For my first assignment on this blog I created a conceptual interview on a topic that can create many misconceptions.

For my interview I asked a high school senior, a college student, and an adult the following three questions to see if they understood why we have shorter days in winter.

The questions that they were asked are:

1. Which of the following is the reason why we have shorter days in Winter?
   a. The Sun’s Path in the sky is shorter in Winter
   b. Daylight Saving’s Time
   c. The Earth’s Tilt
   d. The angle of the sun
   e.The sun moves across the sky faster in winter

   2. Please explain your answer to question number 1

   3. What causes the seasons that could explain the shorter days in Winter?

I conducted my interview around the misconceptions for the reason behind shorter days in winter. When coming up with questions I looked at reasearch and answers that I have heard over time to see how others would respnd. I also tried to see if maing connections to what they know about the seasons would help them.

The results of the interview were as follows:

The high school student felt that it was the tilt of the earth that was the reason for shorter days in winter. When asked to expalin her asnwer she stated the planents follow an "elliptical path"- a specific rotation around the sun and that earths rotation distiorts the sunshine when at different angles. When maing connections she believed that the seasons were casued by the rotation of the earth around the sun.

The college student felt that the cause of shorter days in winter is the angle of the sun. She felt  that this was the reason because she thinks that she could connect it to her answer on the seasons. The college student feels that the earth's axis is pointed directly away from the sun.

 The adult stated that they felt that shorter days in winter are caused by the earth's tilt. The reason they believed was that we have less light when the earth tilts further from the sun. The adult also feels that the saeasons are casued by the earth's tilt on its axis as it rotates around the sun. The feel that the sun is closer summer and farther away in winter. 

 I was very surprised by the answers I was given. I intentionally chose three different age groups as they have all had scince at different times and from different people, but I also interviewed people that I know do not have a strong interest in science and since at most times it is seen that science is harder for females I chose to gear my interview towards these differnces to see what would happen. I was very surprised to see that the high school student who is currently in a science class and the adult both had very similar answers. While the high school student was much more specific with the information on rotation, they both also had similar ideas on the seasons. I was very surprised to see that the college student did not talk about the tilt and focused on the sun's angle. I was expecting to have the tilt be a popular answer, but was surprised to see that many though that it changed the distance between the earth and sun and I was surpised to see who these answers came from.I was also surprised to see that no one mentioned daylight savings as part of their answers.

Shorter days in winter are  not something new, it happens every year so it is amazing to see that so many people do not know the true reason why. I think that we need to improve the societal understanding and two ways we can do this are through clearer descriptions in our classrooms and a section of the news when it comes time to change our clocks. I feel that many science classrooms today do not place a large focus on many of our misconceptions. There is a focus on the changing of seasons, but not so much on the little things and I think that the big focus on the surrounding topics is what creates many of these misconceptions. Students need to be shown more concrete examples and be given stronger explanations in the classroom. We should not pass over the small things, but provide equal focus to all areas. We need to educate society as a whole as well. There is always a reminder about daylight savings and some stations such as NBC have created segments such as " the more you know..." I think it would be nice at these times during the year to do a segment showing what actually happens so that we can get rid of the misconceptions. People need to unnnderstand that while the Earth is tilted that the tilt does not change the distance between the Earth and Sun; that it is actually the position. The Sun spends less time above the herizon in winter due to a shorter and lower arc. 

Image citation: Siegel, Ethan. Stages of Solstice. Digital image. It Starts with a BANG. Science n                             Blogs, 26 Dec. 2011. Web. 24 Mar. 2013.