We spent a happy hour today in my World Civ class discussing Einstein's theory of relativity. Why, you ask, when we were supposed to be learning about the Age of Exploration? We have been discussing Galileo and Newton and their cosmologies, cosmologies in general, and why they're important. To give my students a peek into why cosmologies are important, why we all have one, and how difficult it is to have that cosmology challenged, I tried (in my own non-physics teacher way) explaining the relativity of space and time. It was wonderful to see my students try to grapple with the ideas themselves, and then the implications of those ideas (facts, really). Reactions ranged from "it's too early to think this hard" to confusion to dawning understanding. I've given a personal response writing assignment for homework, and it will be interesting to read their paragraphs. Maybe tomorrow we'll start the Age of Exploration (and isn't that a value-laden name for a unit???).
