Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thatwhitegirl]

I'm doing the Winter Camp thing now, and am doing general knowledge quizzes each class (the boys seem to like them). One of the questions I've asked is: "Are penguins mammals". And to my surprise, many of them are adamantly arguing that indeed, penguins are mammals.
I have never heard this before...do they really think that these egg-laying/non-nursing birds are mammals? Anyone else run into this?

[mistermasan]

no. "mammal" cognate to "mammary" relating to mammary glands.

all mammals:
give birth to live young (no hard shelled eggs)
have hair
females produce milk to feed young

[chris_J2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotreme

The only 2 mammals that lay eggs, are the echidna & platypus from Australia.

[thatwhitegirl]

I tried explaining that penguins are birds...and what mammals are (live births/nursing) but they were insistent. Made no sense, really.
Just wondered if anyone had run into this same thing, or of similar craziness. I'm thinking of going in with something from Wiki and showing them the facts.






edit: And these are 17 year old boys. I would have thought they would be more informed at this age.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[SeoulFinn]

[ED209]

My students thought tigers were dogs

[mistermasan]

cetaceans (dolphins, whales, etc) have bristles. bristles are hairs.

[pkang0202]

Maybe they are confusing "mammal" with "warm blooded".

[VanIslander]

[TDR]

Just before winter break, I did a general knowledge quiz where geography was the topic and one of the questions was "How many continents are there?"
Out of seven classes of third year middle school students, each with six groups, only two of the 42 groups got it correct.

The answer had them listed and one of my co-teachers protested by saying, "But, we teach students that North America and South America are the same place!". I sort of gave her a blank stare and just told said that the rest of the world seems to teach it differently and kept on going.

[mistermasan]

there are 7 continents if you are from the US. just about everyone else says there are six. but we know there are but four: america, antartica, australia and afroeurasia.

the division of europe, africa and asia is all about skin color and nothing to do with geography. you can walk from cape town to paris to beijing. it is one continent.

[crash bang]

i get what youre saying. europe, asia, and africa are only separated by relatively small bodies of water (the mediterranean, red, and black seas). you could say that afroeurasia CONTAINS those bodies of water, rather than they separate the three. hence 3 continents are really one.

but if you apply that same line of thinking to the americas, then you realize that, conversely, the americas are only CONNECTED by a relatively small body of land (panama). on a geological timescale, they will probably go their separate ways in a short amount of time. hence, what you call 1 continent is really 2. the ability to walk from one to another is rather arbitrary. i could (theoretically) sail from the ohio river to the arabian sea. doesnt make them one

[paquebot]

[paquebot]

Back on topic, I've never heard my students claim that penguins are mammals. In fact, my intermediate level class was pretty clear on the fact that whales are mammals and sharks are fish.

On the other hand, a Korean friend who went to university in Canada a couple years ago was quite adamant that tigers and lions are not related to cats. She also claimed that the largest species of tiger is the one native to Africa.