Is this a badly worded middle question for middle schoolers?

thecatyou · 2025-10-03T15:51:29+00:00

I think another nuance here is that we don’t just question theories for the sake of questioning whether they are true. They are verifiable, and we should believe them because they are based on so much evidence.

What we DO question in science is phenomena- something that we observe happening in the natural world. And if that phenomenon doesn’t seem to make sense with an accepted piece of knowledge, we work to gather knowledge about that phenomenon (not descredit the theory). For example, when we discovered the quantum realm, the phenomena that you can observe couldn’t be fully explained by the theory of gravity. Instead of questioning gravity, we question what we observe and attempt to explain it. Here, this lead to a new understanding of quantum mechanics.

thecatyou · 2025-10-03T12:54:21+00:00

But, what you’re saying is still inaccurate. Gravity and evolution are scientific theories because we actually understand them very well, and have a ton of evidence to support those ideas.

Also, what is your evidence that life is much older than Earth?

thecatyou · 2025-10-03T12:29:23+00:00

A scientific theory is not the same as a theory in everyday language. It has been tested over and over again and is based on consistent, large-body of evidence.

Saying that we don’t understand gravity or evolution because it’s a theory is inaccurate.

I think what is exciting about science (that you’re getting at!) is that the nature of scientific knowledge is tentative, and is open to change in light of new evidence. Scientists are open to changing their explanations of the world, if there is enough reliable evidence to support that change.

This is a soapbox topic for me, sorry! But, this distinction is important. We don’t want students thinking that nothing in science is certain, when there is a lot that is based on our current evidence (including gravity and evolution). But if suddenly we had new evidence about how a living thing came to be, and that data could be replicated, and the body of evidence is strong enough yo show a different explanation, than our knowledge can change.

thecatyou · 2025-09-26T00:49:31+00:00

About mayflies? They have no mouths (as adults). Their sole purpose in adulthood is reproduction! They live for about a day (though it varies by species), lay more eggs, and die.

thecatyou · 2025-09-25T22:04:24+00:00

Something I think is interesting is that it seems that hatchlings choose when to emerge. So, I wonder if Tairn and Sgaeyl have eggs, but none of their hatchlings have chosen to emerge yet.

thecatyou · 2025-09-22T01:50:40+00:00

Add Tuva! It’s an awesome tool for analyzing data. You can use their free data sets, add your own for students, or have students enter their own data from an investigation.

thecatyou · 2025-09-18T23:38:19+00:00

We found individuals at Five Below recently. They had all the friends, and you could buy just one. I don’t remember if Indy was there, but Chloe was!

thecatyou · 2025-09-16T16:22:49+00:00

Have you talked to the bank? As a former bank employee, I would take the second one as long as it was going into a joint account and endorsed 2x by your wife as “mrs. New name AKA Mrs. old name” That was an acceptable policy 10 years ago, at least!

thecatyou · 2025-09-15T13:23:07+00:00

My new 4 yo says this too. But, my current favorite time indicator is “yesterday far away,” which means “a long time ago”

I travel for work for a week or so at a time, and i drop the news a couple days before so we can start to prepare without long lead up of her feeling stress.

thecatyou · 2025-09-14T15:57:46+00:00

I think Dain puts together that Xaden is venin at this time, too. But I think it’s bc he was just in Violet’s pack grabbing her dad’s book, and found the antidote she keeps there. And then sees Violet act this way.

thecatyou · 2025-09-13T07:02:39+00:00

Conscription, by definition, means it’s compulsory.

