The solar system will now have to be taught in more depth
By: Emily Laermer
After the International Astronomical Union announced last month that Pluto is no longer a planet but rather a dwarf planet elementary school teachers all over the world were forced to ignore their textbooks, remove part of their solar system models and tear a page out of their agendas.
And their students may have to come up with a new mnemonic device.
Now the solar system unit will have to be taught in more depth, said fourth-grade science teacher Gwen Komyati of Village Elementary School in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District.
"We will teach Pluto as a dwarf planet and we will teach the other dwarf planets," she said. "We will expand on what we have to say."
The other dwarf planets are Ceres, which is an asteroid; Charon, one of Pluto’s moons; and Xena, also known as UB313.
"We will also go into further detail with what is a planet and why Pluto was declassified," Ms. Komyati said.
Pluto was declassified for a number of reasons, including the fact that it intercepts with Neptune’s orbit.
"We’ve always taught the solar system as an evolving discipline," Ms. Komyati said. "It’s a great example for kids about how knowledge evolves.
"The textbooks become outdated quickly," she continued as she opened up a science textbook and pointed out information that has since been proven incorrect including information about Saturn’s and Jupiter’s moons.
This discovery "is a great visual for them," Ms. Komyati noted. The only comparable example, she added, was Hurricane Katrina.
"It was topical," she explained. Before Katrina, "We were unable to speak about the effects of a massive hurricane that kids could relate to," she said. After Katrina, that was no longer a problem.
As for mnemonic devices combining the first letters of a set of objects, such as the planets, to help in memorization Ms. Komyati said, "We have the kids come up with their own."
Fifth-grade science teacher Eileen Beam, who also teaches at Village Elementary School, said she does not normally teach her students about the solar system, but her class will "have a discussion about it," she said. "I’m hoping to find a good article to explain it in fifth-grade terms."
Some of the parts of the definition of what makes a planet a planet will be hard to explain, said Ms. Beam. She cited as an example the part that states that "the gravitational pull must be great enough to clear its neighborhood.
"But Pluto is still Pluto," she noted. "It’s just classified differently. It’s just called something different. I’m still the mother of my children."
Ms. Komyati agreed that "it won’t be earth-shattering."
Although she will have to go into more detail about what defines a planet and a dwarf planet, this new discovery will stress an important instructional point. "It’s not just our solar system, galaxy or Milky Way," she said.

