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The New Horizons spacecraft has enabled us to see close up photos of the dwarf planet, Pluto. It took 9 years for the spacecraft to travel from earth to Pluto! (fact learned from the 2010 book below by Gregory Vogt).
Pluto: A Dwarf Planet
All the librarians on the planet suddenly cried out when Pluto was reclassified as a Dwarf Planet in 2006. Now all of the planet and solar system books are obsolete! This makes Pluto a good example to use as a teaching point about Copyright date when teaching Works Cited.
Planet Report Mini Book updated to MLA 8 Works Cited format from Purdue OWL
These two books are both about Pluto. The one on the right is from 1994 and the one on the left is from 2006. When you see these two books side by side, you can really tell the difference that a few years makes when it comes to scientific discovery. Each, year, our technology allows us better access to study the world around us. Whereas we only had a vague shadow of the planet and it's moon in 1994, the 2010 photo is much more detailed.
Now that we have actual photos of Pluto, you can see the surface. Previous images were artist renditions based on blurry images from the Hubble Telescope. Time to purchase Pluto books again with updated images from New Horizons!
I also use Pluto as an example of why we need to use multiple sources. These three sources all give us different information. You might not know the source you are using is incorrect unless you have viewed other sources that contradict it. I ask students, "What kind of grade do you think you would get on a report if you only used Book 1 as a source?" The answer is clear.
So the conclusion I want students to know is that copyright date is important, even on websites, and that using multiple sources is also necessary.
Link back to Middle School Lessons. Last taught to students at Stanford Middle School in 2018 by mrsgteach@yahoo.comRead my blog post about how I teach this lesson.
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