#science mum

[miss-biophys]

I went to planetarium with my 5-year-old. The Moon was freaking fantastic! And I guess that from now on we have to search for the unicorn constellation every cloudless night.

[jackwatchessu]

As a student teacher I’m going to apply some of my degree in progress here, any practising teachers or fellow pre-service teachers are welcome to add or provide rebuttal...

We’ve had the ‘hook’ to get Steven interested in learning the new skill along with a series of more advanced and practical demonstrations on how it can be applied in daily life as relevant to Steven (the learner). 

This helps turn a vague interest into a genuine focused desire that may be easier to sustain over a prolonged period of time (hard to generate for many lessons)

The info dump or topic introduction was done by Pearl, a better technical expert in the area despite Amethyst being the more proficient practitioner.

Being able to allow others to help in explaining things is a really important part of teaching so props to Amethyst for not interrupting the explanation even though our lovable purple prankster would have been very tempted

Amethyst has also allowed Steven to direct his own learning here by allowing him to choose the practice transformation within the accepted safety limits

Before the physical demonstration we have a quick explanation from the practitioner of how to accomplish the activity. 

Since I’m an unchanging flesh creature and not a magical rock person the short explanation given here is assumed to be a good one until proven otherwise

The demonstration itself was done in a slightly exaggerated manner in order to make it easier for the beginner to re-create, of particular note the quick calming exhale before and the arm movements for ‘shaking it out’

Steven (our prospective student) is then encouraged to try for himself under the supervision of the teacher

Amethyst provides feedback during the attempt, gently correcting Steven for being too tense and advising him to ‘feel it’.

An allowance is going to be made for the chips because this is Amethyst and it was actually pretty funny

Seeing that Steven is still too tense to take her advise on board Amethyst suggests that they try again later when he’s more ready. 

The relationship we’ve seen thus far makes it clear that there will be absolutely no shame in coming back to this later once Steven’s more prepared

While he chooses to keep going the reassurance that the option is available to him helps Steven to relax enough to make a genuine attempt...

...and even when he seems to fail praise is still offered for the attempt and effort

With the praise out of the way lets address the two main points that I thought were missed. Obviously due to time constraints it would have been impractical to address these but scenario analysis is part of my degree so this is good practice

In a one on one lesson the students understanding should be constantly assessed by the teacher. This can be done in a lot of ways but the most direct ones involve asking them to explain things back to you in their own words. Not only does this allow them to reorganise information in their heads to be mare accessible but also allows the teacher to correct any misunderstandings or gaps as quickly as possible. 

Since this show is only 10 minutes long doing this would have eaten up valuable screen time but it’s something to keep in mind when imparting a lesson. 

The risks of this particular activity were largely ignored by both Pearl and Amethyst beyond ensuring that Steven was supervised and started with something easy. Depending on what you’re teaching this can be fine since you don’t want to paralyse your students with fear become they start in on an activity. Other times it is absolutely vital that you impress upon them the consequences beyond “this is dangerous” because kids 12 and below (this is a vast generalisation) are often incapable of adequately visualising the consequence of their actions and need it spelled out from them beforehand. 

If you don’t properly explain the risks some children will assume that you’re lying about the danger or that “it can’t be that bad” if you’re letting them participate. However, this needs to be assessed on a case by case basis and was likely not necessary for Steven. 

[ohhfiddle]

@cosmicrayed

Victoria didn’t want to ruin her new life in the 1960s. She wanted to adjust, to make herself settle into the strange new world. She had no home besides this one now, with the Richards’. What if she ruined it all in this very moment? 

But she was aching on the inside.

“Mo--erm..Susan? May--May I ask you something? What if someone liked girls and boys..in the same way? R-Romantically, I mean! Is that alright?” Her voice was soft as can be, shaken even. She didn’t want to dare ask. But she h a d to.

[jackwatchessu]

Birb.

Two Birbs.

One Steven and Two Birbs

[jackwatchessu]

Responsible Parent is exactly the kind of Adult Supervision this is appropirate for these kinds of demonstrations. 

Good job Amethyst, Greg would definitely approve of this if he weren’t so busy hyperventilating back at his car wash

[jackwatchessu]

There’s the confirmation I was looking for about the gems shape shifting, all gems have the potential but like any skill there’s probably a great deal of practice involved in refining that talent

It doesn’t look like there’s any hard and fast rule about what they can and can’t turn into either. Curious...

Though some uses of the ability are definitely more appreciated than others

[jackwatchessu]

Oh, she’s not just concerned. She’s cranky about this

This is obviously not how shape shifting is supposed to be used. Possibly it would come under the “frivolous use of magic” clause in the superhero manual

Pearl is just so done...

AMETHYST OH MY GOD

[jackwatchessu]

Pearl- Pearl why do you look so concerned about this?

It’s a demonstration, it’s not like she’s teaching him how to age up to buy booze

Keen baby is keen