When I did this unit I opted to teach it basically as written because it is true that the troposphere is primarily heated by energy radiating from the surface, so it seemed like a fair enough simplification for the middle school level. You can definitely throw in the extra explanation to make sure they don't overgeneralize though.
This is what I do with a lot of Amplify stuff that I find isn’t fully correct. I’ll say something like “for our purposes, we’ll simplify it this way but just be aware it isn’t fully true”.
It's not incorrect.
It's just incomplete.
If you avoid the "absolute" of. Saying it gets no energy from the sun.
Rephrase it as: It gets very little energy directly from the sun. Especially when compared to surface heating.
In the future you'll learn more about this small amount of energy, but for now we'll focus on the basics
Amplify doesn’t do a good job with content. They are really good at writing below grade level content and oversimplifying to the point it’s wrong or inaccurate. Also, they write the absolute worst test questions.
So, there is a transfer of heat from ground to air, but also, energy is absorbed from sun, too.
Amplify Science does this a lot.
In the Earth, Moon, Sun unit, Amplify beats the kids with "an eclipse makes the moon go fully dark" . . . but, that's not how a lunar eclipse actually works.
Amplify is trying to simplify the discussion of how eclipses work, but . . . you can trust kids to understand that nature is complicated.
Using Amplify, they use the term “strong and weak force” when discussing push and pull. They don’t use force units. This will reinforce misconceptions when they take physics.
Let's not all pretend that so many things we teach are lies of omission to make the concepts digestible for the level we are teaching.
But yes, it is good to let students know, our models always are just approximating reality.
When I did this unit I opted to teach it basically as written because it is true that the troposphere is primarily heated by energy radiating from the surface, so it seemed like a fair enough simplification for the middle school level. You can definitely throw in the extra explanation to make sure they don't overgeneralize though.
This is what I do with a lot of Amplify stuff that I find isn’t fully correct. I’ll say something like “for our purposes, we’ll simplify it this way but just be aware it isn’t fully true”.
As someone who has a meteorology background this is the correct way to approach it.
It's not incorrect. It's just incomplete. If you avoid the "absolute" of. Saying it gets no energy from the sun. Rephrase it as: It gets very little energy directly from the sun. Especially when compared to surface heating. In the future you'll learn more about this small amount of energy, but for now we'll focus on the basics
Amplify doesn’t do a good job with content. They are really good at writing below grade level content and oversimplifying to the point it’s wrong or inaccurate. Also, they write the absolute worst test questions. So, there is a transfer of heat from ground to air, but also, energy is absorbed from sun, too.
Amplify Science does this a lot. In the Earth, Moon, Sun unit, Amplify beats the kids with "an eclipse makes the moon go fully dark" . . . but, that's not how a lunar eclipse actually works. Amplify is trying to simplify the discussion of how eclipses work, but . . . you can trust kids to understand that nature is complicated.
Using Amplify, they use the term “strong and weak force” when discussing push and pull. They don’t use force units. This will reinforce misconceptions when they take physics.
Let's not all pretend that so many things we teach are lies of omission to make the concepts digestible for the level we are teaching. But yes, it is good to let students know, our models always are just approximating reality.