Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA
Students have a weekly online reading assignment (hosted by SurveyMonkey.com). Full credit is given for completing the online reading assignment before next week's lecture, regardless if whether their answers are correct/incorrect.
(The following question was asked subsequent to, and then again following the lecture discussing the International Astronomical Union classification scheme of moons/satellites, solar system debris, dwarf planets, and planets, which included a group in-class activity.)
I believe Pluto should be a planet. (Graded for completion.)
(SD) Strongly disagree.
(D) Disagree.
(N) Neutral.
(A) Agree.
(SA) Strongly agree.
Student responses (pre-instruction)
Sections 70158, 70160
(SD) : 3 students
(D) : 12 students
(N) : 24 students
(A) : 13 students
(SA) : 13 students
Student responses (post-instruction)
Sections 70158, 70160
(SD) : 4 students
(D) : 24 students
(N) : 21 students
(A) : 14 students
(SA) : 4 students
Of the 65 students who had answered the pre-instruction question, and the 67 students who had answered the post-instruction question, 54 students had answered both the pre-instruction and post-instruction questions (while 11 students answered only the pre-instruction, and 13 students only answered the post-instruction question).
Of the 54 students who answered both the pre-instruction and post-instruction questions, 24 students had no change in their opinion, while 30 students changed their opinion.
Student responses (pre-and post-instruction responders, no change in opinion, N = 24)
Sections 70158, 70160
(SD) : 1 student
(D) : 7 students
(N) : 8 students
(A) : 5 students
(SA) : 3 students
Student responses (pre-and post-instruction responders, change in opinion, N = 30)
Sections 70158, 70160
(SD) : pre: 2 students; post: 1 student
(D) : pre: 3 students; post: 13 students
(N) : pre: 11 students; post: 8 students
(A) : pre: 7 students; post: 8 students
(SA) : pre: 7 students; post: 0 students
A Student t-test on all 54 students who answered both the pre-and post-instruction questions (24 students with no change in their opinion together with the 30 students that changed their opinion) results in p = 0.062, and thus there is no statistically significant difference between pre-and post-instruction responses.
For the students who took both and responded differently to the pre-and post-instruction questions, here were the shifts:
(SD) to (D): 1 student
(SD) to (A): 1 student
(D) to (SD): 1 student
(D) to (N): 1 student
(D) to (A): 1 student
(N) to (D): 9 students
(N) to (A): 2 students
(A) to (D): 2 students
(A) to (N): 5 students
(SA) to (D): 1 student
(SA) to (N): 2 students
(SA) to (A): 4 students
"Negative shifts" in opinion (e.g., towards disagreement): 24 students
"Positive shifts" in opinion (e.g., towards agreement): 6 students
(Compare with the 24 students with no shifts in opinion.)
It appears that there is a greater shift towards negative opinions towards Pluto being a planet in this small population sample, as the students that changed their mind were apparently affected by a single lecture on the IAU classification scheme, and on the historical (re)definitions of planets and changing numbers of planets.
Students were given the opportunity to explain their pre-instruction opinion, responses are listed below verbatim.
Briefly explain your answer to the previous question (whether Pluto should be a planet). (Graded for completion.)
"I go with what the scientists say. If it fits into the classification of a planet then it should be a planet, if not then it shouldn't be a planet."
"I don't know."
"who cares what it is labeled"
"Im not a NASA nerd smart enough to be able to answer that..."
"I dont know why it should or shouldnt be"
"I don't really care."
"Cause the scientist said that it is not a planet, and they know better."
"I believe Pluto should be a planet because it has always been in our solar system and you can't just erase a planet. I still consider Pluto a planet."
"Who cares about that little nugget Pluto anyways???"
"Its small most consider it not to be a planet."
"Once a planet, always a planet!"
"I like Neptune better so I like that it gets more attention now that dramatic Pluto is out of the way. One down, seven to go!"
"Pluto was my favorite planet and its not fair to take away its status as a planet when it had already been declared one."
"it's too unlike the others, it has it's own class of other objects like it"
"it doesnt have a good enough gravity pull and its randomly not made up of gas after all the rest are"
"Just because Pluto ain't that big doesn't mean all these haters have to go discriminating the little fella. Its gotta be so lonely out there at the end of the solar system.. Poor thing"
"Its mean to take away that it is a planet after its been one for so long."
"I am not very familiar with the history of pluto"
"I believe that Pluto has the size to be a planet, yet it is an asteroid which resembles much of the terrestrial planets."
