Thread: Either my Science teacher has been eating one too many pixie stix or I knew less than I thought

Yeah, so I was in Science class and we were correcting tests. The ONE I got wrong said "What phenomenon are caused by the 5 degree tilt of the Moon's axis"?
A. Day and Night
B. Lunar Eclipses
C. Tides
D. Seasons

The answer? B. I even asked him, and he tried to explain the answer, and I'm just... what?
I kinda chose C using the process of elimination, I know tides have to do with gravity and whatnot, but I was like "maybe the tilt's involved too, what do I know." But WHAT. Does the tilt of the moon have ANYTHING to do with lunar eclipses? ..or tides?

Sort of right, but he's got it arse about face.
If it weren't for the tilt ¹ we'd have an eclipse every month.

1 It's not due to tilt of the Moon's axis, but of the Moon's plane of orbit: The moon's orbit is actually tilted 5 degrees more than that of the Earth; otherwise, we would see a lunar eclipse each month.

Ah, thank you. He might have written the axis part by accident. I was REALLY confused there. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Dedhsme

Ah, thank you. He might have written the axis part by accident. I was REALLY confused there. Thanks!

Weren't you listening in class?

Originally Posted by Robittybob1

Originally Posted by Dedhsme

Ah, thank you. He might have written the axis part by accident. I was REALLY confused there. Thanks!

Weren't you listening in class?

Given the observation that the average attention span of a student is arguably short and given the fact that storing information in our auditory memory is significantly worse in comparison with the other sensory memories (cf. post #2088), it is understandable that (s)he missed something in class.

I don't think he missed anything. The teacher did.

That's ironic coming from Bob, the guy who in his crank threads has consistently failed to listen or heed advice or evidence from people who know what they are talking about.

It's a very poorly-worded question.

A tilt in the Moon's axis and an incline in the plane of the ecliptic are NOT the same thing.

I would go further, Flick, the question was wrong. No correct answer was provided and the teacher was equivocating trying to imply that there was.

Even if the question had specified a tilt in the orbital plane of the moon the question is wrong. The tilt does not cause lunar eclipses, the tilt causes them to occur less than once a month.

Writing good multiple choice questions is difficult, but when you get it wrong you should acknowledge it there and then. I'm disappointed in the teacher.

I think the teacher should give the student partial credit. I think if anyone in the class said, "B," and then wrote an explanation that it's not the axial but the orbital plane tilt should get extra credit.

And a really good (and comfortable and well-liked) teacher would say, well, I plumbered that one. And here's what we can learn from it.

Just another reason why essay questions are better. I never understood our obsession with multiple choice, to be honest. Nor have I ever understood the need to say 90-100% is an A. In the real world, anything about 75% is worth an award.

Multiple choice is just a lot easier to grade. It saves time for the "teacher".

And it absolutely destroys critical thinking ability.