Eclipses

[asterroc]

Like any good researcher, when I noticed students responding a certain way to a free response question, I tried to tabulate what they all said, and turned it into multiple choice. Basically, the students were trying to describe why we don't have solar and lunar eclipses every month. The drawings below are based on the word descriptions from the students. And I wanna know what you think: which picture is the main reason why we don't have solar and lunar eclipses every month?

Descriptions in words:
A) "The Moon is in a different plane."
B) "The Moon's axis is tilted."
c) "The Moon goes above and below."
D) "The Moon's orbit isn't a perfect circle."
E) "The Moon's orbit is tilted."



[Poll #1956047]

Comments

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

clicked too hastily :) i know the answer in words, but didn't notice the details of the right picture.

[blahblahboy.livejournal.com]

A bit off topic but somewhat related:
I've been working with my 8 yr old nephew on some math problems and I've noticed that he guesses a lot or copies other answers without thinking about what the answer means. For the former I think he just relies on the adult to lead him to the answer, and in the latter case if I cover up the rest of the homework except the current problem he can sometimes just shutdown and unfocusedly stare. To try to combat the former I try to lead him incorrectly and then he agrees with my wrong answer! But I only work with him on these things once a week. I think his parents are doing a terrible job because he can have such a sneaky attitude to try to do this as lazily as possible, resulting in worthless learning.

What alarms me most is that he isn't even bothering to learn addition subtraction multiplication and division tables well. Should all kids know how to answer fourteen minus eight quickly? I think without the foundation he will be doomed in the future.