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| Sputnik 1. A game-changer in the role of science in the USA. |
The USSR’s Sputnik launch in 1958 was the catalyst for changing science education in the USA. That’s an understatement of the impact of that event.
Prior to this date, my family had two sets of “encyclopedias.” One had a kind of reddish binding and looked very academic—I have no recollection of EVER using that set for reference. The other set was from a grocery store as a giveaway for certain dollar amounts of food purchased. It was colorful.
The pictures from the grocery store books ended up in just about every report my sister and I did in elementary school. However, neither of those sets of encyclopedias was enough to help us catch and pass the Communists in the space race.
So, in 1958, my parents bought The World Book Encyclopedia from a traveling salesman to help their children keep up with new information. My mom had that set—complete with useless maps containing countries that no longer exist—and about fifteen “yearbooks” to keep us updated on crucial events until she moved into a senior care facility. Today, my nephew has them in his home.
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| My sister and I—and my parents’ grandchildren—used those World Books all the way through school. |
Besides the encyclopedia set, yearbooks, and dictionary, my parents had books of the month on a wide range of topics. Some were from a series named “All About Books” from Random house.
Other volumes contained classic fiction pieces like Babar the Elephant. Of course, there were lots of Dr. Seuss books.
What I remember most are the books on dinosaurs, famous archeological expeditions, and the solar system. These are the volumes that fueled my love of science.
I sat and read about Howard Carter and King Tut’s tomb—and became Carter as he moved through the various passages and rooms.
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| I used this phenomenon as an example of unexplained science during all my years of science teaching. |
Back when the Brontosaur was an accepted name, and all dinosaurs were “cold-blooded and very stupid ,” I imagined their size and was astounded. When the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park (now Safari Park) presented a temporary exhibit of mechanical dinosaurs in the 1980s, my astonishment increased by a factor of ten. This links to a YouTube video of a permanent dinosaur exhibit.
The park had set up the exhibit on a spiraling trail up a small hill. They had done an excellent job of landscaping so you really couldn’t see any of the animatronic dinos until you were almost on them. However, the absolutely most spectacular reveal was at the top if the hill.
The closer you got to the top of the spiral trail, the louder the roars of some dinosaur became. As you made the final turn of the trail as it opened into a clearing, you were staring up—and I mean UP—into the massive open mouth of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The head of the beast was as big as a car. The teeth looked like railroad spikes. The roar was enough to knock you backward.
As I drove my family home that evening, I thought back on the book about dinosaurs. The next day I pulled it from the shelf where my mom kept the volumes that degraded over time . I sat on the davenport and turned the pages with care so I wouldn’t damage them.
The black and white drawings on the thick paper sheets that filled the covers of that book were no match for the animatronic creatures I’d seen the day before.
But, it didn’t matter.
But, it didn’t matter.
For about twenty minutes, I was Howard Carter, John Glenn, and a prehistoric reptile all wrapped into one.
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