NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Another "emergency navigation" sightreductionmethod
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2015 Jul 9, 18:14 +0000
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2015 Jul 9, 18:14 +0000
Bill:
I don't see Ed's cry as asking for grading on a curve, but simply how to get middle-aged people who have no experience with scientific calculators and no use of trig since (at best) high school on board with celestial navigation, where LOC reductions require both.
For the record, there is no "grading on a curve" in United States Power Squadrons' courses, which run all the way from state-approved basic boating courses to advanced offshore navigation. While students are given a numerical grade, the courses are pass-fail -- you need a minimum grade of 80% to pass the course...
I have taught or co-taught every course USPS teaches (including recently solo-teaching both USPS's basic and advanced offshore navigation courses which emphasize celestial navigation).
I'm lucky, though. I'm an engineer and have lived in areas filled with lots of engineers -- first the Route 128 area in Boston and then Silicon Valley.
But that can sometimes be a challenge. For example, teaching how to set a course when sailing in a known current. The engineers look at and say "simple vector problem, next topic....") while the ordinary folk have blank stares on their faces. Fun trying to explain the concepts to the latter without driving the former away...
From: Bill B <NoReply_BillB@fer3.com>
To: luabel@ymail.com
Sent: Thursday, July 9, 2015 7:56 AM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Another "emergency navigation" sightreductionmethod
On 7/8/2015 10:21 PM, Ed Popko wrote: > Sure wish I knew how to overcome this speed bump in class. I would be > interested in NavList member experiences and comments. No grading on a curve, no pass/fail. The state boater education courses I have co taught with the DNR don't grade on a curve. Sounds like your students are old enough to remember education before gradeflation. I understand the whole program is an "elective" and you don't want to push them away, but on the other hand it's a two way street. If they want to pass the course the student is required to work outside their comfort level (learn) and shrink their sphere of ignorance just a wee bit before they are handed a certificate to hand in their den. (A "C" or "Pass" when they should have gotten an "F" or "Fail" in any of the classes won't keep or get them out of trouble on the water.) A side thought: I don't know your course syllabus, but I wonder if any of them can can convert degrees, minutes and seconds into decimal degrees or vice versa long hand. Can they add or subtract degrees, minute and seconds longhand. Or hours, minutes and seconds? If not, that's a red flag. In sure ain't the calculator's fault they can't grasp simple sexigasimal math when they can tell time! An add on: A high-rise building has a first-floor facade at human scale so folks have a leaping off point to relate to the rest of it. Instead of starting off with a degrees/minutes/seconds you might start off long hand with a partially base-60 system they use everyday--time. Work up to DMS then DD. Have a remedial class to to teach the use of one brand/model of calculator. IMHO the included instructions on many are either Chinglish or don't begin to scratch the surface. I'll all but guarantee they'll soon come to regard their TI or Casio as a best friend after doing it long hand. Trouble with a $20 hand-held calculator? Have them get their grand kid to put down their iPad for a few minutes and tutor them!
