reception for selected students (chosen in a way that reflects their involvement with science, writing, or both). The selected students should not be required to have bought books, though they should have read one or more of Dr. Fred's books in the school or classroom libraries.

An evening session for parents and teachers can be arranged for a modest additional honorarium.

Follow-up activities can include study of the Sun, the Moon, particular planets of the Solar System and some of their moons, comets, asteroids, etc. Individual students can report about the characteristics of one body in the Solar System. They should be encouraged to go beyond the facts and to discuss the scientific questions or techniques that led to those facts.

Alternatively, students could follow up with discussions of Dr. Fred's books (or chapters of a book in the case of TO THE YOUNG SCIENTIST) and how questions are important in every one of them.

A class willing to plan a year-long activity could use DR. FRED'S WEATHER WATCH as a basis for measuring local weather conditions. Students could build home-made devices as described in the book, or the school could provide inexpensive commercial or educational weather instruments. Advanced students or "weather weenies" might be allowed to work with more expensive weather instruments and equipment, interfaced to a computer for keeping and analyzing data logs.

Another long-term activity might be the production of a weekly science newspaper for the school's website. It will enable them to maintain the enthusiasm for inquiry-based science that Dr. Fred hopes to create in his visit.

Additional Information for Schools Considering A Day with Dr. Fred

Dr. Fred will travel from his home in Monroeville, PA, near Pittsburgh, to visit schools anywhere in the United States or Canada. He does not charge for travel expenses in schools he considers to be local. Those include schools within a one-hour drive of Monroeville or near Cleveland or Canton, OH, where Dr. Fred has close family to visit.

Click for details of the "The Truth About Space Aliens" and the "Our Next Planet" assembly programs.

For excellent general advice on planning an author visit, please click here for two ladies who literally wrote the book on the subject.

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