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This story comes straight to us from MSNBC.
Quite frankly, we're neither surprised nor happy about this. We remember
from our own educations that science classes taught us many a pseudoscientific
lesson, passed off as factual. Chief among them was a certain Junior High
science teacher who seriously believed that the alignment of planets in 1995 was
going to cause the earth to shift on its axis, causing massive destruction and
climatic catastrophe. We're still recovering from pubescent fears about
that one.
Here's the gist:
A two-year research project has learned
that the science text books used by 85% of grammar and high school students were
literally jam-packed with ridiculous errors and faulty information. Here
are some examples:
- a map that depicts the equator running
through the southern US
- a photo of Linda Ronstadt with a caption
that describes her as "a silicon
crystal"
- a misstatement of Newton's first law of
physics
- "an
incorrect depiction of what happens to light when it passes through a
prism"
The director of this research, a physics
professor named John Hubisz , gives his thoughts on the issue:
"These are terrible books, and they’re
probably a strong component of why we do so poorly in science...”
Give that man a cigar!
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