<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 1/19/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Terry W. Colvin</b> <<a href="mailto:fortean1@mindspring.com">fortean1@mindspring.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
(old subj) Magnetic field shoves heat sideways & Massless ghosts of the<br> nanoworld.<br><br>[I think Peter's comments are valid as they come from the horse's<br>mouth, a current science teacher in Australia. -Terry]
<br><br>At 06:48 PM 18/01/2006, you wrote:<br>>Ray D wrote:<br>> > Nope Stewart, but _was_ once irated beyond endurance by some<br>> > time-serving science hack who, when a BBC R4 debate on science<br>> > and edu aired the complaint that school science was boring,
<br>> > replied "Science is _supposed_ to be boring"<br>> ><br>> > So wrong! Science is only boring when under the domination of<br>> > boring people like him.<br>> ><br>><br>>You won't hear any argument from me about the above. Every university
<br>>in the UK is struggling to fill science and engineering courses (outside<br>>of presently sexy subjects like biology) because not enough work is done<br>>in schools to make science exciting for all kids and not just the geeks.
<br><br>and therein lies the rub. Scientists have been so successful in portraying<br>science as sexy and exciting that kids are turned off at school when they<br>find out that sciences isn't exactly like it's portrayed on the discovery
<br>channel. Kids don't seem to realise that for every 1 hour nature<br>documentary showing the extreme lifestyle that baboons live on the African<br>savannah, there's a few hundred hours of rangers and scientists sitting
<br>around watching said baboons scratch their nuts. For every thrilling space</blockquote><div><br>
</div></div>Simpler than that.<br>
Science/engineering is a bad choice in societies where status = money and scientists/engineers are not paid well.<br>
The kids aren't stupid.<br>
<br>
Dirk<br>
<br>