> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Kevin B. O'Brien > Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 9:57 PM > To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion > Subject: Re: Teaching multiple models of science > > The problem with teaching creationism in a science class is that it does > not meet the minimum standard for scientific theory. A scientific theory > needs to make testable, falsifiable claims,
OK, no problem there >and has to pass when the test is done. I wouldn't put it that way, because there are a wealth of possible future tests. And theories that have been falsified are still taught in science class...in fact most physics that is being taught has been falsified....but survives as special cases of the new theory. >That is absolutely fundamental, and I have never seen > anything like that come from a creationist. They cannot distinguish > between a theory and an hypothesis (what they call a theory is in fact > an hypothesis), so I doubt they will ever get there. In a sense I have, in the sense that I've seen theories that are falsified scientific theories. Scientific theories are models of observation. A few work, most don't. In the process of teaching that, one could bring up astrology, creationism, etc. as well as physics and biology and ask which ones are valid scientific theories. That was my point....it's good to have both valid and invalid scientific theories considered when teaching a course on science, because having both allows the student to see what the criterion is for a valid scientific theory. "Which of these things is not like the others?" works. :-) > BTW, Dan, you were at the convention as I recall. Any good stories? County convention only. No, just one bad story. It took them 8 hours to do something I offered to show them how to do in half an hour. :-( It was a mechanics thing too, their result in 8 hours was just as fair as what I would have had them do in half an hour.....they just had no clue how to turn Obama alternates into Obama delegates and Clinton alternates into Clinton delegates (when the original delegates were no-shows) efficiently. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
