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



Plants, even the flytrap, cannot be predators. Predators actively hunt their prey. The flytrap has a dual role. It has chlorophyll but can be a carnivorous pant as well. So, it is not a predator but can act in the niche of carnivore. Predators are animals. By extension, predators can be carnivores or omnivores, as is the case of certain bears which eat berries as well as hunt and eat prey. They cannot be herbivores. Similarly, prey, by definition can be any niche that an animal can fit into: prey can be a herbivore (rabbit, except the famous cave rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail), but it can also be an omnivore (man), or a=even a carnivore (smaller cat prey for a larger cat)

Marty




On Aug 8, 2011, at 7:39 PM, R. McDermott wrote:

I don't think I've ever heard the term "predator" applied to flora before.
Carnivore/insectivore certainly. It seems to me that a degree of mobility
denied to flora is required for something to be classed as "predator", but
I'm not sure that there is a codified definition of the term.

-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
[mailto:phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of John Clement
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 6:40 PM
To: 'Forum for Physics Educators'
Subject: 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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