Thursday, August 19, 2004
South Carolina Education
The South Carolina education system is down near the bottom. It has been there for a while. I'm just saying. I think it's 49, but it isn't higher than 48. That's out of 50 for anyone from South Carolina. Yes that's meant to offend people so maybe you'll do something about it.
Oh yeah, first I want to get some confessions out of the way. My name is Seth, i'm engaged to Joan (not fake name Ruth) and I go to Clemson University. Ah, I feel better.
Greenville Tech is a small technical college in Greenville, SC. Joan is taking her pharmacy school pre-reqs there. She needs Bio, Statistics, Physics, Anatomy, Econ, and Microbiology, I think.
But she had Bio 101 yesterday, and yes she has a B.S. in Chemistry (like me!), so she does have a better scientific background than say probably everyone in the class except the teacher who has a Masters in Biology.
In lab they were shown a box that could have one of four things in it, an Erlenmeyer flask, petri dish, cotton balls, and something else labby. They had one of each items and another box, and without opening the mystery box, they had to determine what was in it. Pretty straightforward, a good "intro to being in lab and thinking scientifically" lab.
Anyway, one student (not sure where she's from, but we're checking on it), said that the weight of the mystery box with a petri dish in it, and the weight of the other box, same size, and the other petri dish in it, were different because one box was closed AND HAD MORE AIR IN IT than the other box, so it weighed more. (Yes I know air has mass but not enough to be measurable on a lab scale, the weight discrepancy was most likely caused by variances in the petri dishes and boxes, since everything of one like item isn't exactly the same)
It always makes me sad when I hear something like this cuz I know that it's not all her fault. Somewhere a teacher dropped the ball. I am going to be a teacher someday, I just feel that I need to teach and give back. Don't know where I'm going to teach, but it's gonna be cool and I'm gonna have lots of fun. And hopefully my students will learn something.
My $.02, now of to work.
Oh yeah, first I want to get some confessions out of the way. My name is Seth, i'm engaged to Joan (not fake name Ruth) and I go to Clemson University. Ah, I feel better.
Greenville Tech is a small technical college in Greenville, SC. Joan is taking her pharmacy school pre-reqs there. She needs Bio, Statistics, Physics, Anatomy, Econ, and Microbiology, I think.
But she had Bio 101 yesterday, and yes she has a B.S. in Chemistry (like me!), so she does have a better scientific background than say probably everyone in the class except the teacher who has a Masters in Biology.
In lab they were shown a box that could have one of four things in it, an Erlenmeyer flask, petri dish, cotton balls, and something else labby. They had one of each items and another box, and without opening the mystery box, they had to determine what was in it. Pretty straightforward, a good "intro to being in lab and thinking scientifically" lab.
Anyway, one student (not sure where she's from, but we're checking on it), said that the weight of the mystery box with a petri dish in it, and the weight of the other box, same size, and the other petri dish in it, were different because one box was closed AND HAD MORE AIR IN IT than the other box, so it weighed more. (Yes I know air has mass but not enough to be measurable on a lab scale, the weight discrepancy was most likely caused by variances in the petri dishes and boxes, since everything of one like item isn't exactly the same)
It always makes me sad when I hear something like this cuz I know that it's not all her fault. Somewhere a teacher dropped the ball. I am going to be a teacher someday, I just feel that I need to teach and give back. Don't know where I'm going to teach, but it's gonna be cool and I'm gonna have lots of fun. And hopefully my students will learn something.
My $.02, now of to work.
# posted by Seth @ 7:57 AM 
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