"It's low-mass is comparable to that of other chunks of ice floating around in our solar system, so it really doesn't deserve to be a planet."
"The IAU's guidelines shows that Pluto is not a planet because it is not big enough to clear out its orbital path of objects. However it is big enough to keep its spherical shape, that is why it is called a dwarf planet. But in the end I still want Pluto to be a planet because I grew up with it being a planet and it just feels weird to say that it is not a planet."
"its too small!"
"no because it is stupid"
"its messed up that it was considered a planet then they take it away"
"Does it really matter what its labeled? It's still Pluto."
"who cares?"
"i like that scientists are trying to further describe and define our universe and i don't understand why people are so upset that it is not a full scale planet.
because pluto is the sh*t, and because I believe that with its relative size to the other planets it should be one"
"it's orbit is too irregular, it is too small"
"dont know much on the subject so thats why i chose neutral"
"eh i like the old idea, but im down with change as long as its accurate."
"Cause pluto never did nothing to nobody"
"If Pluto were to be counted as a planet, we would have other "objects (planets)" in space depending on the standards of what defines a planet to be taken note of as well."
"Pluto shouldn't be a planet because there are other larger objects than Pluto in the Kuiper Belt."
"Because larger objects than Pluto can be found in the Kuiper Belt. The concept of us having 9 planets in our solar system fell apart, what is Pluto a planet or just a Kuiper Belt object."
"Pluto deserves to be a planet! They need to stop changing their minds..."
"I already thought pluto was a planet"
"no idea"
"It is too small"
"It was a planet when i was younger, and I miss the good ol' days."
"For nostalgia, yes. Scientifically, no."
"Because we've been taught its a planet since we been in school and it seems to fit"
"It was considered a planet since the 1930's up until a few years ago. It's just in another class like the jovian and terrestrial planets. There are more 'dwarf planets' just like it, so why shouldn't it still be a planet. We could just place it in another category with a name like jovian or terrestrial."
"cause it was always that way when i grew up."
"Admittedly I haven't looked too much into why it shouldn't be a planet, but I considered a planet for the first 18 years of my life or so, so I'd kinda like for it to stay that way!"
"I feel bad for Pluto... I know it's not really a planet but it was when I was a kid :("
"Because that's how it was when I was a kid."
"I do not know"
"Pluto is sweet:) and is now lonely... poor Pluto!!!"
"I'm neutral, I understand that technically it shouldn't be, but it seems mean to take it away from pluto after it had been a planet for so long"
"It's freaking awesome."
"its too small to be a planet"
"I have no valid argument except that it was what I learned growing up and I don't like change."
"The scientists obviously had good reason to demote pluto, but i don't think it's very fair :("
"its puny"
"Studies have shown that Pluto is larger than other things orbiting in space."
"there are other bodies the same size in the same orbit"
"because you cant just say that its not....."
"i think it should :)"
"I just know"
"Bro come on, it's Pluto. And that's a planet"
"Because when I learned about it in 4th grade it was a planet!"
"i don't know much about pluto"
"More research should be done, but I do believe that since it was named as a planet long ago it should still be considered a planet."
"Because it was when I learned about the planets. So they shouldn't change it."
"I has been for soooo long."
Students were later given the opportunity to explain their post-instruction opinion, responses are listed below verbatim.
Briefly explain your answer to the previous question (whether Pluto should be a planet). (Graded for completion.)
"because its not big enough"
"It doesnt fit the 3 rules needed to be defined as one. We have the rules for a reason, so im in favor of using them."
"For nostalgia, of course. Scientifically, however, Pluto is not, nor should it be, a planet."
"I think it should be a planet just because we've been taught that it was one since we were little."
"I know that Pluto doesn't follow the IAU rules, but I think it should still be a planet since it has been considered one for so many years."
"i put neutral because i don't really care either way"
"It was always that way when I grew up."
"Because it does not meet the IAU criteria for being a planet"
"According to the IAU requirements, it doesn't qualify as a planet, and I wouldn't be against the requirements being amended. I'm fine either way. ;)"
"It seems like if Pluto has been proven to not be a planet, they it shouldn't be called one. Why did they think it was a planet for so long, if its not?"
"Pluto is weak sauce."
"It was good enough to be one when i was a kid..."
"The reason that the definition of a planet has been revised in the past was to avoid too many of them existing, I believe the re-defining was appropriately timed."
"BECAUSE!"
