Pluto's Identity Crisis Hits Classrooms and Bookstores

By Jeanna Bryner

Senior Writer

Posted: 19 June 2008, 10:38 am ET

NEW YORK — Pluto was once a planet. Then, a dwarf planet. And as of last week, a plutoid. The fall from grace has teachers, parents and educational publishers struggling to keep up, while kids remain loyal to their favorite, the ninth planet. Underscore planet.

Last week, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced Pluto should now be called a "plutoid," two years after the organization voted to demote Pluto to "dwarf planet" status.

Meanwhile, many kids are nearly certain Pluto is still a planet.

"I think it's a planet. But me and my friends, we talk about it sometimes and we go back and forth," said Natalie Browning, 9, sitting in a park in Manhattan with her family. "Right now, I'm not 100 percent. I'm just 75 percent" sure that Pluto is a planet.

Natalie's mom, Bobbie Browning, said, "You've got kids with textbooks saying that Pluto is part of the solar system and a planet, and teachers have to say it isn't [a planet]."

Science teachers and publishers already worked to update their resources to read "dwarf planet." And now, boom, that category is out of favor among astronomers.

"Students who have just learned about the concept of dwarf planets must now be taught the new concept of plutoid," said Janis Milman, who teaches earth science at Thomas Stone High School in Maryland. "This will lead to confusion in the classroom and resistance to learning the new terms, because the students will question, why learn something that might change again in a year or so?"

A cursory survey at a large chain bookstore here revealed three out of four books published in 2006 or later were updated, with Pluto designated as a dwarf planet and the solar system said to include just eight planets.

Full article here:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080619-pluto-confusion.html