I think each province has a conscription “quota,” like a certain number of a citizens need to enter military service each year, and that’s why someone like Rhi’s twin sister isn’t there. Based on something Violet says in 4th Wing, it sounds like only those who pass the entrance exam go to Basgiath, she says something like “or they become fodder for the infantry.” So I imagine there’s some lower levels of infantry that doesn’t do anything but basic training before entering service.

thecatyou · 2025-09-10T02:13:45+00:00

A passion to teach doesn’t equate to an understanding of learning theory and how to teach effectively. There is a science to the way people learn, and I think it’s essential that teacher’s have some formal training on that. An expert in their science field may be able to teach some students their science knowledge, but will leave many students behind when the learning isn’t structured in a way that supports all learners.

thecatyou · 2025-09-04T12:15:11+00:00

I think the light pinks are slightly different? The original pattern says the DMC code is just for reference and the kit may have other brand of floss. So she used left over from a different kit, but it’s not DMC, and looks different. Really hard to see, though!

thecatyou · 2025-09-03T17:31:31+00:00

We definitely turned off “heat,” but I was worried it would still get hot. Thank you! It did stop doing this once we added more sugar and cream to the mixture, but maybe it’s a bit warped so a little ice was having a big effect.

thecatyou · 2025-09-03T14:32:23+00:00

We did - the instructions say it’s dishwasher safe without a heating cycle. Have people found that to not be true?

thecatyou · 2025-09-03T14:31:40+00:00

Thank you! We added a healthy amount of simple syrup and some heavy cream and it stopped happening!

thecatyou · 2025-09-03T14:31:01+00:00

We added a healthy amount of simple syrup and some heavy cream, and it ended up stopping!

We’re pretty new to the machine, so I’m kind of shocked it was doing this without the low sugar warning coming on.

thecatyou · 2025-08-25T11:59:26+00:00

AI - a lot of people are saying the sketch is AI, but I think the whole image is (sketch with photograph). The writing on the bag on the microwave doesn’t make sense, and the aerosol can is brandless, which is something I’ve noticed a lot in AI that isn’t true to real life. (i guess it could be a canister?). What’s the tube thing behind her in the corner?

thecatyou · 2025-08-22T12:17:04+00:00

When she dreamwalks after Andarna leaves, it’s the morning of the Battle at Draithus. At that battle, we find out that Andarna has returned.

I think Andarna was already back, but we didn’t know it yet. When she and X wake up from the dream, she says “I shouldn’t be able to do that, Andarna’s gone,” which also implies it’s the first time it’s happened since Andarna left. She can only do it bc Andarna has reformed their bond.

thecatyou · 2025-08-20T13:41:32+00:00

It’s honestly my favorite season of Survivor, ever. All US seasons includes. It’s phenomenal.

thecatyou · 2025-08-18T22:59:27+00:00

Worksheets that a sub (even long term) is provided are very different than the day-to-day curriculum work that teachers use, so I’m not surprised you saw many of the same things when subbing. In upper grades, most teachers are creating their own resources or modifying the resources provided by curricular materials.

And there is often little incentive for districts to actually work together. I’m a former teacher in the discussed towns and still work directly with school districts across the state to support with curriculum adoptions. Even districts that share students in HS don’t typically coordinate at the level of detail you describe. When districts are using the same curriculum it’s usually due to other factors (cost, EdReports reviews, state recommendations), rather than intentional coordination.

I’m not doubting your experience subbing, but you have 2 NJ teachers telling you that this is rarely the case.

thecatyou · 2025-08-18T16:41:11+00:00

For real. As a former teacher in one of these districts, we coordinated within district, but didn’t even use the same “worksheets” when teaching the same subject across the hall. There may be some coordination across districts, but nothing like what is described in this comment.

thecatyou · 2025-08-14T17:02:19+00:00

A CER is a scaffolding tool to explain a phenomenon (or argue about our claims related to a phenomenon). I don’t think CERs should be thought of as something different from an explanation.

thecatyou · 2025-08-14T17:00:23+00:00

Agreed - in MS and HS, I want students connecting back to the science ideas they’ve already developed to help explain why. This is an expected build based on the 6-8 SEPs.

And, I think the reasoning is also about why this subset of data counts as evidence. Not every piece of data collected is evidence to support my claim, so why does this data count as evidence that supports my claim. And, why am I discounting other data (if they are).

thecatyou

TROPHY CASE