"debatable because it could be a planet but also not. its round an everything and has rotates around the sun but doesnt have its own orbit"
"Because Pluto's not owning its orbit. You gotta own it son!"
"I believe Pluto dominates its orbit with sheer awesomeness, not necessarily gravitational dominance."
"I don't agree because you would have to make a lot of other dwarf planets similar to Pluto planets as well."
"I used to think that Pluto should be a planet but after learning about the system used to determine what is a planet and what is not, I understand why it has been classified a dwarf planet."
"Technically it doesn't completely qualify as a planet because it is part of the Kupider belt, i think Dwarf planet is a good compromise :)"
"It does not meet the requirements and there are many plutos"
"I think Pluto should be a planet because it is large enough to be one, and that's the way I learned about the solar system."
"there are other objects in that orbit."
"It is one of many dwarf planets not dominating its orbit around the sun."
"because there is many other dwarf planets"
"I feel neutral about pluto being a planet because I'm not quite sure what the issue is that made pluto be demoted from planet status."
"I disagree. The current laws for being a planet are good enough."
"Come on bro, it's Pluto and that's a planet."
"Because I grew up with it being one so it should stay that way!"
"There are many other planet like things that are just like Pluto."
"It does not dominate it's orbit and if it was classified as a planet, many more like it would have to be as well."
"Cuz that's how a lot of us learned it and just because it has some non qualifying features we should still consider it a planet!"
"When I was young it was taught to be a planet... IT IS A PLANET!"
"BECAUSE it was when i was taught in elementary school."
"I believe it is part of the outer asteroid belt not a oribting planet but an orbiting asteroid"
"I go with what the astronomers say. there little chart makes sense."
"Ive always learned that Pluto was a planet so it shouldn't change"
"I don't think pluto should be a planet because it doesn't meet the criteria scientists have set for what planets should be."
"The moons not a planet"
"well, we cant have too many planets"
"I think this because it doesn't dominate its orbit."
"According to the current classification standards, pluto doesn't meet the qualifications, to be a 'planet'"
"Doesn't dominate"
"It doesn't dominate its orbit it the Kuiper Belt, so no."
"Becuase it meets at least two of the IAU requirements and it is more massive than a white dwarf."
"Even though it fails to ALWAYS meet the '3' questions, it 'sometimes' does..."
"I really don't know enough pluto to form an opinion on whether it should be a planet or not."
"then we would have like 10 planets"
"since pluto does not dominate its orbit, it is considered a dwarf planet"
"Its not very fair to Pluto!"
"Pluto is too small to be a planet"
"Pluto is a dwarf planet and since planet is in the words 'dwarf planet' it therefore should be a planet"
"Because it does not follow the IAU rules and regulations."
"it's too small!"
"its not a big deal"
"I dont think its right to downgrade pluto's status. It's just not nice."
"It is just a dwarf planet based on the three factors we use to classify planets, but those may change. So, I'm neutral."
"i dont see why they had to get rid of it after having it as a planet thats just confusing. otherwise who cares"
"i like the current way of classifying things in space."
"It doesnt fall under the classifications to be a planet, but I do think it is a little unfair that it was classified and now it is not"
"it has too irregular of an orbit"
"I'm still neutral about the subjectt i cant decide"
"Pluto does not follow the current regulations since it doesn't dominate it's orbit"
"Pluto sholdn't be a planet because there are larger objects in the Kuiper Belt than Pluto."
"As Pluto does not dominate its orbit, it does not meet planetary classification requirements. Now that they have changed it to a non planet, there is no point in changing it back unless they revise the requirements."
"I though pluto was already considered a planet?"
"I feel bad for the little guy, but hey, that's just me..."
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Student's t-Test: Results
The results of an unpaired t-test performed at 22:27 on 29-DEC-2010
t= 1.89
sdev= 1.07
degrees of freedom =106 The probability of this result, assuming the null hypothesis, is 0.062
Group A: Number of items= 54
1.00 1.00 1.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00
Mean = 3.30
95% confidence interval for Mean: 3.007 thru 3.585
Standard Deviation = 1.14
Hi = 5.00 Low = 1.00
Median = 3.00
Average Absolute Deviation from Median = 0.889
Group B: Number of items= 54
1.00 1.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 5.00 5.00 5.00
Mean = 2.91
95% confidence interval for Mean: 2.618 thru 3.197
Standard Deviation = 0.996
Hi = 5.00 Low = 1.00
Median = 3.00
Average Absolute Deviation from Median = 0.796
Data Reference: 4E54
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