Re: Nature of Science (NOS)

[stanleychiocchio <stanleychiocchio@COX.NET>]

When my children were growing up thee was the great fashion of the "science
fair". I always got roped into judging as I am an engineer of sorts. The
great fallacy of the effort was that the ones who "deserved" the blue ribbon
was the parent who cheated the most and did the entire experiment for the
child...the physician who did the medical experiment, etc. The main thing
that it taught me was never as a teacher to promote any sort of fair, or
project mentality. First of all science is really not done that way. Second,
all that time could be better spent actually investigating and learning
something. Third, they are a mess to put up and a mess to take down! The
administration of a private school always loves them as a great recruiting
tool, but I will never recommend that they teach any science, except by
accident.Stan Chiocchio, Physics Teacher. Newman School
----- Original Message -----
From: "Edmiston, Mike" <edmiston@BLUFFTON.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 02, 2002 11:16 AM
Subject: Re: Nature of Science (NOS)


> I am glad Joseph Bellina mentioned the social scientists, because soc=
> ial science projects also play a part of science fairs around here, a=
> nd I think they play way too big of a part.
>
> Our local school requires that all students do a science fair project=
>  in the 8th grade.  The first trauma for students comes when they hav=
> e to from a hypothesis, which means choosing a project.
>
> I apologize that I haven't done a count, but I am sure that social sc=
> ience projects, usually some type of psycho-behavioral project, repre=
> sent well over half the science fair projects in 8th grade.  Here is =
> a typical project.
>
> * * * *
> Hypothesis: People who study in a room painted yellow will learn bett=
> er than people who study in a room painted blue.
>
> Testing Method: I had a list of 30 words.  I allowed 50 people to stu=
> dy this list for 10 minutes.  Half the people studied in a room that =
> was painted yellow and the other half studied in a room painted blue.=
>   After ten minutes were over I gave the people a blank sheet of pape=
> r and had them write down as many of the 30 words as they could remem=
> ber.
>
> Results/Conclusion:  The people who studied in the yellow room averag=
> ed 18.24 words recalled correctly.  The people who studied in the blu=
> e room averaged 17.86 words recalled correctly.  Therefore my hypothe=
> sis was upheld; people who study in a yellow room learn better than p=
> eople who study in a blue room.
> * * * *
>
> I am not exagerating when I say this type of project totally dominate=
> s our 8th grade science fair.  Since students are following "scientif=
> ic procedure" this qualifies as valid science.  The outrageous use of=
>  significant figures and the questionable claim of statistical signif=
> icance are also typical.
>
> Even worse are the "mystical science" or "pseudo science" projects  E=
> xample....
>
> * * * *
> Hypothesis: If I play classical music to house plants they will grow =
> better than if I play rock-and-roll music to them.
>
> Testing Method: (You get the idea; I won't finish this.)
> * * * *
>
> With this type of science fair taking place, I continually ask why we=
>  bother. =20
>
>
> Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.=09=09Phone/voice-mail:=09419-358-3270
> Professor of Chemistry & Physics=09FAX:=09=09=09419-358-3323
> Chairman, Science Department=09=09E-Mail=09=09=09edmiston@bluffton.ed=
> u
> Bluffton College
> 280 West College Avenue
> Bluffton, OH 45817