Chapter 9: Robert Karplus (1927-1990): Science Education Pioneer

Robert Karplus placed a toy truck in front of a child. He rolled the truck slowly across the desk. “Did the truck move?” he asked.

“No,” replied the child.

(It is difficult to learn about motion when an object that goes from one point to another does not move. Perhaps the child had misunderstood.) Karplus moved the truck back to its starting position. Again, he slowly rolled the toy truck across the desk to a new location. “Did the truck move?” he asked again.

“No,” the child replied once again.

“Can you explain to me why you say the truck did not move?” Karplus asked. ¹