Educating the Public (was "re: Dinosaur Flatware")

[Amado Narvaez <anarvaez@umd5.umd.edu>]

On Wed, 10 Jan 1996, King, Norm wrote:

> Now I'm probably sounding like the stern professor I am, but one of the 
> biggest challenges I face is convincing people that pterosaurs, 
> mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and pelycosaurs (e.g., 
> _Dimetrodon_) are NOT dinosaurs.  I explain to my students what these 
> animals are, and also what dinosaurs are, and emphasize the differences.  
> I even TELL the students that I will ask T/F questions on the exams 
> relating to that very issue, such as "T or F, mosasaurs are dinosaurs."  
> I tell them to expect such questions while I am lecturing on the topic, 
> and again during the review sessions just before exams.  Still, 10-20% of 
> students miss those questions. They just can't get it!  The reason, I 
> think, is the ingrained popular notion that any large, extinct reptile is 
> a dinosaur.  People learn this as children, and what people learn as 
> children is likely to stay with them.  

The teachers at my school used to include Pteranodon, Dimetrodon etc as 
dinosaurs in the dinosaur unit they taught and in the dinosaur assembly 
program the kids present. The songs they used in the program were pretty 
bad, and when I offered to write better songs for them, they asked 
for my input on what dinosaurs they should include in their lessons. 
That's when I told them Pteranodon and friends were not dinosaurs. I also 
convinced them to add at least two dinosaurs from the Late Triassic. The 
dinosaur unit is now re-vamped, I have weeded out the books in the media 
center that had sauropods in swamps, and I filled the dinosaur shelf with 
books that have more current information. Hopefully this is a small step 
in improving what children learn about dinosaurs.

I try to control myself when the problem arises in a non-educational 
setting. I've never seen the animated film "Land Before Time" because I 
was reluctant to subject myself to a film that probably contained gross 
errors about dinosaurs. But then I thought... I don't get bent out of 
shape because Mickey Mouse doesn't look anything like a mouse, has three 
fingers with an opposable thumb, and is bigger than his pet dog, Pluto.

What does bother me is when people use "animal" when they mean "mammal." 

----- Amado Narvaez
      anarvaez@umd5.umd.edu

P.S. Norm, if any kids from my school ever make it to Indiana and 
call Pteranodon a dinosaur, let me know and I'll sneak into the files and 
change their kindergarten grades ;-)

Note to Big Brother if he's watching: I'm just kidding!