THE UNIVERSE
Teaching subjects like the universe to 8th graders can be quite a challenge for a variety of reasons. #1 They are eighth graders and resist new knowledge at all costs (JOKING!), but really its just hard to wrap your head around some of these ideas. What we know about the universe has increased exponentially since I was in middle school. Heck, its changed so much since I started teaching, a mere 12 years ago. Countless theories have been developed, proven, tweaked, argued against, and thrown out. We have seen the Hubble Telescope relay unimaginable images from deep space and now are on the brink of a new era with the launch of the James Webb Telescope in 2014. Who knows what new information it will reveal about the universe and its origins?! The important thing...keep an open mind and know that nothing is impossible!
THE BIG BANG THEORY
There are quite a few theories about how the universe began. The Big Bang Theory has the most supporting evidence and is the most widely accepted among scientists today. The Big Bang Theory is unfortunately named, due to the fact that the first scientists to come up with it were pretty unconvinced of its validity. Upon further investigation and observation, scientists actually found this model to work and discovered that this theory answered many questions that were previously unknown. Please realize that what we are learning is the EIGHTH GRADE VERSION of the Big Bang Theory. There is much more to it than what we will cover in class, but I was pretty sure that you didn't want to take entire courses in quantum physics this year! If you are interested in more detailed explanations feel free to the visit NASA and Cornell websites, and I would be happy to find your more sources on the topic!
The slideshow above outlines what we talked about in class