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Re: [Phys-l] Pres. Obama to eliminate testing portion of NCLB



The definition would seem to be something that kills other living things to
eat them. A mushroom is classified as a detrivore because it feeds on
detrius or things that are already dead. I would assume a Venus flytrap is
considered a carnivorous plant. A herbivore eats parts of plants, but the
plants usually regrow. A mushroom is by no stretch of the imagination a
carnivore. The definition of carnivore is probably traditionally a living
thing that eats living animals, but it may have been extended. These sorts
of definitions can be slippery.

Yes, a lot of the tests are just using memorized definitions, some of which
are ambiguous. If you are an MD and need to ask the nurse for a scalpel,
you can not ask for the whatchamacallit, but some of this stuff is just
naming mania and does not develop better thinking.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
[mailto:phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf
Of chuck britton
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 4:55 PM
To: Forum for Physics Educators
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Pres. Obama to eliminate testing portion of NCLB

As one who is totally unschooled in the biological sciences I
have to ask:

Can any plant be classified as a predator, or does the definition
preclude that?

I've always been fascinated by the Venus Flytraps that grow near here.

So much science testing seems to be based on somewhat
arbitrary definitions.
.
At 4:03 PM -0500 8/8/11, John Clement wrote:
And of course there is the problem of stupid questions. The
state tests are
full of them. The most memorable questions that I recently
discovered is
the following:

On a biology question the answer was that "a mushroom is a predator".

One wonders who they get to write and check the questions.
This example was
supplied to me by a biology teacher who was aghast at it.
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