At 01:40 PM Sunday 8/31/2008, William T Goodall wrote: >On 31 Aug 2008, at 19:13, Kevin B. O'Brien wrote: > > > Dan M wrote: > >> 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. > >> > > But in that case we don't present it as true, exactly. For example, > > Newton's Laws of Motion are now presented as acceptable > > approximations. > > Nothing wrong with that, it is easier to do the calculations that way > > than to use General Relativity to calculate orbits, for instance. > >> > >I was taught that 22/7 was a handy approximation for pi but I wasn't >taught that it was pi. And I was taught the Bohr model of the atom in >high school chemistry along with the explanation that it was a >perfectly good model for high-school chemistry although superseded. > > > In a class that is about how science develops, that could well make > > sense. I taught a class some years ago on History of Science, and that > > is something I tried to bring into it. But I would (and did) insist > > that > > we look at this process in terms of how science makes these judgments, > > and that is by making falsifiable hypotheses and testable predictions, > > and then doing the test. If we don't do that, I don't think we are > > doing > > science. > >If schools are to teach history of science as well as science then >some other less useful subject has to be cancelled. I vote for PE/ >Gym :-)
Already been done in some systems to provide more academic class time. Other folks point to the increasing frequency of obesity among even grade-school children and the fact that between video games and gang shootings kids don't have a chance to play outside, and studies that show that school-age children have a hard time maintaining concentration through several hours of "book learnin'" without having it broken up by periods of physical activity. . . . ronn! :) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
